Hey it's Rowan, and today I've got my pride flag behind me, my LGSM top on,
and my anti-bullying wristband, because it's time to talk about LGBT
History Month.
Now in 2015 it may sound weird for me to have to say this but
LGBT stands for lesbian gay bisexual and trans,
although this is also recognized as covering a myriad of
alternative sexualities and alternative gender identities which don't fit into
this cis
and straight model. It seems strange for me to explain that because
for most people now it feels like an acronym that we all know.
But I remember not too long ago when I was at high school, and I tried to talk to
my teachers about this stuff
and use the acronym, and none of them knew what it meant. And this is what LGBT History
Month does:
it spreads basic and more complicated and not as well-known knowledge about the
LGBT community,
through schools, colleges, and universities but it's also a time when
all of us, regardless of where we are in education, can be learning about this
stuff.
So quick disclaimer: although I usually use the word "queer"
as an umbrella term, in this particular video I'm going to be using LGBT.
one: because I think it's more mainstream, it's also what is used LGBT
History Month, but please know that when I say this
I am talking about all the other kind of sexualities and gender identities which
are
included in that generalized umbrella. So why is it so important?
I would say a number of reasons. When a group of people is Othered or
condemned in society
it is vitally important to expose the contributions they made to the
growth and development of that culture as well as in the their own community,
because this can cause a disconnected in the Othering. Because people in mainstream
society
have to then acknowledge: we're here! we've
always been here! And even through these years of being
Othered and ignored and killed and discriminated against...
we have been helping. We have been producing beautiful things,
we've been saving lives, and we've been changing history. We don't actually go to
a special
class for LGBT stuff and get taught about it and know anything about it
and so the stuff that we have to find out about it, as people who identify
as LGBT, or anywhere on that spectrum, is through the internet,
which can often be quite a hostile and difficult place, especially the comment
sections.
Although we have been making strides in
the general media to be portraying LGBT people both
real live people and fictional characters in TV shows there's still a
long way to go.
And so it becomes quite difficult to see yourself as an
LGBT person being mapped out throughout history and being acknowledged
throughout history, as having been contributing to life and to
the country or the world that you live in. The second thing it does is...I don't wanna say "normalize" because
that maybe gets into value judgments about
something being the way it's "supposed" to be, so instead I'll use the word that the LGBT
History Month
website itself uses which is to usualise...
so to make something usual. The way they go about this
is to casually include information about LGBT people and communities
within pre-existing lessons. So for example in geography you might be
learning about major cities, you might talk about the fact
that San Francisco has the largest population of gay households
in america and then you move on. This wouldn't be a point of contention,
or discussion, it would just be acknowledged as a fact
of life. There is no comment, there's no reaction, there is no problem.
So young people become sort of acclimatised to LGBT being something that isn't
unusual or Othered. Because it's this Otheing
which makes it so easy to abuse people, to see them as less than.
If in schools there's no mention of LGBT people at all,
it becomes very easy to see it as a taboo subject that you shouldn't be
speaking about.
It becomes very easy to dehumanize people if the authority figures in your
life,
teachers and educators, are saying that they are something that is not to be
talked about.
Which then leads us onto the sort of third thing or
this new step that happens: So after you have usualised
LGBT people and LGBT History you need to
what the website refers to as "actualise" and this is when you *do* explain and
examine and take more time to talk about LGBT issues.
To give them their own space and the space that they deserve. But because
we've already gone through the process of usualisation
we're able to study this without distractions. I know that this would have
been very useful when I was studying...
in psychology when we were talking about studies on children
and on attachment theory and we were talking about adoptive
parent, one of the girls in our class actually asked "Are gay people allowed to adopt?"
Now if we'd gone through a process of usualisation at the school,
this is a question that people probably already have know the answer to, or if they didn't
it would've been answered very casually by the teacher and we would've moved on.
As it stood, instead, another girl turned to this girls and said
"Urgh no that's disgusting!" And the teacher did nothing about it.
Now this is where we have to go into a little bit of a science lesson about
LGBT kids and students education within the UK.
We need to talk about something called Section 28. Now Section 28 was a clause
in at local government Act in 1988.
"A local authority shall not
intentionally promoted homosexuality, or publish material
with the intention of promoting homosexuality, or to promote the teaching
in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality
as a pretended family relationship' So what ended up happening because of
that clause was that
no one was getting taught anything about gay people in schools.
Even mentioning that people you were already studying happened to be gay
was not allowed, or teachers felt like it wasn't being allowed.
So you have this sort of silence or taboo going on. Now
this particular clause was repealed in 2000, however
the ripple effect of the Act is probably still going on today,
because for the period 1988-2000 there were a lot of teachers who were being trained
and the training that they had had nothing about LGBT stuff in it.
So you have a lot of teachers who have gone through a climate of not being able to
talk about it,
that even in the training it was not talked... To a place where they
are allowed to talk about it, but often a lot of them don't know they're allowed to talk about it.
Again, I know when I was in school I had teachers talk about the fact that it was
not appropriate to talk about in class.
Even though the Act itself had been repealed for almost a decade.
This uncertainty among teachers about not only what they can teach
or not teach, but also the language and homophobia that they are
or aren't allowed to challenge within the workplace and within the school environment
is really important.
I think it's a reason why these two ideas of actualizing
and usualising in the LGBT History month
pack or idea or syllabus is so important.
Another way you might like to think about this is the idea that we are "reframing"
and "relearning" within these lessons. So reframing as an idea of
acknowledgement within the existing education that you've had.
So for example you would take individuals that you're already learning about for example
Wilfred Owen is
on most of the GCSE and some of the A level English syllabuses.
If we take that person: a brilliant war poet
and we acknowledge their queerness, we start to open up a conversation about the fact
that LGBT people are contributing and have contributed
to history that we might not think is "LGBT History",
but as just history and culture in general. But I also think
it's important to talk about the other thread which is uniquely LGBT.
And that's what I think of as relearning: to relearn the past would be to have a look
at events thoughout history that have happened which have been important
to LGBT individuals and to the community. So, to talk about
this lovely thing that went on... the LGSM, which you guys might know
from Pride... the idea of the miner's strike and how
that kinda intersected together with the LGBT rights movement.
LGBT History Month is so so great,
and I think a lot more schools should be doing something about it. I understand that
university's often do events, but
at that point a lot of people who are homophobic or biphobic or
transphobic are already pretty set in their views and will not go to these
non-compulsory events that Universities will hold. I think at
University the events are a lot more for people who are within the LGBT
community already and I want to learn more about their own history.
I think it would also make it a lot easier for students
and staff to challenge homophobia both you know
in the classroom environment and around the school if it was something that wasn't
given
just one month that we talk about. Ao if you
have any person, place, issue,
event that you want to learn more about or that you want to se me make a video
about,
please post a comment below or send me message and I'll be very happy to make a
video about it either this February,
LGBT History Month, or beyond, because as I said it's important to be
educating yourself all year round. I've left a link to the LGBT
History Month website below, so definitely check that out. Until next time, bye!
Subtitles by the Amara.org community