LGBT History Month Activity Pack

As part of LGBT History Month, the Equality and Diversity Team have put together this short activity pack that you can utilise in your team meetings to highlight the importance of LGBT History Month and being an Ally to ensure Warwickshire County Council is a place where people can be themselves, free from prejudice and bias where they feel valued and respected regardless of their identity. Why don’t you also use our Being an Ally at Warwickshire County Council presentation?

Activity One – ‘What did you do at the weekend?’

Turn to the person next to you and discuss what you did at the weekend. However do not use any pronouns such as he, she, husband, wife, boyfriend, girlfriend, any names or specific locations.

1. Think of the people you love 2. Think of the places you like to visit 3. Think about your favourite bars or restaurants 4. Think of your family members 5. Talk about your weekend or holiday

Ask the group to feedback - How did you find it? Why did I get you to do that exercise?

Summarise – LGBT people may have this type of conversation several times a day, ‘’ happens several times a day.

What this exercise shows is what it is like for a person who is not out to their colleagues, or manager, or is new to the team.

Sometimes LGBT people change the pronoun of the person they were with, using he instead of she.

Sometimes LGBT people change the location of where they were, keeping it generic.

Sometimes LGBT people make up a weekend story.

But most times, LGBT people might say they didn’t get up to much, grab their cup of tea and leave that conversation feeling dishonest and untrue to themselves.

All of that wasted time, effort and energy wondering and worrying if it’s ok to come out, not

knowing how people will react, or the impact it might have on your career can be exhausting. It leads to low self-confidence, demotivation, stress, anxiety and depression and ill health. And when you think coming out doesn’t just happen once it happens every time you meet a new colleague or a new client, day in day out, its exhausting. However, that churning feeling you had in your stomach is what it feels like when an LGBT person is asked on a Monday morning what they did at the weekend.

Two reasons we do this:

1. To recognise that these are not private conversations, you have them every day.

2. Because these are the conversations that LGBT people that are not out have every day.

Activity Two – LGBT History Quiz

1. What does the abbreviation LGBT stand for?

Answer: , , Bisexual,

2. In what year did the riots take place? Info: The started because the police stopped by The Stonewall Inn in New York (a gay bar) on the grounds of checking for alcohol law violations and other transgressions very frequently – what actually occurred was police intimidation and demands for payoffs in return for not arresting or publicising the names of customers. It was police procedure at the time to take anyone dressed as a woman to the bathroom, before arresting them if they were revealed to have been assigned male at birth.

A) 1969 B) 1949 C) 1959 D) 1979

Answer: 1969

3. Where did the first ever Pride take place?

Manchester London Brighton

Answer: London

4. What percent of people of faith disagreed with the statement ‘homosexuality is morally unacceptable in all circumstances’?

A) 50% B) 68% C) 84%

Answer: 84%

5. What date did same-sex marriages become legal in the UK?

A) 30 September 2013 B) 29 March 2014 C) 20 July 2014

Answer: 29 March 2014

6. When was it made legal to be LGBT in the British Armed Forces?

A) 2000 B) 2001 C) 2002 D) 2003

Answer: 2000

7. The first lesbian wedding occurred on which TV sitcom in 1996?

A) Friends B) Seinfeld

Answer: Friends

8. The red ribbon was introduced in 1991 as a symbol of what?

Answer: Campaign against AIDS / HIV

9. What year were equal rights granted to same-sex couples applying for adoption?

A) 2000 B) 2002 C) 2004

Answer: 2002

10. What year did the age of consent for same sex relations between men lower to 16, the same age of consent for straight people?

A) 1994 B) 1998 C) 2001

Answer: 2001