Keeping OU Comfortable

my name is a Brianna whisper and I will be

leading today's training on keeping you comfortable in terms of

gender identity, pronounce and prefer names.

Um my pronouns are she hers?

And our training days July 25, and I'm going to

start with the basics.

Yeah. So the basic are what are pronouns.

Um, everyone knows general pronouns and how they are used,

she, her, he him they them um used to refer

to someone.

However, in terms of gender identity, we use these pronouns

to refer to people based on how they feel and

how they choose to identify not based on their appearance.

So, um, the official definition gender pronouns are used to

refer to gender identity, which is how someone feels in

terms of masculine, feminine, somewhere in between or neither.

And this little guide is just um saying what are

pronounced, they there's them and showing how those are able

to be um plural and singular and how they and

them can be used to refer to one person.

And it gives a couple examples.

So, the purpose of this training is to ensure for

their advanced comfort ability.

For LGBTQ students and faculty on Oh yes, campus ou

does a great job with diversity training in explaining what

L G b T Q is, how it should be

treated on campus, how discrimination is not tolerated regardless of

gender identity and um sexual orientation.

However, it becomes problematic in some cases for some students

based on who I've spoken with in remembering correct pronouns

and names.

So um correct pronounce the names come about when many

LGBTQ individuals change their names or their identity based on

their feelings and how they choose to identify.

This often leaves room for mistakes on the professor and

the students part, I will mainly be focusing on the

role of the professor in this instance, but also in

some instances of students.

So this leaves room for mistakes on the professors part,

usually when calling roll or when using students as an

example. So to avoid mistakes um such as for example,

when using a student as an example, if you are

going solely off their appearance, but you do not know

if they identify in that way.

You're using stereotypes to assume their gender identity and therefore

swimming their pronouns.

This becomes problematic because you have not gotten to know

them so you don't necessarily know that you're offending them

or making them uncomfortable, but they do so.

To avoid doing that, I came up with a scheme

of how to Keep you comfortable and keep our LGBT

two individuals comfortable within our classroom settings, et cetera introduce,

ask, ensure correct deflect and respect to introduce.

Make sure that you are always introducing yourself as you

prefer to be identified and encourage others to do the

same. This sets the tone for what you expect to

be identified or refer to within your classroom setting and

during the time that you all are with each other

and it does the same for others.

When you encourage them to set the tone for what

they expect to be referred to.

For example, if I were to introduce myself, I would

introduce myself as Hi, my name is a Brianna risk

for my programs.

Are she hers?

And I encourage you all to give your pronouns as

well so that no one is feeling uncomfortable or feeling

as if they're being misidentified.

Also give your preferred name, not a nickname or um

anything like that.

I'm not saying that you have to call people by

their nicknames, but when it comes to their identity is

that is something that they identify with then they should

be referred to in that manner.

Yeah. Uh huh.

So ask.

It's always important to act students and professors beforehand about

their identity provinces to avoid mistakes.

This comes after introduced because yeah, you'll introduce yourself of

course in the process of asking.

So I always say ask beforehand as then you can

send maybe a canvas message and just say your name,

introducing yourself and encourage others to same or maybe start

a discussion about just general get to know me things

and making sure that you're including someone's preferred name and

their um pronounce so that they can be referred to

in the correct manner, especially when it comes to face

to face classes if you are using someone as an

example but you have not um gotten their correct pronouns,

you're liable to make a mistake and identifying them which

can be problematic and make them feel as if you

don't respect their identity enough to even take the initiative

to ask.

Mhm. So ensure ask again if you ask someone's pronounced

one time and then you do not remember it when

it comes time to having to use them double check

before speaking out loud to avoid mistakes, to avoid embarrassment.

Um for example if you're in a classroom and you

have such a canvas message got everyone's pronounced but you

haven't put names to faces yet, it's always important.

And may I ask her to say may I ask

your pronouns again before I refer to you just to

make sure that we're making everyone as comfortable as possible

and making sure that we're not making mistakes or trying

our best to avoid them.

As you know um mistakes do happen and it's okay

but if you make a mistake you need to correct

yourself immediately.

It's only okay if you do the right thing, it's

not okay to misidentify someone or call someone a name

that they do not identify with and then move on

as if it did not happen because that is telling

the person that you're misidentifying that you don't care or

is telling them that it's not important to you for

them to be identified in the correct way.

So in the midst of correcting yourself, you also need

to correct yourself promptly and correct yourself um immediately, but

do not dwell on the mistake, so do not correct

yourself and continuously apologized for it and make it stand

out and make it a huge deal, acknowledge it, corrected

and deflect, move on.

Um change the subject and never, ever just continuously talk

about it and say things like it's so hard to

remember or try to make a joke out of it

in some kind of way because saying things like that

lead to LGBTQ individuals feeling as if they are a

burden for simply wanting to be identified in the way

that they feel it, so respect.

Always be respectful of others, pronouns and names.

No one is required to tell you the history of

their identity.

It doesn't matter when they decided to identify the way

they identify how they came about it or their story.

Their story is their story and their identity should be

respected whether, you know, the details of it or not.

So it's always important to be respectful.

Um A lot of LGBTQ individuals become uncomfortable when people

ask some questions such as what was your name before

this, or how did you identify before this or how

did you know this?

It's just a really, it's a touchy situation because some

people are genuinely curious.

However, you have those people who just want to know

more than they actually need to know.

So it's important to make sure that if you're asking

questions out of curiosity, you number one, do it in

private number to make sure that you are asking in

a way that does not come off as you're just

prying into someone's life, Just let them know that you're

genuinely curious and you're not trying to offend them.

Okay, so why do we even care about pronouns?

Um, I believe it's important to recognize and learn about

pronouns and prefer names to ensure that colleagues and peers

understand that you care and respect their gender identity.

I'm ensuring that individuals are not only feeling included, but

they're also feeling welcome and value just as much as

non LGBTQ individuals.

So this is, way, way, way important to just make

sure that you're respecting um someone's identity just as much

as you expect them to respect yours.

If you go by, she hers and someone calls you

um he hears you will be offended or you wouldn't

appreciate that.

So we need to make sure that we're giving LGBTQ

plus individuals the same respect in making sure that they

know that their identity is just as valued as non

LGBTQ plus individuals.

Yeah, so testimonial that I have is from timber Kennedy.

They said being able to trust that others will view

me as I want to be viewed as important to

me. I think that if my professors and colleagues, I

had it.

So you had this training, it would really impact initial

introductions and support who I and those like me wish

to be represented home.

I think this is important.

I did show them the video and I showed them

some of the points that I made and, you know,

they agreed that it would have impacted the introductions and

the comfort bility that they felt within the classrooms and

being used as examples in classrooms, etcetera.

So for outcomes, overall outcome for this training is more

inclusive atmospheres within classrooms, outside of classrooms, just around campus.

Um general conversation clubs, meetings, making sure that in all

of these spaces, LGBTQ individuals feel comfortable and that they

feel as if they can trust their identity will be

their identity and actually be recognized in that space.

Um, this will also build trust between students and faculty.

Um, it builds, you know, a way for students to

know that they are respected by the faculty and vice

versa. You know, that making sure that you're identifying someone

in the correct way always builds a trust, or when

you immediately walk up to someone and the first time

meeting them, you're making sure that your identifying them in

the right way shows and that you care about how

they feel.

Um Same thing for comfort, ability, identifying someone and making

sure you're getting their identity correct in the first place

really makes someone feel comfortable around you and make you

feel like you're very aware and inclusive of L G

B T.

Q, last but not least respect.

Respect is so big as far as um the outcomes

go, because it is all about respect.

It's about respecting the L G B.

T. Q in any space on any atmosphere, making sure

that they feel comfortable at all points on campus, whether

they're just walking around or whatever.

The case may be, making sure that they know that

their identity is valued and respected on our campus is

our duty as a campus, including, um, including our diversity.

So this is very important for me, and I really

hope that you all take this into consideration as you

go to teach classes, that you go to take classes,

lead meetings and do everything that, um, do everything that

you can to make sure that you're being as inclusive

and keeping oh, you as comfortable as possible.

Keeping OU Comfortable

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