Name: Stella

Social Justice Group: 2018-2019, LGBTQIA Youth & Coming Out

Date of Fieldwork: January 10, 2019

Name of Organization: GLSEN

Person (people) with whom I met and their job titles: Tate Benson

Type of Fieldwork: Interview

What I did:

On our fieldwork we interviewed Tate Benson from GLSEN. Tate gave us a bunch of resources like lesson plans and tips for how to come out safely. We interview them about their daily life at GLSEN, and what it’s like for them being an LGBTQ+ person outside of GLSEN. We also asked them what the mission of GLSEN is and what their personal mission is by working at GLSEN.

What I learned:

We learned a lot about how to educate kids about the LGBTQ+ community. We asked them a lot of questions about how to tell kids that although we talk about this all the time in school, it’s important to remember that it’s not just something that is “in the world” it affects them everyday. We also learned how to be safe when coming out and also create a safe environment for people in the LGBTQ+ community.

What I learned about Social Justice “work” and/or Civil and Human rights “work” from this fieldwork:

We learned that as LGBTQ+ people are being more accepted in our society there is still a lot of work to be done. Many kids don’t feel comfortable coming out to family or friends especially based on where they live. Tate works with many schools around the country that have GSA’.