LGBTIQ Posters at FOS Berlin

 In order to raise more awareness es on the way people use their language and how it impacts members of the LGTBIQ cummunity, an advanced English course designed posters and hanged them throughout the school. We wanted to reach as many people as possible, so we decided to use all the languages we speak. In the future we plan to deal more with the topic especially in the junior high-school, where more students still do not realise that what they call a harmless joke hurts numerous persons, who not seldom do not dare say or do anything against it.

 

Extracurricular Activity LGTBIQ+ at FOS Berlin

 In the frame of our LGTB Erasmus Project we have started an extracurricular activity called LGTB WITH MOVIES. As the name suggests, students get together and discuss and analyze movies tackling this topic. Thus, each Wednesday the students and a teacher involved in the project meet for two hours and besides the movie analysis, the approach similar topics and talk about news on the topic, the situation in our schools and ideas for an improved and safer environment for the LGTB community here.

BULLYING QUESTIONNAIRE

WHAT HAS ART MEANT TO YOU? A REVIEW OF THE FILM PHILADELPHIA

 

    Art is not an intellectual but dispensable production, a kind of ornament without which we can live. On the contrary is one of the most important elements of our culture. It expresses our concerns, the way we feel about the world we are living, our ambitions, wishes or hopes. Moreover, art also changes the way we feel. It opens new perspectives, because art shows the same reality we know from a different point of view and, therefore, help us to understand better the reality that surrounds us.

    But art also helps to become aware of the problems that exist in our society. It happend with the film Philadelphia, an Amareican film produced in 1993, directed by Jonathan Demme and starring Tom Hamks and Denzel Washington. It was one of the fiirst films that spoke openly about AIDS, homophobia and discrimination at work.

    VIH was isolated for the first time in 1983, by that time it meant a mortal illness and people panicked. Those who were infected sufferd employment discrimination. Particularly LGTB people, suffered a double discrimination, because of the infection and becuase of being LGTB, as a part of the society considered that it was their sexuual behaviour that was the cuase of the infection. Many awareness campaigns were need to change the situation and make people understand that VIH could be stopped is we all took preventive meassures, to make people see, that we were all safe by doing that, that we were not at risk by working with an infected person. In few words, that the discrimination people suffered was unbeareble and totally absurd. 

In this context, the film Philadelphia came to help. It showed openly that kind of discrimination and introduced  this debate in our society. 

More than 30 years after our students wanted to know what did this film mean to our generation.

CREATING ART

     

    Finally we decided to create our own piece of art!!!!

     Thankfully we have extraordinary students. Spencial reference should be made to Miguel Muñoz Alabarce student in IES La Rosaleda and in the conservatory of music in Málaga. He and the producer Luis Amador Goberna have created the song Free Spirits that talks about freedom and pride and breaking down stereotypes in a very optimistic way.

    We were so completely happy with the result that we decided to record it and Bahia Records was in charge of it. Students and teachers had a great time. 

    Not only the song fits perfectely with the project, but it is really good itself. Here you can check it and see if tou don't end the video singing the chorus.

    THANKS MIGUEL AND THANKS TO ALL THE STUDENTS AND TEACHERS FOR YOUR COMMITMENT!!!!

VISITING THE PICASSO MUSSEUM. BREAKING DOWN STEREOTYPES

      Picasso is considered one of the biggest artist of the 20th century. We all the women he loved and painted. However, because of the technic he used, it's not always easy to recognized these women as we supposed a women should looks like. This is the reason why we have chosen his work to think about gender stereotypes.

    Guided by the history teacher, a group of students visited the Picasso Museum that counts with a big amount of female portrayals. Students were located in front of a Picasso's sister portrait which was supposed to be "realistic". They inmediately identifyed it as a woman because it had red and dick lips, big  breasts, narrow eyebrows...all the elements that a woman is supposed to have. However, this wasn't a realistic work as Picasso's sister wasn't as old and she didn't really look like  the woman of the picture.

Later on, they watched a portrait of Dora Maar, the artist who was Picasso's girlfriend for several years. On this occassion students didn't recognized her as a woman at the first sight, because she wasn't represented as we have been taught. Nevertheless, when the museum instructor talked to them, when she started to ask question and to guide their experience in front of the portrait, students realized that the picture represented very well how Picasso saw his girlfriend, that the picture represented her inner personality much better than the other "realistic" one. In few words, sometimes a "realistic representation" means only a way of representing according the social rules. Our students learnnt that women can look very different, that there is not only a way to look like a woman, and this can be also said about any other person. 

 

    

CLOSURE OF THE FIRST EXCHANGE MEETING

    One of the last events before the farewell was a small tour around the school through historical LGTB personalities: writers, politicians, mathematicians hang on the walls and a brief biography was explained. This activity contributed in a modest way to fill the void in the academic curriculum concerning LGTB personalities. We are pefectly aware that there is still a lot to do, because LGTB students normally lack of references they can identify with, as if the only job for LGTB people were related to art, so we proposed this activity that could be also watched by any other member o person that visited our school.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    Finally, before saying goob-bye we raised the LGTB flag in our school. This flag repressents what we are workin on: Tolerance, respect, diversity. It's also our way to say to the students, teachers or any other member of our community that we are all very welcome. That we don't care who is cis- heterosexual, trans or whatever. Our business is only to educate future citizens to teach self-esteem and respect for others.

PLAYING WHILE LEARNING

     One of the remakable moments of this exchange occured when the students showed the games they had ellaborated and whose common topic was LGTB. Students created different games such as memory games, goose games or even a kind of trivial. The aim of this activity is to spread our knowledge while playing. For example, a memory game cards was made with the different flags and colors that represent the LGTB community.
     We think this kind of game are necessary at school for different reasons: First they contribute to fight against the ignorance, secondly they make visible the contribution of the LGTB community to our society and culture and finally they help to normalize any kind of gender identity or sexual election. Becuase schools normally suffer a kind of contradiction: On the one hand, we say that being lesbian, for example, is absolutely natural and nothing to be ashame of; but on the other hand students only see heterosexual model. Nor their books, neither their games reproduce any other kind of models, even not the language the teacher use, so our children have to grow up without references, feeling thenselves a kind of exception that is silently tolerated.

On the contrary, we do believe that it is more healthy to grow up with model, with references, feeling that their options are included and respected by all the community. Moreover, heterosexual students will grow up being respectful as their schools have shown them with respect any kind of option.

Here there are some examples, many of the games were physically produced, so we can share them with other nearby schools, our games were also digitally uploaded with common licence, so anyone who whish can use them (https://lgtbatschool.blogspot.com/2020/01/gamification.html)

A quiz game:

 

Students are divided into international groups and they are asked different questions about LGTB rights all over the world,such as where same gender marriage is allowed...Then they have to show in the map their option. Those who have more right answers are the winners. 

Here they are our students explaining their games: 

And here they are while playing:

Day Trip to Córdoba

     We wanted to take adventage of this exchange to show our partners a little bit more about our culture. In this sense we chose Córdoba because it represents an example of tolerance, as different cultures (Christian, Jewish and Islamic) lived there peacefully and this mixture contributed to its cultural development.
     Of course, it is a crime to visit this city without getting into la Mezquita. So this was our first stop.

 

But later on we had an appointment with "Personas"  where we joined a workshop on LGTB rights. There, while playing, we learnt about the legal framework all over the world students were able to do any kind of questions or to give and exchange their opinion in a safe enviroment.

Situation regarding LGBT+ community in Romania

LGBT rights in Romania

LGBT Personalities who suffered abuse in Romania

ECRI Report on Romania

Famous People in Romania

MINI-RESEACH COMING OUT DAY

In the beginning there was a march.

·         On October 11, 1987, half a million people participated in the march on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. It was the second such demonstration in the capital of the USA and resulted in the founding of a number of LGBTQ organizations, including the National Latino/a Gay & Lesbian Organization (LLEGÓ) and AT&T’s LGBTQ employee group, LEAGUE. 

·         The momentum continued four months after this march as more than 100 lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer activists from around the country gathered in Warrenton, Va., about 25 miles outside Washington, D.C.

·         Recognizing that the LGBTQ community often reacted defensively to anti-LGBTQ actions, they came up with the idea of a national day to celebrate coming out and chose the anniversary of that second march on Washington to mark it.

·         The originators of the idea were Rob Eichberg, a founder of the personal growth workshop, ‘The Experience’, and Jean O’Leary, then head of National Gay Rights Advocates. From this idea the National Coming Out Day was born.

·         Each year on October 11, National Coming Out Day continues to promote a safe world for LGBTQ individuals to live truthfully and openly.

 “We often run from our own fears. We run away, we ignore them, we hide them in the most impenetrable corners of the soul in the hope that they will disappear with time. We know very well that they do not disappear or evaporate. They gather one by one, all together until you feel that you can no longer, as if they were strangling you with their imprisonment. Then you feel the need to do something.”

“On October 11, the coming out day or leaving the closet is celebrated, as a symbol of the fact that the visibility of LGBT people is important for recognizing equality in rights and freedoms. Coming out is a difficult and emotionally charged step for LGBT youth. On October 11, people share the stories of people who have already taken this step and who, through their examples, show the world that family and friends are the ones who give you strength in the fight against prejudice.”

LOGO created by the Romania students for the contest

MINI-RESEARCH by Romanian Students

MERRY CHRISTMAS & A HAPPY NEW YEAR

from all of us here at “Aurel Lazăr” School!

Merry Christmas…and a Happy New Year! These are words that we will likely hear many times during the holiday season.

·         Historians and linguists can’t pinpoint for sure exactly why we tend to use Merry Christmas. The greeting dates back to at least 1534 in London, when it was written in a letter sent to Henry VIII’s chief minister Thomas Cromwell from bishop John Fisher.

·         Scholars also note the phrase was used in the 16th century English carol “We Wish You a Merry Christmas”.

·         Merry Christmas certainly picked up steam in 1843 with the publication of Charles Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’. That same year the phrase also appeared on the first commercially-sold Christmas card.

·         Despite its prevalence in the United States and its historical underpinnings, Merry Christmas never gained universal support. For example, Clement C. Moore’s ‘The Night Before Christmas’ ends with the words, “A Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night”.

·         Each year, Queen Elizabeth also wishes British citizens a Happy Christmas in her annual broadcast.

·         Happy Christmas tends to be the preferred phrase for a significant minority of Great Britain. It could be the Queen’s influence. A rumour has circulated that Queen Elizabeth prefers happy to merry, because the word merry, to her, carries with it a sense of boisterousness and even intoxication. A linguistic comparison of happy and merry lends support to this theory.

·         Early church leaders in Great Britain may have encouraged Christian followers to be happy rather than engage in merrymaking! In this sense, Happy Christmas is a bit more conservative and reserved than Merry Christmas, which conveys a more emotional, unrestrained celebration.

·         No one knows for sure why Merry Christmas became the more popular greeting in the United States.

·         Some Christians believe it is a more fitting greeting, given the unrestrained and emotional response followers should have to a celebration of the birth of their Savior, Jesus Christ.
 
 
 
 
 

Summary of findings following the survey among ROMANIAN students (25)

Local Project Activity (2019) by the Romanian Team

Taking into account that the students do not know many things about the topic of LGTB, we organized a project activity.

 

The guests were:

•          the biology teacher
•          the doctor and the nurse of the school nursery.

The students got familiarized with some of the basic element related to the project.

The initialism

LGBT is intended to emphasize a diversity of sexuality and gender identity-based cultures. The initialism LGBT is intended to emphasize a diversity of sexuality and gender identity-based cultures. It may be used to refer to anyone who is non-heterosexual or non-cisgender, instead of exclusively to people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender.

To recognize this inclusion, a popular variant adds the letter Q for those who identify as queer or are questioning their sexual identity; “LGBTQ” has been recorded since 1996. Those who add intersex people to LGBT groups or organizing use an extended initialism LGBTI. The two acronyms are sometimes combined to form the terms LGBTIQ or LGBT+ to encompass spectrums of sexuality and gender.

Many variants exist including variations that change the order of the letters; LGBT or GLBT are the most common terms. Although identical in meaning, LGBT may have a more feminist connotation than GLBT as it places the “L” (for “lesbian”) first. LGBT may also include additional Qs for “queer” or “questioning” (sometimes abbreviated with a question mark and sometimes used to mean anybody not literally L, G, B or T) producing the variants LGBTQ and LGBTQQ.

The term trans has been adopted by some groups as a more inclusive alternative to “transgender”, where trans has been used to describe trans men and trans women; the term transsexual commonly falls under the umbrella term transgender, but some transsexual people object to this.

The rainbow flag (also known as the gay pride flag or LGBT pride flag) is used as a symbol of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) pride and LGBTQ social movements. Other older uses of rainbow flags include a symbol of peace. The colours reflect the diversity of the LGBTQ community, as the flag is often used as a symbol of gay pride during LGBTQ rights marches.

Originally devised by artist Gilbert Baker, the design has undergone several revisions since its debut in 1978, first to remove colours then restore them based on availability of fabrics. The traditional and still most common variant consists of six stripes: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. The flag is typically flown horizontally, with the red stripe on top, as it would be in a natural rainbow. The flag originally comprised eight stripes; Baker assigned specific meaning to each of the colours:

Hot pink		Sex
Red		Life
Orange		Healing
Yellow		Sunlight
Green		Nature
Turquoise		Magic/Art
Indigo		Serenity
Violet		Spirit

LGBTQ individuals and allies currently use rainbow flags and many rainbow-themed items and colour schemes as an outward symbol of their identity or support. The rainbow flag is also commonly used as a general symbol of social equality and individuality.

                 Current version

 

The meeting was followed by a workshop. The task was the creation of a glossary of terms.

GLOSSARY

•         Bisexual: A man or woman who is romantically, sexually and/or emotionally attracted to people of either sex.
•          Coming Out: A term used to describe the process through which a person realises that they are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender and may begin to disclose this aspect of their identity to others.
•          Gay: A man or woman who is romantically, sexually and/or emotionally attracted to people of the same sex. Many gay men prefer to be called ‘gay’ rather than homosexual. Many women who are gay prefer to be identified as ‘lesbian’.
•          Gender: A term that is often used to refer to ways that people act, interact or feel about themselves, which are associated with boys/ men and girls/women. The term ‘gender’ is distinct from ‘sex’.
•          Gender Dysphoria: Refers to strong persistent feelings of identification with the opposite gender and discomfort with one’s own assigned sex that results in significant distress.
•          Gender Expression: This refers to the way a person expresses gender to others through behaviour, clothing, hairstyles, mannerisms, voice, physical characteristics, social interactions, etc. 
•         Gender Fluid: This refers to a gender identity which varies over time. A gender fluid person may at any time identify as male, female, gender neutral, or any other non-binary identity, or some combination of identities. Some individuals refer to themselves as gender fluid, gender queer, or gender nonbinary.
•        Gender Identity: A person’s internal feeling of being male or female, regardless of the sex listed on their birth certificate (assigned birth sex). Some individuals may have a sense that they are some other gender, or a combination of genders.
•          Gender Non-binary: An umbrella term for gender identities that fall outside the gender binary of male or female. This includes individuals whose gender identity is neither exclusively male nor female, a combination of male and female or between genders.  Similar to the usage of transgender, people under the non-binary umbrella may describe themselves using one or more of a wide variety of terms.
•        Gender Recognition Certificate: This is provided for in the Gender Recognition Act (2015) and issued by the state to an individual who requests to have his/her preferred gender recognised.
•          Gender Transition: This term describes the experience by which a person goes from living in the gender assigned at birth to living and identifying in their preferred gender. For most young people this transition does not involve medical intervention but does involve a process of ‘social transition’ whereby the young person begins to live and identify as the gender consistent with their preferred gender identity. Transition might include social, physical or legal changes such as coming out to family, friends, co-workers and others; changing one’s appearance; changing one’s name, personal pronoun and sex designation on legal documents (e.g. birth certificate, driving licence or passport); and medical intervention (e.g. through hormones or surgery).
•        Heterosexual: A person who is romantically, sexually and/or emotionally attracted to people of the opposite sex, colloquially known as ‘straight’.
•          Homophobic Bullying: Refers to bullying of any form that has the added dimension of being based on actual or perceived sexual orientation.
•          Homosexual: The formal or clinical term that was coined in the field of psychology to describe a person who is romantically, sexually and/or emotionally attracted to people of the same sex.
•          Intersex: An umbrella term used for a variety of conditions in which a person is born with a reproductive or sexual anatomy that does not fit the typical definition of the female or male sex. Although intersex individuals do not always identify as transgender, or do not consider themselves to be covered by the transgender umbrella, many of the issues experienced by transgender people are common to intersex people and for this reason the guidance in this resource can be applicable to students who are intersex.
•          LGBT: An acronym for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender.
•         LGBTI: An acronym for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex.
•          Lesbian: A woman who is romantically, sexually and/or emotionally attracted to women.
•          Preferred Gender: Refers to an individual’s deeply held internal gender identity, as distinct from the sex assigned at birth.
•          Sex: Refers to the biological status accorded at birth as male or female. The designation of a person at birth as male or female is based on their anatomy (genitalia and/or reproductive organs) or biology (chromosomes and/or hormones).
•          Sexual Orientation:  Refers to an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions to men, women or both sexes. Three sexual orientations are commonly recognised – heterosexual (straight), homosexual (gay or lesbian) and bisexual. Some people do not experience attraction to either men or women and define themselves as asexual.
•          Transgender: An inclusive term describing people whose gender identity, or gender expression, is different from the sex listed on their birth certificate (i.e. their assigned birth sex). People under the transgender umbrella may describe themselves using one or more of a wide variety of terms – including transgender. It is always best to be led by the individual’s preferred adjective. The word ‘trans’ is commonly used by transgender people and it is acceptable to use this shortened term when referring to a person who identifies as transgender. Some transgender people who live in their preferred gender simply see themselves as a man or a woman, rather than a trans man or a trans woman. Some transgender people may be under the care of doctors in undergoing hormone treatment to change their bodies, some undergo surgery as well.  But not all transgender people can or will take those steps, and a transgender identity is not dependent upon medical procedures.
•          Transphobic Bullying: Refers to bullying of any form that has the added dimesion of being based on actual or perceived gender identity.
•          Transsexual:  This is an older term that has its origins in the medical and psychological communities. It is still preferred by some people who have permanently changed, or seek to change, their bodies through medical interventions.
•          Trans man: A person who was identified as female at birth but who lives as a man or identifies as male.
•         Trans woman: A person who was identified as male at birth but who lives as a woman or identifies as female.