Ally Training

From MCAwiki

Beginners Tutorial

The following is the beginning's of Michigan Tech Universities Ally experience information session. It has been presented twice at this point and future presentations will be based off this material and tweeked as necessary. To date it has been given only by a straight ally member of the campus community. Parts would need to be tweaked for an LGBT person to give roughly the same presentation but it's definitely do-able.

We broke it into multiple sections and used power point to have talking points for the speaker, as well as key data points for the audience to acknowledge and remember.

Section 1: Why are you here?

Explain the purpose of the session, an introduction to what it means to be an Ally to the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender people on your campus and in your community.

Take a few minutes to explain the basic terminology of Ally and LGBT.

Simply: A straight ally is a person who is not gay, lesbian, bisexual, Transgender or questioning themselves but personally advocates for fair and equal treatment of LGBTQ people.

Let your audience know that there exists potentinal in all straight friends, and family to become allies.

Section 2: Who is this person telling me to be an ally?

Spend a few minutes introducing yourself. This is your chance to make this feel a lot less like a lecture, and more like a real person trying to teach people something that will benefit them.

Explain how long you've been an Ally, and share your 'coming out' story of what made you first aware of of LGBT people and some of the discrimination that they face.

Now is a good time to explain that you don't have all the answers, but that anytime somebody in the audience feels they have a question that they should just speak up. Interruptions are Ok,

Section 3: Definitions and word use

Be sure to explain the multiple meanings and uses of 'Gay'. Both as an umbrella term referring to all people that have same-sex attraction, but also in it's more focused meaning of men who are physically, romantically, and sexually attracted to other men.