Blog

In February, I facilitated an LGBTQ+ allyship workshop for the staff and board members of CBE known as Safe Zone Training. The goal of Safe Zone is to give communities, organizations, and individuals a firm introduction to the skills needed to be an ally to the queer community. Over the course of a couple of hours, we discussed the ongoing challenges that members of the LGBTQ+ community face in the US, learned about some of the many identities within the community, and practiced using gender-neutral language. 

My personal goal when exploring these topics with a group is to create a space in which everyone has permission to explore their identity a little bit deeper—this is the key to allyship!

We all have many identities. They can range from seemingly insignificant (“I’m an avid stamp collector!”) to deeply personal (“I’m an Ashkenazi Jewish person living in the Diaspora”). By declaring these aspects of our identity we take ownership of them and, consequently, ourselves. From the place of declaration, we can ask:

• How do I show up in the world with this identity?
• What does it mean to identify this way?
• What privileges may or may not come along with this identity?

When it comes to sexual identity and/or gender identity, many of us have never had to declare ourselves by nature of being a member of a majority identity. Without a declaration, it’s natural to move through the world thinking that these types of identities don’t belong to us or that we don’t have access to them. In reality, each of us has a sexual identity and a gender identity—another reminder of our shared humanity! 

I am a queer cisgender man. In owning these parts of my identity, especially my gender identity, I am empowering myself and others. Currently across the US, state legislatures are proposing and passing bills targeting transgender youth, their rights to gender-affirming health care, and their childhoods. They see trans people as “other” and not as fellow humans who just have a different gender identity than their own. Instead of owning their cisgender identity (and in so doing, validating transgender individuals) they are letting it own them.

In the fall, I will be facilitating another Safe Zone Training open to all of the CBE community. I invite you to join me in a safe environment to engage in learning—learning about others, learning about ourselves—and declare: I am. 

CBE has scheduled the community Safe Zone Training on October 10th, 2021 from 1-3 pm MT. We hope you can join us!