Are you a lesbian?

A good friend of mine bought me the coolest ABC poster for Christmas. It's called the Alternative Alphabet for Little and Big People. It's prouduced by group the specializes in cultivating peace and social justice. The poster features each letter with a word and a picture then each picture has several other words around it that start with the letter. The cool thing about this poster is that it brings big idea and important people (K is for King Jr as in Martin Luther)not usually mentioned. It's bright and colorful and I was egar to find a special spot for it in my room this afternoon (a big statement as most stuff that goes up on my walls is either county mandated or child created). As I was hanging it up I noticed that one of the small words on the L was lesbian.

Hmmmmmm....a general rule of the thumb is that if you don't want to explain it to a six year old don't bring it into the room. I wasn't sure I could explain what a lesbian was on 6 year old terms. I wasn't sure if I should explain it. Finally I decided: who cares. When (and if) a kid asked I'd figure it out. I was not going to be afraid of a word or an idea, even if it is controversial. L is for lesbian just like L is for library or lollipop or leaf. Children need to learn about these things. We have a 2nd grader in our school who has 2 mommies - they are both very active in the PTA and very well accepted in the community - so it's actually something my kids might encounter.

The poster came with a teachers guide that explains all the words. I looked up what they had for lesbian and the definition read:

"Women loving other women however they wish."

I liked it. Simple. Non-sexual. Easy for a child to understand.

My only question is, doesn't that make us all lesbians?