Organizer : NYCoRE & NYQueer
Location: Vanguard High School
Time: 4:30 - 6:30pm.
I also got a chance to take part in the workshop this past Friday. But I went to the one called “How to be a youth activist for queer rights”. The facilitators were college student from Columbia University and Barnard (Everyone Allied Against Homophobia). Their main focus was on the purpose of the Gay Straight Alliance clubs in the high schools. They named three real goals of GSA
1. Safe Social Space
2. Support
3. Activism (mobilization)
The workshop helped in realized that fortunately for most of the high school in New York, they are supported by the administration and by their fellow peers. But they have taken on the responsibility in looking at larger national issues such as gay marriage and rights.
The workshop also got me thinking back about my old high school. We did not have any clubs that addressed issues of gender or sexuality, nor was it ever really talked about. I had two friends that came out to me my junior year of high school but never told the rest of our class. I remember one of them telling me, “I knew something wasn’t right since I was in second grade”. There were two things that struck me about his comment that he thought his experience wasn’t “right” and that he was aware of this from such a young age. It was not until he went to college where he was fully able to come out, and be comfortable with his own identity. I have always thought of my high school as progressive in many ways, but it wasn’t. The issues of sexuality in Thailand are one that I have never quite understood, Thailand is notorious for the sex industry but sex education is limited. People travel from all around the world to get a sex change operation but gays are still discriminated against and looked down upon. Unfortunately I don’t see this trend changing anytime soon either, which makes me very upset but I’m not sure if I will see any real transformation within my lifetime.
So as an educator when should I talk about this issue? How would parents feel if I taught their children that gender is a social construct?
Pin,
ReplyDeleteI think that your friend's experience is more common than we might realize. We certainly need to address this at a younger age.
I think it might be easiest and "safeest" to teach about gender's social issues when talking about gender sterotyping, and maybe when looking at history, or at current communities talking about jobs. Can girls be lawyers? Can boys be nurses? etc.... Do you think this is too "watered-down"?