Gay Pride Parade, New York City, June 2000.
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This series of ten workshops was sponsored by the Queer Straight Alliance at Swarthmore College during the fall of 2000. I designed them hoping to create a forum to talk about queer issues for a population that was already fairly experienced in elementary queer issues, and had tired of the same old conversations about homophobia, identity, etc. I wanted to explore new venues of talking about queerness. |
The workshops should be appropriate for participants of most comfort levels but are not really meant for entire groups who are very new to or not very comfortable with gay/lesbian/bisexual/trans/queer issues. Some or most require a fairly experienced and well-versed facilitator who is ready to field some hard questions. (See excerpts from Is It A Choice?) Keep in mind too that these workshops were initially created for college students: some (particularly 3: (trans)gender and 4: queer sex) may not be comfortable for younger or older groups of participants.
The workshops are designed for small to medium groups (5-30 people) in a fairly secluded indoor space. Some require a board to write group brainstorms on, many require pencils and handouts to be xeroxed ahead of time, some (like 3: (trans)gender, 4: queer sex and 8: erotica, smut, pornography & more) require more extensive props or co-facilitators. Each workshop is designed to take about an hour, and has a one-page outline (available in html or pdf format) which follows the same basic plan: objectives, materials needed, preparation, icebreaker, name game, main activity, closing. Each workshop also includes a one-page advertising sign (available in pdf or microsoft word 5.1) which includes the following disclaimer at the bottom:
open to everyone and anyone who is straight or straight-edge, queer or peculiar, curious, bi-curious or bisexual, lesbian or thespian, gay or gleeful, differently abled or differently gendered, religious or raucous, questioning or question-free, closeted or closet-bound, rightist or right-handed, clueless, toothless or label-less, leftist or left-handed, out or outspoken, polygamous or polyglot, asexual or apolitical, none of the above, all of the above or anything else.
Please use these workshops, individually or as a curriculum, and send me any feedback or comments!