The carousel of our perceptions about Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity/Expression and Sex Characteristics: exploring and understanding diversity

Adapted and translated from the educational material prepared under the program HOMBAT: Combating Homophobic and Transphobic Bullying in Schools (see bibliography). https://www.hombat.eu (online learning platform)

Duration of activity: 45-60 minutes

Learning objectives:

To explore attitudes and challenge myths related to gender identity and sexual orientation;
To enrich knowledge about people with different sexual orientation and gender identities lifestyles, relationships;
To increase awareness on challenges LGBTIQ+ people face (coming out, discrimination, ostracism from families, etc.);
To develop critical thinking skills;
To encourage young people to challenge gender norms and heteronormativity;
To promote acceptance and empathy towards others who are different.

Materials needed:

Open space in the training venue, where young people can move in a circle

Cards with the statements printed on coloured papers, spread out in a circle on the floor

Recommended prior reading

Step by step process of the activity:

Before we start with our activity, let’s start with a small energizer
Energizer ‘The fairy of transformation’ as described above (10 minutes)
Introduction: As you experienced from the energizer above, we all have specific perceptions, understandings, beliefs and attitudes about gender and sexuality related topics. In this activity we will explore various myths related to gender and sexual orientation (who we are attracted to, romantically or sexually).

Main activity (15-20 minutes):
Ask the group to stand and form two circles, one inside the other. The circles need to be composed of the same number of people and need to be facing each other. Thus, one circle faces inwards and the other outwards. Each person from the inner circle has a partner from the outer circle. To make sure each person has a partner, ask the young people to join hands with the person opposite them
Once the ‘couples’ have been formed, ask them to spread out a bit, without losing the circle shape
Walk around a place a piece of coloured paper in between each couple, faced down. Each paper includes a different statement that the couples will discuss (the statements are found in the worksheet)
Explain that the couples have 40 seconds to discuss the statement between them. Both persons have to have a go during this time
Once the couples have finished their discussion, each person will move to their right. It will feel that they are moving in opposite directions, but this is the correct way to go. The aim is to change both a partner and a statement each time.
Once the young people have had a chance to go through at least 10 of the statements, they come back to plenary and take their seats so we can reflect on the activity.

Facilitation questions for reflection and debriefing: (15-20 minutes)

What did you think of this activity? Did you like it? Was there something that was difficult for you?
Did any of the statements make a particular impression on you?
Shall we discuss some of the statements? (we mention some of the questions and give short, indicative answers as the ones presented below. We try not to give too complex or too long explanations as the aim here is to provide food for thought and to create awareness of the diversity related to SOGIESC)

Take home messages and activity wrap up:

Heteronormative attitudes create lots of myths about masculinity and femininity, gender identity, sexual orientation and how we form relationships. However, through this activity we have seen us that there is great diversity in bodies, sex characteristics, how people feel and express their gender and how they define their sexual orientation. Social norms teach us that we need to make sense of the world by classifying people in boxes; people are either boys or girls, straight or gay, with very clear divisions between the two ‘categories’. However, the realities of people are different. Sex, gender, and sexual orientation are spectrums and not binary distinct categories; in realities the boxes do not exist and people can define themselves in any way that expresses their identity. We cannot tell people who they are, the sense of identity is very personal and unique for each individual. Even if we find this difficult to understand, it is important that we show acceptance of other people’s diversity, that we do not expect other people to conform to the norms and refrain from any negative attitudes (stares, gossip, comments, name-calling, isolation, threats, violence) towards people who are different.

Tips for facilitators:

The most important part of the activity is not so much to provide answers to all the statements used in the carousel. Our goal is to help young people go through a process of reflection and explore the hidden heteronormative messages that lie in some of statements and to understand the link how these ‘norms’ and stereotypical perceptions cultivate prejudices and discrimination against certain groups of people. It is important to wrap up the activity explaining what heteronormativity is and the impact it has on people with diverse SOGIESC.

Tips for adapting the activity and follow up:

Let’s play musical squares

We can adapt the above activity methodologically, using a form of musical squares. Instead of having the group in carousel form (in rotating circles), we can spread out the coloured pieces of paper with the statements on the floor (face down) and ask the young people to walk around the space while we’re playing music. Once the music stops, the people who are closer to a piece of coloured paper form a couple and discuss the statement for 40 seconds. Once they finish their discussion, young people start walking around again with music playing. When the music stops, they form a new couple and discuss a new statement and so on.

Adapting the activity for younger age groupsThe majority of the statements are okay to be used with younger groups (aged 13+). However please feel free to take out statements or include your own statements if you feel that some of the statements are too advanced for your target group or that they may confuse them. For instance, maybe you cannot bring up the issue of same-sex families having children in your own contexts and opening this discussion may do more harm than good. Or you may not want to discuss bisexuality or PRIDE events specifically because they may be too controversial issues in your context which may not be well received and silence the discussion.

Adapting the activity for online implementation:

● While it would be more complicated to replicate the rotation of participants across pairs and statements online, a simpler way to facilitate the discussion is to split participants in pairs in breakout rooms. Each breakout room could be allocated 2 different statements and they will have 5 minutes to discuss.

● As it would be impossible (and too tiring) to go through all the statements, select the statements that you find most appropriate/fitting for your group.

● You can then convene in plenary and discuss the statements one by one, drawing on opinions from the entire group.

● Alternatively, you could discuss all statements in plenary (instead of breakout rooms) . If you prefer, you could also use a digital board (Padlet, Mentimeter, Scrumblr, Slido etc) where you can invite participants to write their thoughts (anonymously) and then discuss.

● Lastly, another option would be to use the statements as a worksheet and ask participants to first complete it individually and then discuss in plenary.