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Rainbow Youth Workshop- Sexuality and Gender
We started the day off by being introduced to Aych and Morgan’s smiling faces, representatives of Rainbow Youth.
The day consisted of different activities, an open discussion and lots of questions asked by ourselves about sexuality and gender identity.
In groups, we were given different scenarios, in which we all worked together to answer. An example of a scenario given, was someone’s friend saying, “Maths is so gay.” The person was offended by the use of the word “gay”. The question asked, was if the person should tell their friend. As a group we decided that if the person feels comfortable enough in doing so (or in confiding in their friend), and if it really bothered them enough (i.e they kept making these remarks), that they should tell their friend how they feel, because otherwise how is the other friend expected to know? We came to this conclusion because we thought that the friend should be accepting of how their mate feels, as we agreed this is how a friend should be/act. We also thought about how language is used and what we actually mean when we use ‘gay’ to comment on something negative-what are we really saying?
For the rest of the day we focussed a lot on learning about the ins and outs of sexuality, gender identity. We were able to ask lots of questions around the topic, including how to support someone, how to treat someone dealing with such internal battles, and what kind of help is out there.
Through this training day, we’ve learnt more about such issues in a coupe of hours, than in our entire lives!
It ran very smoothly and we are all very grateful we got the opportunity to attend the rainbow youth workshop, as it was really an eye-opener.
After being able to see how being insensitive toward those who don’t identify as “straight”, was affecting these people, humans like you and I, we could all see how important education is in taking steps to better the high school experience for all young people.
Gender identity and sexuality is a scale; rather than in plain black and white, and with only 10% of humans identifying as fully heterosexual, we should be catering for or learning about the other 90%, shouldn’t we?
Feedback from the some of our students about the workshop
This was an awesome, relaxed workshop that I felt really comfortable with to share my opinions and ideas. I learnt a lot about sexuality and gender identification and how they are different. I also feel more confident supporting someone who ‘comes out‘
I liked how relaxed, interactive and INTERESTING the session was. I learnt so much compared to what I THOUGHT I knew.
Rainbow Youth promotes acceptance and understanding of all people. Definitely something we need to embrace in our community.
I loved this workshop!
I loved learning about the spectrums compared to THIS or THAT. I think it is really important for everyone to hear these messages and learn more about diversity.