This week in GSA, instead of our regular Thursday-activities-period meeting, we held an hour-long workshop in honor of Ally Week. The purpose of the workshop was to learn what an ally is and how to be a better ally to the LGBT community, though the lessons we learned are applicable outside that community.
We began the workshop by asking questions about language people had heard around campus and whether or not we had seen harassment or known someone who was harassed for their perceived sexual orientation or gender identity. Everyone in the room had heard phrases like “that’s so gay” and “no homo”, and everyone knew at least one person who had been harassed. Have you heard or seen these kinds of things? What do you think this means about the current climate at WRA?
Next we took a very difficult quiz about our knowledge of how to be a trans*/intersex ally. The quiz was very difficult, but brings to light how little is often presented for allies about the transgender and intersex communities. Hopefully we all learned something from taking the quiz!
The next activity we did was to quiz those attending about a poll taken by GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network) about harassment in schools. Did you know that:
- 85% of LGBT teens have been verbally harassed at school because of their sexual orientation
- 64 percent of students have been verbally harassed because of their gender expression
- 40% of students have been physically harassed at school because of their sexual orientation
- 27 percent of students have been physically harassed at school because of their gender expression
- 30 % of LGBT students missed an entire day of school because they felt unsafe at school (that’s four times more than their straight, cisgender counterparts)
- 62 percent of students who were assaulted in school did not report the incident to school staff
How do these statistics make you feel? Some people expressed surprise at the high number of kids who reported being physically harassed because of their sexual orientation. How does WRA compare to these statistics? We heard from people who thought that WRA was much better and we heard from people who thought the situation at WRA was just as bad. What do you think?
Next we did an exercise those who attended GSA last year might be familiar with--we discussed ways to call people out on their inappropriate language; phrases like “that test raped me”, “that’s so gay” or “he’s such a faggot”. We’ve discussed calling people out before on the blog, but we’ll reiterate the quick rules for calling people out: if you feel unsafe, don’t risk it. Get a teacher or someone else you know to be an ally. If you do feel okay calling someone out, say things like “Hey can you not use language like that around me? It makes me really uncomfortable.” Make it about you, not them, and you may be more effective. And while it is often awkward to call someone out on inappropriate language, that’s one of the best ways allies can show their support on campus.
Finally we split up into small groups and created definitions for what an ally is. There were several great ideas, and after the evening was over the co-presidents compiled them into the following definition, which was read at Morning Meeting: “An ally is a friend who overtly supports others, who actively advocates for those without a voice, and who works to ensure people have a safe environment in which to live and work.”
We’d like to thank those who came out to the event and made it such a wonderful, productive workshop. The name of the club, after all, is the Gay Straight Alliance, and allies are an integral part of the community. Your roles as allies is key to supporting those who most need it, and we’re glad to see such a diverse community of allies here at WRA.
No comments:
Post a Comment