GAY TO Z

PROGRAMME 1

ACTIVITIES

Guidance

Ideally, all five programmes should be watched in order as the stories develop throughout the series, offering more complex and authentic insights into these young people's lives.

Coming out, family relationships and homophobic bullying are issues that are central to many LGB young people's lives and are therefore addressed in every programme. Different issues are explored in depth in the Activities of each programme, but learning can be enhanced by viewing other programmes in the series.

Gay to Z enables discussion regarding homophobia, sexual orientation and society's attitudes towards LGB people. Sensitivity and respect for everybody in the classroom should be uppermost in teachers' minds - pupils should be reminded that there are LGB people in the school and many people in the school have family and friends who identify as LGB.

Group agreement

Group agreements help to establish safe environments for young people to engage with potentially sensitive issues.

Firstly, split the group into pairs and ask them to spend 5-10 minutes discussing:

• how they would like to be treated in the group
• how they would like to feel within the group.

Now ask the group to discuss as a whole the points that they have come up with. It is important to ensure that pupils are clear about the following points:

• Respect must be a principal part of the lesson. Pupils should agree to respect everyone's right to an opinion and to challenge each other respectfully
• Everyone in the group should feel comfortable and safe to discuss the issues. However, pupils should have the right to respectfully 'pass' if they don't want to be involved in part of the discussion, and should not tell the group anything that might make them feel uncomfortable.

Develop these discussions into an agreement of how the group will work. Everyone should sign the agreement to demonstrate their commitment. Make sure that it is visibly displayed and return to it during future sessions if necessary.

Clip

To view 4Learning video clips you will need Windows XP/2000 and Windows Media Player 9, 10 or 11. Unfortunately, the clips are not supported on Macintosh computers.

The video clips may contain a few seconds of extra material at the beginning and end. We have therefore included opening and closing descriptions to help identify the intended scene.

Activity: Coming out

Learning outcomes

At the end of this activity, pupils should:

• Understand the difficulties involved in coming out as LGB and how LGB young people might feel about coming out
• Understand the range of reactions which LGB people might face when they come out and the factors which might influence these reactions.

Before viewing

The activity should try to link the experience of coming out to other more general 'secrets' that can be experienced by any young person.

Introduce the idea of having 'secrets' or things that you keep to yourself because you are unsure of telling others about them. It is important that pupil's own secrets are not discussed and that the idea of secrets is made more general.

Examples to provide might be:

• I fancy my best friend's boyfriend
• I don't think I'm going to pass my exams
• My cat has died and I know I should get over it but I just keep crying
• I had sex for the first time and I know I was meant to like it, but it was rubbish.

Points for discussion:

• How would it feel to keep these secrets? Lonely, shameful, frustrating?
• Why would you be unsure about telling people these secrets? Embarrassed, guilty? People wouldn't like you anymore?
• How might people react to hearing these secrets? Laugh, hate you, not talk to you?

Watch Clip 1: Different reactions to coming out as LGB 04:35 – 13:14

• Opens with, 'If I could be any animal I'd be a gorilla.'
• Closes with, 'Homosexuality is always considered taboo, related to white people and a western disease.'

Present pupils with the following scenario:

My name is Adam, I'm 15 and think I'm gay. I love spending time with one of my friends and lately I've been thinking about him in a sort of different way. There's no way I'd say anything to anyone at school - I'd get killed. I feel like I'm going to explode - I want to say something to my mum, because we usually talk about lots of stuff, but I don't know how she would react.

Use the following points for discussion, ensuring that pupils reflect on the clip from Gay to Z that they have just watched:

• How might Adam be feeling at the moment? Ensure that this is linked with the feelings discussed in the Before viewing part of this activity.
• How might Adam's mum react if he does tell her? What factors might influence Adam's mum's reaction? Ensure the range of reactions shown in the clip and the religion/culture factor are considered.