Not Round Here: Affirming Diversity, Challenging Homophobia

150 Pages·2000·2.06 MB·English

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Rural Service Providers Training Manual
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Not Round Here
Affirming Diversity,
Challenging Homophobia
Rural Service Providers Training Manual
by
Kenton Penley Miller
&
Mahamati
Auspiced by Outlink, a project of the Human Rights
and Equal Opportunity Commission with funding
from the Australian Youth Foundation. Produced
with funding from the Human Rights and Equal
Opportunity Commission, the ALSO Foundation and
Rabbit International. We also acknowledge the
Victorian AIDS Council/Gay Men’s Health Centre
for their infrastructure and other support during the
preparation of this manual.
© Copyright Human Rights and Equal Opportunity
Commission 2000. Anyone may copy, extract from or
quote from the kit without any obligation to seek the
Commission’s permission or acknowledge the Commission
– as long as the source of the training is acknowledged.
Further copies may be obtained from:
The Human Rights Unit
Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission
GPO Box 5218
Sydney NSW 1042
Feedback to: [email protected]
Miller, Kenton Penley.
Not round here: affirming diversity, challenging
homophobia: rural service providers training manual.
ISBN 0 642 26969 6.
1. Lesbianism - Australia. 2. Education, Rural - Australia.
3. Homophobia - Australia - Handbooks, manuals, etc. 4.
Gay rights - Australia. 5. Homosexuality and education -
Australia - Handbooks, manuals, etc. I. Mahamati.
II. Australia. Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission.
III. Outlink. IV. Title.
305.90660994
Design by Mik O’Leary [[email protected]]
Printed by DP Ink, Norwood SA
The authors
Kenton Miller & Mahamati
Although separated by thousands of kilometres, we Kenton Miller identifies as a gay man who happens
still sustain a friendship and working relationship to be a cartoonist (under the name ‘Kenton Penley’),
through e-mails, phone calls and sending each other who worked for several years at the AIDS Council of
escapist fiction. South Australia as the Information and Training
Officer. During this time he was also the media
Mahamati identifies as a lesbian who is a Social
spokesperson for the political activist group Lesbian
Worker, who has worked in the fields of domestic
and Gay Community Action. He left the AIDS
violence, sexual assault, and sexual abuse in several
Council to take up work at The Second Story Youth
organisations. These have included the Rape Crisis
Health Service. There he was originally employed as
Centre and Yarrow Place. She ran the ‘LBW’
a Script Development Officer, working with a group
program (for young women wanting to explore
of young gay men and lesbians to develop a
issues around being lesbian or bisexual) at The
community theatre piece about gay bashing, enabled
Second Story Youth Health Centre.
by funding made available through the ‘Come Out’
festival.
Together with Kenton Miller, she went on to develop
the ‘Block Out/Challenging Homophobia’ training
With Mahamati, he went on to develop the ‘Block
kit. Since then she has been employed as the original
Out/Challenging Homophobia’ training kit. He was
Co-ordinator of ‘Bfriend’ at the Adelaide Central
also employed at The Second Story as a Research
Mission (a buddy system assisting newly identifying
Officer, during which time he wrote the research
gay, lesbian and bisexual people to explore their
paper ‘Ignore Them And They’ll Go Away - Gay,
choices in a non-threatening manner). During this
Lesbian And Bisexual Young People And Suicide’.
time she also maintained her role as the Project
He was then employed as the Campaigns Officer for
Officer for the ‘Women Partners of Bisexual Men’
Gay Men’s Health, a program area of the AIDS
project at Gay Men’s Health at the AIDS Council of
Council of South Australia.
South Australia.
He currently works as Peer Education Officer for the
She currently works as the Regional Co-ordinator of
VAC/GMHC (Victorian AIDS Council/Gay Men’s
the Cairns branch of QuAC (the Queensland AIDS
Health Centre). In his ‘spare time’ he volunteers as
Council), enjoying the tropical weather, short walk
the co-convenor of the VGLRL (the Victorian Gay
to the beach from her home and the windfall
and Lesbian Rights Lobby).
mangoes in her back yard.
Contents
Part 1 – Introduction & Overview Part 3 – The Exercises
Training Notes for Facilitators 7 The Opening Bit 21
Outlink: Why a rural focus? 7 Opening round 22
Experience in challenging Group agreements 23
homophobia training 8
Outline of training 24
Ethics and beliefs behind the training 8
Gay in the city, Gay in the country 25
De-intellectualising and guest speakers 9
Mapping activities 28
Levels at which changes have to be made
in your organisation 9
The organisation’s role in offering services The Warm-up Bit 31
to lesbian, gay, bisexual and Name games 32
transgender people 10
Getting to know you 33
What this manual is not 10
Three truths, One lie 35
Stretching 36
Sexuality & Homophobia Issues for Facilitators 11 Human knots 37
Heterosexuals as trainers 11 Drawings 38
Gay, bisexual, lesbian and transgender This is a ‘what’? 39
trainers: don’t ask, don’t tell? 12 Line up 40
Internalised homophobia: getting your Musical chairs 41
buttons pushed 13
Mood sheets 42
But what about us poor hets? 13
When workers ask ‘Why this subject?’ 14
The Theory Bit 45
Exploring sexual orientation 46
Definition of homophobia 48
Part 2 – Using this kit Defining homophobia 50
Homophobia in action 52
Allport’s mode of acting out prejudice 54
Style and Content of this Training 15
The discrimination gap 55
Content of this training 15
Gay/lesbian brainstorm 57
The Training Menu 15
Kinsey Sexuality Chart 59
Adult learning 16
Levels of homophobia 62
Rules of thumb around exercises 16
Gay timeline 69
Before you run the exercises 17
Scale of homophobic attitudes 71
Pro-Forma Exercise Sheet 18
Scale of internalised homophobic attitudes 76
Sample running sheet for full-day session 19
‘Shades of Gay’ Rainbow (Additional) 82
Running sheet for full-day session 20
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The Feeling Bit 85
Values ladder 86
What’s it like in your town? 88
Emotional noise 90
Think, Feel, Do 92
The letter 95
Values continuum 97
Conversation exercise 99
Bush walk 101
Guided journey 103
Screamers 105
The real experience 106
Myth busting balloons 107
Visualisation 110
A different (rural) life 113
The Strategic Bit 117
Totally fearless questions 118
Homophobia case studies 120
Interrupting the homophobia 122
Strategies for intervening 123
Different strategies 127
Personal action plans 128
Blocks to challenging homophobia 130
Strategies to un-block 131
Homowork 132
The Closing Bit 135
Closing round 136
Group affirmations 137
Closing round (post affirmations) 138
Evaluation forms 140
Appendix 144
Rules of thumb around exercises… 142
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Part 1 – Introduction & Overview
Training Notes for Facilitators1
Outlink: Why a rural In areas as diverse as the NSW Central West,
South Western Victoria and Townsville
focus?
community health workers, together with
The Outlink project was established by the
young lgbts from the district, regularly conduct
Human Rights and Equal Opportunity
challenging-homophobia workshops for service
Commission with funding assistance from the
providers and school groups. The material they
Australian Youth Foundation. Outlink’s aim
use is usually cobbled together from one or
was to establish a national lesbian, gay and
more of several existing challenging-
bisexual rural youth network.
homophobia kits including Block Out (from
Adelaide), Affirming Diversity (from Auckland)
The Commission’s desire to establish such a
or Out with Homophobia (from Queensland).
network has arisen from:
❖ Recent studies showing higher than
In all cases the workers and young people
average levels of suicide, homelessness, involved in the delivery of these workshops
drug and alcohol use, conflict with peers expressed a desire to have a kit which, unlike
and parents and early school leaving any of the kits currently available, includes
amongst the target group, and exercises, examples, scenarios, illustrations,
❖ The absence of any appropriate and ideas and references relevant
relevant support services in many rural to life in rural areas. They ex-
and regional areas. pressed a need for materials
which: rs
The Commission engaged a part-time Project o
❖ challenge the particular t
Co-ordinator (Rodney Croome) who has a
forms which it
travelled extensively in rural Australia il
homophobia takes in a c
conducting a stock-take of existing services, a
rural context, F
consultations about services required and ❖ illustrate the particular or
meetings with service providers and young f

problems facing young s
lgbts. In establishing a network of young rural e
lgbts2 and the people who work with them, rural lgbts, and ot
❖ above all affirm the N
extensive consultations were conducted in rural
g
and regional areas of NSW, Victoria, Tasmania, positive aspects of life in n
i
rural communities for n
the ACT, South Australia, and Queensland. i
a
These have revealed: young lgbts. Tr
❖ an ever-growing interest in challenging- •
Some of the special challenges and opportunities
w
homophobia training amongst rural and
faced by young rural lgbts, challenges and e
regional youth service providers including opportunities which need to be addressed by a vi
r
teachers, counsellors, youth workers, rural challenging-homophobia kit, are summed e
v
mental, sexual and rural health workers, O
up by the following words from a sexual health

and accommodation providers &
nurse based in Orange NSW.
❖ an urgent need amongst people who are n
o
currently delivering challenging- Because these kids live in a country ti
c
homophobia training for a challenging- town they have real problems with u
d
homophobia kit that is designed for use in anonymity. They need … places o
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rural and regional areas. where they can meet other young gays nt
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–
1

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1 Adapted from ‘CAWISE ‘ Work ItOutside - Train The Trainer Project, Final Project Report & Evaluation: Some Thoughts on Challenging Homophobia With Education. Done a
for ‘The Second Story Youth Health Service’, 1993-1994, by Kenton Penley and Mahamati (Project Officers) P
2 The term we use throughout this kit is ‘lgbt’. ‘Lgbt’ is ‘shorthand’ for lesbians, gay men, bisexual and transgendered people. We may specifically spell out issues to do with
transgendered people. Although the issue is often different (that is, transsexuals face issues around gender, not sexuality – unless they are same-sex attracted in their new
gender identity), it may well be they face the same prejudice.
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and lesbians, but they also have a The assumption that the only people who have
sense of belonging within this done our challenging homophobia training
community - a sense of belonging were already ‘converted’ is an inaccurate one.
they may not find in Sydney. It has also led us to develop a number of ‘new’
exercises since Block Out; which seek to address
It was also felt that the advantages of producing
the issues of those who feel that providing
a national rural affirming diversity/ challenging
services for, or working with, lgbts goes against
homophobia kit would be that it would:
their moral beliefs. However, seeing people
❖ provide challenging-homophobia who appear to be rigid and inflexible around
the issue of sexuality demonstrate a shift in
educators with relevant and up-to-date
ideas and attitudes has also fortified our belief
materials for their work,
❖ ensure a high and that a lot of homophobia is based on
misinformation and can be ‘corrected’.
consistent standard of
challenging- This has motivated us greatly; as has the earlier
homophobia training research we did in ‘proving’ that young gay
across the country, and men, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people
❖ ensure that an increased are at increased risk from a number of factors
number of youth service (eg. suicidal ideation, leaving school early,
providers are aware of, homelessness, violence, drug and alcohol abuse, etc.).
and sensitive to, the
needs of their young
lgbt clients.
Ethics and beliefs behind
the training
Experience in challenging It was our belief that if a health service is
offered to all young people, this had to be
homophobia training
inclusive. Just as one might adapt a service to
The authors of this kit have extensive provide culturally sensitive services for young
s
or experience in what is a relatively new field. We people of a different ethnicity, we believed that
t
a state this not from a place of ego, but rather in such adaptations might be extended to cater
t
li an attempt to give ourselves ‘credentials’ when for the needs of those of minority sexuality.
i
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a we offer advice and observations.
F We believe that multi-

r
o In 1993 we developed the Block Out/ culturalism and lgbt affirm-
f
s Challenging Homophobia kit; we had aimed to ations have these edicts in
e
ot develop training that would address the blocks common: our people
N that prevented young lgbts from accessing deserve the same rights as

g services – hence ‘Block Out’. We were especially all people. However, for
n
ni interested in providing training to those service these equal rights to be
i
a providers based in the high school system, realised, there may need to
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particularly counsellors. We ran the early be an adaptation to
•
w workshops for a range of people in services for compensate for a
e young people, from the school system through difference, so that they are not denied the same
i
rv to privately run Christian youth shelters. access and rights as other people.
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O A dozen of these original pilot workshops were We also have a firm belief that people

& held, in metropolitan and rural areas. Since employed where the equal opportunity laws

n these training workshops we have run many forbid discrimination on the ground of sexuality,
o
ti more, often under the title of ‘Diversity had better be aware that it is illegal for them to
c
du Training’. These have been run for a range of discriminate against clients. Nor should they
o organisations, from police through to aged care refuse to attend training in ‘Affirming Diversity/
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n facilities. At least one organisation, in which we Challenging Homophobia’ offered by their
I
– trained a few hundred workers, was predom- workplace - unless they want to be personally
1
inantly ‘Christian’ in its outlook (indeed, some liable when they are sued, and their workplace
t
ar parts of the organisation were actively can prove that they offered them this support.
P
connected to the ‘retraining’ of homosexuals).
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