First SafeZone to educate and discuss LGBT identities.
With a mix of education, discussion and personal sharing, the LGBT Center’s SafeZones are back for the school year.
SafeZone training aims to educate and raise awareness on issues dealing with gender, sexuality and focuses on being inclusive and promoting allyship.
The first session of the semester, being held on Thursday in Baker University Center room 341, will cover LGBT identities.
Delfin Bautista, director of the LGBT Center, said the SafeZones are made to create a space where discussion can flourish, whether they have attended one before or not.
“Creating a space where regardless of one’s experience or knowledge, they gain some form of new insight and contribute in some way,” Bautista said
Bautista said there are changes in this year’s SafeZones, as opposed to last year’s. They have been extended the time to allot for three hours, and allowing more time for personal stories. Last year, the center was able to host more than 60 SafeZones in the fall and spring semesters.
Giving the speaker the ability to share their story, Bautista said, helps those attending connect to what is being shared.
“It humanizes the LGBT experience,” Bautista said. “People are able to put a face (to the issues), that this is not an abstract concept or intellectual olympiad … this is real. And that the people that are facilitating are LGBT and also allies and people who lives this every day.”
Sarah Jenkins, program coordinator for the LGBT and Women’s centers, said SafeZones are important to really dive into the content that is being shared.
“I think it’s just a great opportunity to get some education for folks, kind of regardless of where they are personally,” Jenkins said.
Bautista said one of the goals of this year’s SafeZone and activities for the LGBT Center, is redefining the idea of “allyship.”
“Throughout last year and even more so this year, pushing that allyship is not just limited to the heterosexual community –– it is something that we all do,” Bautista said.
Anyone is welcome to attend the SafeZone, regardless of sexual orientation or knowledge of the subject, Bautista said.
“Though the focus is on LGBT identities it’s a conversation that impacts all of us because we all have sexual orientation, we all have gender and we choose to live it out in different ways,” Bautista said. “Even if (attendees) are not LGBT-identified, it’s an opportunity to better deepen their own understanding about themselves in order to create safer spaces.”
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