Education & Training Initatives

Updated 03/19/12

GLBTA Programs Office trainings are important, no-cost opportunities to gain knowledge and skills about gender and sexual diversity, and to ask questions and engage in conversations we don't often have the chance to explore.

Training participants learn about GLBTQA communities, think critically about gender and sexuality, and explore how we can be allies to each other across identities and experiences. Attendees leave the training with newfound awareness and concrete steps they can take to help make our campus and larger communities more welcoming and affirming for everyone.

Trainings, workshops, and facilitated dialogues are available to all University departments, colleges, units, and offices, and can be customized to fit attendees' needs (within the capacity of GLBTA Programs Office staff).

All campus-wide trainings are free and open to the public. At all sessions, free food (including vegan and gluten-free options) and educational materials are provided.

To schedule a customized training or to RSVP for a campus-wide training, please contact the GLBTA Programs Office at glbtapo@umn.edu.

For disability services and access requests for any of our trainings, contact us at glbtapo@umn.edu or 612-625-0537. The University of Minnesota has a dedicated Disability Services office.

2011-12 Free Campus-Wide Trainings

Updated 03/19/12

Spring 2012 Offerings: Postponed

To register for any training, please email glbtapo@umn.edu with your name, email, University or community affiliation, and the training(s) you would like to attend.

Free food (including vegan and gluten-free options), educational materials, and Ally buttons/stickers will be provided at all sessions.

First Thursdays:
Equity & Diversity Continuing Conversations (New)
1st Thursday of Every Month, Noon-1:30 PM
April 5 McNamara Center 278 (New location!)
May 3 Appleby Hall 41

Do you want to meet other allies (of all sorts!) and share skills for developing along your ally educational journey? Join us once each month for informal conversations about how to collectively support each other as a community of allies committed to interrupting homophobia, racism, genderism, ableism, classism and all systems of oppression! This series is a partnership between the GLBTA Programs Office and other Office for Equity & Diversity units including the Women's Center, Disability Services, the Multicultural Center for Academic Excellence (MCAE), and Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action. Everyone is welcome! For more information, please contact glbtapo@umn.edu.

Fall 2011 Offerings:

GLBTQ Ally Training 101 - National Coming Out Day Session
Tues, Oct 11, 4:00-7:00 PM
Coffman Union President’s Room 332
Note: This session has closed due to capacity.

GLBTQ Ally Training 101 - St Paul
Thurs, Oct 27, 1:00-4:00 PM
Coffey Hall 120
Note: This session has closed due to capacity.

GLBTQ Ally Training 201 - East Bank
Wed, Nov 2, 1:00-4:00 PM
Appleby Hall 11

Racial Justice, White Privilege & Being a GLBTQ Ally
- West Bank
Thurs, Nov 10, 1:00-4:00 PM - Postponed
Blegen Hall 240

(Trans)Gender 101 - St Paul
Mon, Nov 14, 4:00-7:00 PM
St Paul Student Center Room 202

(Bi)Sexuality 101 - East Bank
Mon, Dec 5, 1:00-4:00 PM
Appleby Hall 11

What is an Ally?

An ally is someone who works across their own identities, communities and experiences for social justice. Ally is often used to refer to a heterosexual and gender-conforming person who works for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender rights. When we use the "A" in our office title, this is the simplest definition of what we mean.

In broader terms, an ally is someone with a position of social power working to interrupt oppression they do not personally experience -- for example, a white person working against racism, an able-bodied person working for disability rights, a man working to end sexism, etc.

However, people have multiple identities, and sometimes we hold both majority and minority identities in different communities and contexts. Additionally, people/communities with oppressed identities can be allies to each other as well -- a lesbian might be an ally to transgender folks, or a gay man might be an ally to bisexual women, etc.

Training Descriptions

Ally Training 101
Ally Training 101 provides a space to gain knowledge and skills about gender and sexual diversity, and to ask questions and engage in conversations we don't often have the chance to explore. Participants learn about GLBTQA communities, think critically about gender and sexuality, discuss language and privilege, reframe myths and stereotypes, and explore how we can be allies to each other across identities and experiences.

Attendees leave the training with newfound awareness and concrete steps they can take to help make our campus and larger communities more welcoming and affirming for everyone. These sessions are free and open to the public. Educational materials and Ally stickers/buttons will be provided!

Ally Training 201
Ally Training 201 is designed for people who have attended Ally Training 101 and/or have been actively involved in GLBTQA issues and communities. In this training, we explore the intersections of gender and sexuality with race, ethnicity, class, ability, age, faith and culture through a critical discussion of power and privilege. Participants will have a space to consider how allies can help create inclusive and accessible environments in the many positions, roles and communities where we live and work, and share specific strategies for overcoming the barriers we face when advocating for GLBTQ issues and interrupting oppression.

Through a mix of facilitated activities, skill sharing, and small group work, attendees will increase their education and learn new advocacy tools, helping them become more effective change agents in all areas of their life.

Racial Justice, White Privilege & Being a GLBTQ Ally
Racial Justice/GLBTQ Ally offers attendees a safer space to discuss why race, racism and whiteness are so often invisible in our mainstream GLBTQ rights discourse, and why it is essential to authentically work for racial and economic justice as we work for GLBTQ liberation. Through facilitated discussion and activities, participants will learn about structural and organizational racism, think about how racism & classism colludes with heterosexism & genderism, unpack white privilege and white culture, and develop tools to collectively interrupt these interrelated oppressions and create change in the places where we live.

(Trans)Gender 101
(Trans)Gender 101 offers an opportunity to think critically about all our gendered lives, and how creating accessible environments and inclusive understandings of gender can benefit everyone. This training creates a space for participants to examine gender identity, gender expression, and our cultural notions of femininity and masculinity.

Drawing on the experiences and scholarship of trans* and genderqueer communities, combined with facilitated activities and small group discussion, participants share strategies for working for gender justice and making our campus and larger communities more welcoming and affirming for everyone.

(Bi)Sexuality 101
(Bi)Sexuality 101 offers attendees an opportunity to explore an often-overlooked segment of the GLBTQ community: people who identify as bisexual, queer, pansexual, and/or having fluid or multisexual identities. Through a mix of facilitated activities and group discussion, participants will have a space to think critically about gender and desire, tease apart our cultural insistance of either/or, and share strategies to make our campus and larger communities more welcoming and affirming to everyone.