There are so many more marginalized/diverse gender and sexuality identities beyond LGBTQ. Which is why you might see longer acronyms used. Rather than continue to add letters (and make an unwieldy thing) the + is often added to the end of an acronym to indicate this expansive list of gender/sexuality identities.
Few different ways. (1) Reach out to universities/colleges in your local area to see if they offer Safe Zone training. They may also call it ally training, safer spaces training, or a myriad of other names. When you reach out describe what you’re looking for, i.e. “a foundational LGBTQ+ inclusion workshop” rather than a specific… Read more »
It’s awesome that you want folks who visit your website to know that you’re LGBTQ+ friendly. However, to us, Safe Zone stickers imply that you went through some sort of training (which is why ours say “Safe Zone Trained”). Many folks want to put Safe Zone trained stickers on their website so they can visually… Read more »
Here are four, of so-many-more-we-could-list, reasons. At an in-person training, you have the chance to… Meet other people in your community who are interested in learning more about gender and sexuality. While workshops and trainings are awesome they often are just the start of the conversation and it’s great to have folks you’re already connected… Read more »
Google! We’re not being snarky, either. We suggest searching [Your Town/City/Region Name] + “Safe Zone LGBTQ Trainings” and seeing what comes up. Even if the training isn’t called “Safe Zone,” (and they often won’t be) you’ll likely find something that will scratch a similar itch. If that doesn’t work, reach out to any local LGBTQ+… Read more »
No, Sometimes, and Yes. For many people (especially those who are younger, or in more urban areas) queer is a word of pride and the best way to “umbrella” diverse sexualities and genders. For some, queer is considered a “bad word” (i.e., a slur) in some contexts, and okay in others (e.g., who is saying it,… Read more »
Depends. The material covered in Safe Zone trainings evolves over time — at least, it should. If you’re doing a Safe Zone where the material hasn’t been updated in years, it’s at best out of date, at worst harmfully inaccurate. And tons of folks do trainings using the “Safe Zone” moniker that include very different activities and… Read more »
Nope! We actually don’t offer certifications anyhow, so you can’t be certified by us. Our curriculum is provided here for your use — no strings attached.
Yes yes yes! Please do. Everything is uncopyrighted, and we did that for YOU. No need to ask permission, but we would appreciate you sharing back anything cool you make, so we can spread the word.
Nope. Just to clarify there is no “right” or “wrong” way to run a Safe Zone workshop, we just think there are “better” or “more effective” ways to go about getting the information out there and meeting your goals. Our curriculum is what we think is the bestest and most effective way to accomplish our… Read more »
Great question. First off – you’ve come to a great place to start! You’ve got few things to take into consideration. What are your goals for the program? Who do you want to train and how many individuals would that be? How can you access some (don’t need much) funding? Can you do this without… Read more »
As you may have noticed, on the site and in our curriculum we tend to use the acronym LGBTQ+ when referring to the queer community. Is this the right acronym to use? No, there really isn’t a “right” one — they all have their pros and cons. This is just the one we feel has… Read more »
The term transgender is often used as an umbrella term for many other terms that indicate an individual is not cisgender. We use the word trans* throughout this site to indicate this umbrella term-y-ness and as an inclusive way to indicate a variety of non-cisgender identities in one simple term. We pronounce this term simply… Read more »
Yes! One of our goals for this project is to turn it into the go-to resource online for sexuality and gender education activities, so we’d like to add as many as possible. If you have a great activity we don’t already have on the site, drop us a line. No guarantees we’ll add it, and… Read more »
Our Foundational Curriculum is a designed to create a Safe Zone 101 overview workshop. We recommend this workshop for all audiences – gay, straight, queer, allied, and anywhere in between (or outside) those categories. While some of it may be old information for some, we believe that everyone, no matter their knowledge level, will get… Read more »
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