Went to Pride today with the people I babysit for and they brought along their kids' cousin, who was I think 16? When I asked them their pronouns, they kind of just shrugged and were like "any is fine."
Now mind you, the two other adults we were with were straight. Very supportive straights, but straight. And their kids I babysit for are like...8 and 5 (the 5 year old is figuring out gender expression, which we love). All that to say that after less than an hour of knowing me, the cousin was drifting to my side and hanging out with me more so than their own aunt and uncle. Queer finds queer lol
It was kind of crowded after the parade so we all went for lunch, and afterwards they were like "hey before we leave I really want to try and buy a rainbow flag" and we were all like "yeah ofc" and set out to find a booth that wasn't crammed with everyone in the city.
Nothing in the world more satisfying y'all than watching this kid eye all the rainbow flags, hesitate, look back at me, and then very slowly turn to point to the trans flag and ask for that one instead. Because it's the one they REALLY wanted, but I think if they had gone up to the vendor with a bunch of straight ppl in tow they might not have picked it. One (1) visibly queer person hanging out with them for a few hours was all it took for them to feel more comfortable in their own skin. And I'm not even trans myself.
This is not to say the parents wouldn't have been supportive with whatever flag they chose, bc they would have. This is just asking people to acknowledge how IMPORTANT representation is for everyone.
