Hello again! Our apologies once again for the delay in posting this; we're determined to get back on track as soon as we possibly can. In the meantime, we're going to go backwards in time two weeks to the meeting we held about call outs.
The call out is something we've discussed before in GSA; when you hear inappropriate language or slurs being used in a conversation, you step in and make it known at the very least that you don't think that language is appropriate. For example, someone might say something is 'gay' to mean bad or stupid; in that case you might step in and say "Hey, calling things 'gay' when you mean it's stupid isn't cool". Some people in GSA expressed that they felt very uncomfortable calling people out, while others explained they had no problem with it. It's important to keep in mind that if calling others out is going to create a situation where you are at risk of being harmed, you do not have to call anyone out, but the best way to make hurtful language stop here is to call someone out. If you really don't think you can do it, get someone who can; any member of the GSA leadership team is willing to call people out, as are many members of the club. You can also tell a faculty member and they can help you handle the situation.
One way to politely call people out is to make the conversation about your feelings; if you say "Sorry guys, but can you not use that kind of language around me? It makes me really uncomfortable," you've made the conversation about you rather than about what exactly they said. In the meeting, we split up into small groups to practice calling one another out. One metaphor for the call out is that calling people out is like being on fire--you know in theory that you need to stop, drop and roll when you're on fire, but in the moment what ultimately needs to happen is muscle memory. Calling others out is similar--you know you should call people out, but in the surprise of the moment, muscle memory has to take over. We'll probably practice calling others out again, at our upcoming Ally Workshop (brought back by popular demand!).
This past week we watched the following trailer for an upcoming documentary about the gay rights movement [trigger warning for homophobic and possibly hateful speech, particularly towards the beginning]:
We spoke about the footage at the beginning of that video, made up of specials done on homosexuality in the 1950s and 1960s--more of that footage can be found in a documentary called Stonewall Uprising, which can be checked out from the Ong Library. In addition, Mr. Ong offered up a film entitled For the Bible Tells Me So, which can be found on Netflix streaming as well as on DVD. The trailer is as follows [trigger warning for homophobic and hateful language, as well as some statements that could be see as an attack on fundamentalist Christianity]:
We hope to have more movie nights in the future, and are working with the Ong Library to expand the film collection to include films about and related to the LGBTQ+ community. We're going to have a movie night sometime soon in conjunction with the Diversity Club to watch the film Prayers for Bobby, about a young man who kills himself after his mother rejects his homosexuality, and the mother's journey to reconcile her religion with her son's sexuality. Keep tuned for upcoming news about that!
Next week we'll be talking about some exciting legal developments in California. Have a good week before Mid-Winter Break, and we'll see you on Thursday!
No comments:
Post a Comment