Stonewall Gender Identity Training Review
Undoubtedly, European countries have made a big step toward respecting the rights of the LGBTQ+ community over the last few years. However, there are still a lot of areas which should be improved in terms of equality.
The Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion team from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences has organised an event for its staff to help them understand what problems the LGBTQ+ community faces in schools and at universities, and how those experiences can be improved. The training was provided by the Stonewall organisation and hosted by Joanna Murphy. The whole meeting was divided into three parts: Understand, Explore and Actions.
The first segment, Understand, was based on explaining fundamental terms with which one can describe themselves, such as Sex Assigned at Birth, Cisgender or Transitioning, but also on explaining the differences between Gender Expression, Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation. I thought that it was a really great introduction, as firstly we were shown the term and were encouraged to explain it with our own words and then we could see the description provided by the Stonewall Organisation. Fortunately, I can assure you that all of the questions were answered correctly even before we could see the answer. Moreover, Joanna was really open to questions, hence when we became less shy to ask about the use of some terms, she patiently answered and explained less known words. She also made a great point in saying that of course, it is ok to make mistakes, but if we want to ask about someone’s gender identity or sexual orientation, we definitely should consider if and how it is appropriate to ask, and that we should never try to guess someone’s gender identity or sexual orientation just by seeing their gender expression. A great way to learn all terms connected to Gender and Sexual Orientation is to take a look at the explanations prepared by the Stonewall organisation - https://www.stonewall.org.uk/help-advice/faqs-and-glossary/list-lgbtq-terms.
After familiarising ourselves with the terms, we could move into the second part of the meeting – Explore. Joanna presented us with a few statistics about the Trans community experience in schools and to be honest, I hoped they would be better, so there is still a lot to improve. Many areas of our lives are heavily gendered and cisgender people usually do not notice that, as they mostly do not exceed rules established by society. There are a lot of places, which can be considered a nightmare for trans people, such as schools, hospitals, pubs, etc., as they have to choose whether to go with what they feel or with the expectations of society. The other aspect of the experience is questions and comments. Joanna has presented some examples of transphobic behaviours which might happen in schools and at universities, but also in everyday life. Among them were questions about medical treatments and surgeries, not trying to put effort to learn someone’s pronouns, or revealing someone’s gender identity without their permission. I think we can all agree that this kind of behaviour is unacceptable, and it is also our responsibility to see it and react to it.
In the last part, Action, we learned what allies can do to improve the experience of trans people in education. There are a lot of things we can do, from such easy things as including our pronouns in the emails, or on zoom meetings, expressing that your class is open to everyone, no matter their gender identity or expression, and if anyone at any point has any concerns, they can talk to you, to making changes on the higher levels, such as creating appropriate HR policies and encouraging your trans students and colleagues to take new opportunities. As an ally, it is really important to listen to the community and let their members express their opinions and suggest any changes.
In the end, Joanna talked us through some great suggestions to expand our knowledge even more. I will list them in the exact same order, as she has presented them:
• Netflix: Disclosure, Sense8, Pose, Tales of the City, Drag Race UK, Dragnificent, Feel Good.
• Other TV: Veneno, Transparent, Euphoria.
• Films: Paris is Burning, No Ordinary Man: The Billy Tipton Story, Keyboard Fantasies, By Hook or By Crook, A Fantastic Woman, Something Must Break.
• Comedy/ Performers: Mae Martin, FOCitup, Travis Alabanza.
• Podcasts: One From the Vaults, Bad Gay, What the Trans?!, Marsha’s Plate.
• Activists/Influencers: Fox and Owl Fisher, Juno Dawson, Munroe Bergdorf, Kuchenga, Liv Little/Gal-Dem, Lady Phyll, Kenny Ethan Jones.
• Books: Shon Faye The Transgender Issue, Susan Stryker Transgender History, Shola von Reinhold Lote, Janet Mock Redefining Realness.
I think we all know that trainings or meetings like that will not change the world completely, but they are crucial for this change to happen and can improve the experience of trans people in schools and at universities and also make us all more aware of what challenges they face in everyday life.
Review by Teresa Zawieja, Student EDI Officer, 29th June 2022