Youth Club Activities - Gay History Month

LGBT LIFE STORIES WARM-UP

Aim: This activity highlights the fact that some LGBT young people find it hard to share personal information when getting to know new people for fear of prejudice or bullying.

You will need:

- A sheet of flipchart (prepared in advance)

How to do it: Ask the young people to choose a partner, picking someone to work with that they don't know particularly well.

Now set them each a five-minute task to take turns in finding out as much as possible about their partner. They must discover things that can be shared appropriately with the whole group.

Just before they start, tell them that there is a list of things that they are not allowed to talk about. Pull out the flipchart paper you prepared earlier and stick it up with this list on.

Banned Subjects
- People you fancy
- Places you go out to
- Hobbies
- Friends
- The prospect of having a family or children
- Films
- TV programmes
- Music you like
- Books/magazines
- Holidays
- Clubs you belong to
- Your religious beliefs
- Your family
- What you did last night

Call time after 10 minutes and go around the group introducing each other and sharing things about each other's lives.

Ask the young people: How easy was that exercise? Did anyone cheat? What things did people talk about? How did it feel to be restricted? Did they find out a lot about their partner? What is it that makes up a whole person?

Suggest that these subjects on the banned list tend to be what people talk about as they share information and seek to find common ground. Some LGBT young people feel uncomfortable about sharing honestly with people because they are too scared or feel vulnerable with people they don't know very well. This is especially so if they have not come out yet, or are unwilling to tell their family. This can place enormous emotional pressure on people and lead to lies or concealment. It's easy to keep a secret for a few minutes, but how about keeping one for your whole life?

Invite the young people to consider what they would tell a friend who was struggling to be open about their sexuality. Encourage the group to make suggestions of ways to show support and identify sources of help.

LGBT ROLE MODELS ACTIVITY

Aim: To promote discussions about positive gay and lesbian role models for young people.

You will need:

- 52 coloured A6 cards (13 of each colour)

- Black/red marker pens

- At least 52 pictures of possible role models

- Glue

ROLE MODEL IDEAS
Peter Tatchell (campaigner)
Sir Ian McKellen (actor)
Boy George (musician)
Elton John (musician)
Derren Brown (magician/illusionist)
George Michael (singer)
Simon Amstell (comedian)
Martina Navratilova (tennis player)
Cynthia Nixon (actor)
Freddie Mercury (musician)
Oscar Wilde (playwright/poet/author)
Giorgio Armani (fashion designer)
Paul O'Grady (entertainer)
Stephen Fry (actor/comedian)
Tila Tequila (model/presenter)
Alan Bennett (actor/playwright)
k.d. lang (musician)
Michael Stipe (musician)
Rock Hudson (actor)
Jake Shears (musician)
Rosie O'Donnell (entertainer)
Graham Norton (TV presenter)
Andrew Hayden-Smith (actor/TV presenter)
Stephen Gately (singer/songwriter)
Pete Burns (musician)
Matt Lucas (comedian)
Miriam Margolyes (actress)
Dale Winton (presenter)
Drew Barrymore (actress)
Debbie Harry (singer)
Will Young (singer)
Scott Mills (DJ)
Andy Warhol (artist)
Sam Fox (model/singer)

How to do it: In advance of the session, collect a good selection of pictures from the internet or magazines of people that could be considered role models for LGBT young people. At this stage don't worry if they are positive or negative - that is part of the discussion process for young people later. Photocopy the pictures and place them in envelopes so that each group of four to six young people has a pack to work with.

Divide the young people into groups and explain that their task is to design a deck of playing cards that depicts LGBT role models. These should be people who inspire or motivate them, including singers, movie stars and sports heroes, but could also include people that young people know personally.

Assign each group a suit - diamonds, spades, hearts and clubs.

Give each group a pack of pictures to look through and discuss - they can add their own role models or heroes as well if they are not there. Of the pictures, 13 can be chosen to represent the different cards, for example the king of hearts or the ace of spades. Explain that everyone in the group must agree before a playing card is made by sticking a picture on to one of the A6 cards.

Once each group has finished, invite them to share their choices, explaining why they think that this person is a role model to LGBT young people. At the end of the session, you should have a deck of playing cards that the young people can use for other activities.

Review the process and start a discussion. For example, what makes someone a gay icon? Can heterosexual people be LGBT role models? What do young people feel about including suggestions for role models that perpetuate stereotypes? How do the group feel about celebrities who are thought to be gay but are not openly out yet?

WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?

This activity is a good prelude to work around young gay and lesbian issues.

As with any anti-oppressive practice sessions, you will need to be sensitive to the dynamics of the group to ensure that you are not creating a situation that excludes or isolates any member.

Aim: This introduction explores some of the attitudes and prejudice that can be experienced by young gay men and lesbians and provokes discussion around perceptions and reality.

You will need:

- Flipchart paper

- Marker pens

- Information about local gay and lesbian groups and contact numbers for local and national support and information groups

- An understanding of the legal implications for gay relationships

How to do it: Gather together the young people into a circle or group where they can see and hear each other and you.

Introduce the session and state the aim of the activity. Ask for two volunteers to write on the flipchart and seat them on either side of you with a sheet of paper and different colour marker pens.

Next, ask the group to think of all the slang names and expressions that they have heard to describe gay and lesbian people. Stress that you are not asking if they have ever called somebody this, or inviting them to share information about their own sexual orientation. You may want to develop this so that the young people also share who they have heard use the term. For example, "my dad always calls gay men poofs". This can be explored later.

Record all the names for gay men on one sheet and lesbian women on the other.

You will find that there are far more names and terms of abuse for gay men than for lesbians. Ask the group to consider why they think this is and have a discussion around the findings. Bring into this the legalities for gay sex. What are the stereotypes that have been created, for example "butch" lesbians? How true are they?

DRAWING CONCLUSIONS

Aim: To provide young people with the opportunity to explore stereotypes about LGBT people.

You will need:

- Five small sheets of paper headed Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender or Straight

- Flipchart paper and marker pens

How to do it: Divide the young people randomly into five smaller groups and give each group a sheet of flipchart paper and some markers. Then hand each group one of the five sheets of paper you prepared earlier.

Explain that each group has been given an identity and that the group task now is to draw a person who looks like or represents that identity. Ask them not to write the actual identity on to their flipchart sheet, but to use pictures that they think are representative. This could include what the person looks like or what they are wearing. They can then write words or sentences around the picture to sum up what they think this person likes doing or what their personality traits are, for example. Be sure to remind everyone that this is a safe space and unless it is entirely inappropriate no one needs to be afraid or worried about suggesting a trait or idea to include in the group's picture.

Allow about 15 minutes for drawing and discussion and then invite each group to present their drawing. After each round invite the rest of the group to guess the identity. After the groups have explained their drawings, lead a group discussion to consider the following:

- How did the groups decide what each person would look like?

- Where did the ideas come from about what each of these people looked like? People you know? The media?

- Do the pictures convey positive or negative images of the identities?

- Which of the identities do you think was easiest to draw?

- What conclusions if any can you draw from this activity?

- Vanessa Rogers is a youth work trainer, consultant and author. Her books are available from www.nya.org.uk. For training and consultancy, go to www.vanessarogers.co.uk