#ally training

[aidenskywalker]

Hey Texas Friends

Does anybody know of any universities in the state that offer Ally Training to non-students?

[thetechportal]

Here is Square's first ever diversity report, and snippets from its ally program

Here is Square's first ever diversity report, and snippets from its ally progra #ally #allytraining #diversityreport

Square recently released its first ever diversity report. The Jack Dorsey led payments company has come up with some numbers regarding the composition of its employees and unfortunately, it is below par. Albeit in Square’s credit, the company  isn’t the worst out there by far.

To sum up the report in a sentence, Square has a 36.7 percent female population globally. Out of its total employees,…

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[divergentinterests]

Queer Discussion Points

After going to allies training for the gazilionth time, I decided that I might as as well write about it. Basically, the training was put on by my college's administration in an effort to make the campus a safer space for trans* and gender non-conforming students. The training occurred last year but I wrote down some discussion points that I still feel are relevant. 

Below is a list of important points I took away from the training that should be used as discussion points among queer and allied communities. 

1. Intention v.s. Impact

We spoke about which spaces on campus are safe or unsafe for trans students. Some departments were determined to be very safe while others were not. Nearly everyone in the room agreed that the departments deemed to be somewhat unsafe to trans* students did not intend to have that effect. Rather, those departments did not ever have to deal with trans* students and thus never considered their gendered practices.

While intention matters, it is still important to remain accountable to our impact. We might not intend to marginalize a population of students, yet unless we act appropriately, our institution's policies and practices might very well ignore that population of students.

It is our responsibility to make sure that our impact aligns with our intentions. And having good intentions is not an excuse to continue the current policies if they are unjust. As students, we need to be able to collaborate with student life departments to make our campus safer for communities of students whose voices are marginalized and pushed off to the side. Simultaneously, higher education professionals must take the initiative to do the research themselves and make sure that their practices align with their mission. Therefore, the responsibility to make our campuses more inclusive falls on everyone, because we are all members of this community. 

2. Choosing “to not identify” is choosing to not recognize your privilege.

Wouldn't it be great to live in a world where no one had to be put into a box? Where labels such as gay, straight, black and white didn't matter? Probably. Or maybe not. But what I do know is that we definitely don't live in a colorblind, or genderblind, world.

Trans* people don't get to choose to not identify as trans* when we are harassed in the streets. Cisgender people, or those whose gender identity aligns with their sex-assigned-at-birth, do however have the privilege on not being confronted with their gender conformity because the entire system is set up on the assumption that people are cisgender. Thus, while our identities are socially constructed, they are still social realities.

I don't think you are an ally if you artificially manufacture a marginalized identity by choosing to ignore your privileged identity. Be real and be upfront. Being authentic about yourself, including those identities that are dominant and privileged, indicates that you are trustworthy and have an understanding of the dynamics between power, privilege and oppression. 

If you are straight, say it. If you are cisgender, say it. An ally owns up to their privilege and doesn't pretend that it's not there.

3. Terminology = Privilege

Cisgender is a privileged term. The fact that we know and use the term is an indicator of our own privilege as an educated class. We need to recognize that many communities do not use terms such as cisgender, genderqueer, etc. because these words were created in the academy—the academy which many classes of people are simple not able to access. Be open to the different ways that different communities have constructed identity.

This also opens the discussion about whether or not using the "cis/trans" divide to classify individuals who do not even know what "cisgender" means is imposing an identity category upon them that is not true to their experience. 

I don't have all the answers, but I don't need to. These discussion points need to be brought up in further dialogue among queer and allied communities, students and higher education professionals. 

Resources:

Genderbread Person v2.0

The Problem of Speaking for Others

Campus Organizing Guide

Trans Students: The TONI Project

Trans Advocacy on College Campuses

[chaosandcuriosity]

Hey folks! For my Women's Studies class this semester, my project group has made a petition for installing Ally Training at my university's orientation. I feel like this is something that is very overlooked and I'd really appreciate it if you could sign. 

[kevin-friggin-solo]

[advocacywolf-blog]

The ally training went well.

It was intimidating as hell- it was in an auditorium, I had to wear a microphone, the entire audience (20 people or so) was adults, and the director of the entire center was there (Mike Coats). I felt like I was gonna die while they were introducing me, and then I started talking and the nerves faded a bit.

I think as a presenter I did pretty well. There was too much to cover in one hour so I picked basic stuff and themes- identities, manners, language, ally work- and made it as easy to understand as possible. It was difficult to stay really organized because there was so much to cover, but I got most of my points in. I found that it was difficult to explain components of heterosexism, so I'm going to work on that, but even that seemed to make a fair amount of sense to the folks in the room. 

The questions/discussion was the best part for me (I must really be getting comfortable with facilitating). We had a discussion over "Queer" as a reclaimed word, different languages and pronouns, various laws that affect LGBT folks, and how to progress from here. Then they presented me with LOTR Pez dispensers (Why? I HAVE NO IDEA), and a medal that's flown into space on a few missions. And all the alumni from various schools I've attended came up and chatted with me, and Mr. Coats shook my hand, and everything was good.

The end. And good luck to NASA on their journey as an LGBT ally. :)