LGB1995_1.pdf
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Part of Students try to educate each other about gender, sexuality
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Students try to educate each
other about gender, sexuality
CURTIS BERNSTEIN
Asst. Campus Editor
In order to promote understanding and respect
among individuals of all sexual orientations, members of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Alliance and
other UB students have created a Gender Roles and
Sexuality Program, also known as GRASP.
The LGBA and Epsilon Nu Omega, a service
fraternity, conducted a workshop to present
the program to other UB students last
Wednesday, but no students
showed. The only
people attending were
the presenters from
LGBA.
"Over the last two
years we have done
50 to 60 programs
-from Canisius
to Niagara University
to
Nazareth
College.
Usually there
are a lot of
people," said
Tina Barfoot, UB
student and one of
the creators of the
program.
The Gender Roles and
Sexuality Program got its start
when Chris Goffredo, another of
its creators, and Barfoot were students
at Canisius College.
"I was at Canisius, a close-minded school in
need of (sexual orientation) education. Chris and I
decided to come up with an education program we
could take to high schools and colleges," said Barfoot. "It took 12 months to create the packets we were constantly revising it."
The program begins with an introduction
section, which lets everyone in the room
know who is heterosexual and who is homosexual, and a suicide poem is read dealing
with gay teen suicide.
The second section is titled "BINGAY." This
section is used as an icebreaker to give members of
the workshop an idea of what they actually know
about gay, lesbian and bisexual culture.
The third part involves various members of
LGBA telling their stories about what it is like to
come out and tell people they are gay. A questionand-answer section follows .
The fourth part, "Guided Journey," involves an
exercise that goes through a person's life and gives
them a chance to see what it would be like to grow
up in a heterosexual society when the person is not
heterosexual. A question-and-answer period follows that section as well.
The program also provides a
comprehensive booklet containing definitions used in
dealing with everyday
homosexuality - a
true/false section
and a questionnaire to
determine how much a
person knows about homosexuality. There is also a
section explaining statistics
and symbols dealing with homosexuals.
The last page of the booklet is a
questionnaire about the program and
its effectiveness.
"The program's doing greatso far we have only received
two negative evaluations,"
said Barfoot.
The program is used
in UB sexual education classes in dealing with homosexual
awareness training.
According to Ellen
Christensen, director of Health and
Human Services
for Sub Board I,
the program has
been
"very
effective" in
training leaders in
the peer education
program.
But, Christensen would
like to see a lot more done
with the program.
"I would like to see a program instated at the university that
deals with sexual education ," she said .
"Even college students, who should be educated, aren't. They are afraid of the topic (of
homosexuality), and the way GRASP presents
(the information) helps."