"Safe Spaces" by Annemarie Vaccaro, Gerri August, and Megan S. KennedySa

CONNECTION...and a little reflection:

1) Although LGBT issues have necessarily affected my life on a personal level, they are part of everybody's lives. Nobody can deny that problems have arisen from the LGBT movement and, therefore, nobody is free from the burden of solving those problems. It is in this sense that Safe Spaces directly relates to the issues discussed in Johnson's work, Privilege, Power, and Difference. Johnson stated that we as individuals are connected to the problems that arise from our society's structures and that the comfort of the privileged groups comes at the expense of the comfort of more marginalized persons. Johnson also said that the realization that every individual is involved in these types of issues "is the only thing that gives us the potential to make a difference." The suicides of the people mentioned at the beginning of the Safe Spaces piece let us know that solving LGBT issues is a task that requires the attention of every member of the human race. I believe that any judgment regarding unalterable characteristics (race, sexual orientation, gender, etc.) stems from the insecurity of the one judging -- whether its conscious or not. We're all insecure and enjoy remaining within our comfort zones, but I think Safe Spaces and the Johnson piece help us understand that if we can all try to expand our comfort zones and become more secure individuals, then many of our society's problems might not exist...or may not be as prevalent.

2) Safe Spaces was also very much so related to the Rodriguez piece. Both pieces acknowledge the fact that teachers must be more aware of how to properly deal with the issues discussed in the respective articles. In Rodriguez's piece, the nuns did not fully understand how to properly incorporate his first and second languages through practices like code-switching. In the same sense, teachers must also understand how to properly consider the impact of school on the social and psychological development of youth. As Safe Spaces says, teachers must create environments that do not have exclusionary attitudes and beliefs toward LGBT members. The curriculum of our schools must also incorporate LGBT topics within its classrooms. Teachers should strive to create a classroom environment where members of the LGBT community do not feel different from those who are heterosexual. Just as shying away from a student's first language may be detrimental to his or her ability to learn English, shying away from LGBT issues in the classroom also has negative consequences to the members of that community.