08/11/2012 | Writer: Seçin Tuncel
British Council will organize a ‘homophobia and discrimination’ workshop with Kaos GL Association under its Equal Opportunities Program.
British Council will organize a “homophobia and discrimination” workshop with Kaos GL Association under its Equal Opportunities Program. The workshop aims at increasing awareness among British Council’s Ankara Office staff about discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The council will be be held on 8 November 2012 at British Council’s Ankara Office and it will be moderated by Umut Güner from Kaos GL.
Workshops Against Homophobia and Discrimination
When it comes to homophobic discrimination we all say “I’m not homophobic” very easily. However, unlike other discrimination types homophobia is very persistent to be avoided.
In a society that sexuality is still a big taboo, talking about the presence of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people itself can be perceived as sex talk. Therefore, people can stay away and resist to talk about this issue.
Another thing we experience during our struggle with discrimination is the confusion among people who became sensitive about discrimination. Participants express that they are aware of the fact that different groups in society are being discriminated under different situations but that they don’t know how to deal with “all” this discrimination. Hence, we came up with the workshop “different identities, similar discrimination.” Whenever we make that workshop participants tell us: There is only one way to deal with homophobic attitude, sexism, militarism, racism, totalitarianism and conservatism and that is to struggle against them altogether without choosing one over another.
“FAQs Workshop”
One of the important tools to make people talk about discrimination regarding LGBT people is to create a safe environment that people can ask questions.
In FAQs Workshop we start by putting a box in the middle. Then we tell participants that we can answer their questions about LGBT issue. We ask them to put in questions that they want to discuss about. After that, we want them to pick up and read the questions. We categorize the questions and answer them. This workshop is applicable to various social groups and it is being conducted more than a decade.
Translation: Ömer Akpınar
Tags: human rights
