so a stereotype is an idea that's held by a group of people and believed by a lot of people
but it's not based in fact and it can often be oversimplified. So what kind of stereotypes do
you think exist around the LGBTQ community I think there's loads and loads of stereotypes
in the LGBT community there's kind of the idea that all gay men for instance are all extremely
camp or extremely feminine and then there's the idea that all lesbians for example are extremely
butch or masculine and although that can be true that's not always true so I think the
stereotype is kind of making an assumption that all people are like that based on this kind of
idea that society has have you ever noticed any particular stereotypes that have kind of affected
you or you've picked up on them yes absolutely I mean I think one that comes up over and over
again is the idea that because I'm a gay man that I must be promiscuous but you know that's
absolutely not true I want a relationship just as much as anyone else but there can be that
assumption flying around that all gay men are promiscuous and you know it's just not true so
with stereotypes like that how do you think that it can impact LGBTQ people I think coming to terms
with your sexuality or your gender identity is really really difficult so the fact that there
are these stereotypes out there that kind of tell people how they should act and behave can
be extremely confusing and extremely damaging particularly towards young people and how do
you think we can challenge that are there ways that we can make it better for people I think
yeah I think definitely I think the best way that we can challenge that is to show lots
and lots of different LGBTQ people out there and show that there are all types of different
people and that they don't necessarily conform to these stereotypes if they do want to conform
to those stereotypes that's absolutely fine too so how might these stereotypes impact people's
day-to-day lives well I think even the people with the best intentions sometimes can feed into
these stereotypes like you often hear things like oh you're a gay man therefore you must
be a great dancer you must be great at shopping you must be all of these things and although it
sounds relatively harmless it really can have an impact on the way somebody feels about themselves
or about the world around them do you think it it's puts a certain pressure to behave in that
way I think it definitely puts a certain pressure either to conform to that stereotype and behave
in that way or some people go some people go completely against it and decide to go down the
complete opposite end of the spectrum to kind of prove that you know just because there's a
stereotype out there it doesn't make that Who I am if we do hear these stereotypes kind of
being thrown around is there anything that people can do to counteract them yeah definitely I think
one of the most important things you can do is actually acknowledge the stereotype and actually
talk openly about it for example if somebody said to me you know you must be gay so you must be an
amazing dancer I could make a joke about the fact that actually I'm a really really bad dancer like
I'm actually terrible at dancing and that kind of helps them to understand that you know that these
stereotypes aren't necessarily real and there's a lot of stereotypes around gender as well isn't
there so especially within the trans community absolutely and I think the trans community often
have an extra hurdle to face in the fact that if you're a trans man for instance people expect you
to be behave in an extremely masculine way because you're a trans man but that's not necessarily the
case you know I have a friend who is a trans guy and he loves to wear makeup and flowers in his
hair and people tell him that he's not allowed to do that but of course he's allowed to do that he
can express himself in any way he chooses and it doesn't matter whether he's transgender or
cisgender it's completely irrelevant sometimes it can be the people closest to you and the people
that you might be wanting to come out to even who do hold these ideas around stereotypes and I guess
there can be quite a lot of difficulty there yeah it can be really difficult but I think it's really
important to remember that when you come out and you're learning to understand your gender identity
or your sexuality that it can also be difficult for the people around you to understand that as
well so you may hear stereotypes and you may hear things like that but it's important to
try and help educate the people around you and just try and show them that you are you and you
are yourself and that you're not conforming to these stereotypes and that's okay and sometimes
that can take a little bit of time but sometimes you know you've just got to stick with it and
be patient and people will understand and no matter what they should love you for who you
are thanks so much for coming in today Calum and talking to us of course the pleasure has been all
mine and if you want to find out more about this chat to some people our message boards
there are some links below the video in the description and we'll see you next time bye