Safer space training curriculum 1

University of Wisconsin - La Crosse

Division of Diversity and Inclusion
Safer space training curriculum: Supporting LGBTQ+ students in campus housing

Title: Safer Space Training

Time Required: 90 minutes

Background:
During the fall 2021 semester, the Pride Center staff has received several complaints and concerns from
LGBTQ+ students about gender-inclusive housing (GIH), all-gender restrooms, and residential life
overall. Specifically, transgender and nonbinary students have felt unsafe in GIH as transphobic
comments and actions have occurred, including the disrespect and misuse of the all-gender restrooms.
In response, the Pride Center Director, Will Van Roosenbeek, and graduate assistant, Amanda Wesche,
are working the director and assistant directors of Residential Life to create a plan to improve GIH and
the housing experience for LGBTQ+ students.

The Pride Center’s mission, according to the website, is to “foster a safe environment for all LGBTQ+
students, faculty, and staff, educate the campus and community on issues, and advocate for student
success and inclusivity.”

The mission of Residence Life, according to the website, is to “develop living environments to enhance
the academic mission of UWL through creating inclusive communities, supporting experiential
learning, and building meaningful relationships.”

So far in the 2021-2022 academic year, 35 hate/bias incidents have occurred at UWL (according to
reports)
● 16 targeted gender identity/expression
● 9 targeted sexual orientation
● 17 incidents happened in the residence halls

According to the Trevor Project (2021), every 45 seconds at least one LGBTQ+ person between ages
13-24 attempts suicide in the United States. LGBTQ+ students are often exposed to anti-LGBTQ+
attitudes and behaviors throughout their lives, resulting in a traumatic response or PTSD (Davidson,
2017).

ACPA & NASPA Competencies (Advising and Supporting)

● “Seek opportunities to expand one’s own knowledge and skills in helping students with specific
concerns (e.g., relationship issues, navigating systems of oppression, or suicidality) as well as
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interfacing with specific populations within the college student environment (e.g., student
veterans, low-income students, etc.)” (ACPA & NASPA, 2015, p. 36)
● “Facilitate or coach group decision-making, goal-setting, and process” (ACPA & NASPA,
2015, p. 37)
● Ability to advocate for others and identify, assess, and promote referral services (ACPA &
NASPA, 2015)

The following rubric uses recommended learning outcomes from Woodford, Durochet-Radeka, and
Javier’s 2014 study on-campus LGBTQ+ ally training programs.
Foundational Intermediate Advanced

LGBTQ+ ● Understand ● Become a ● Actively support

Allyship LGBTQ+ support person to LGBTQ+ individuals
concepts and LGBTQ+ through policy change
develop an individuals ● Develop skills for
awareness of ● Become an intervention when
biases advocate to witnessing or hearing
● Understand create an about discrimination
LGBTQ+ issues LGBTQ+ ● Intentionally create
and recognize inclusive and programs and services
discrimination affirming that affirm LGBTQ+
(homophobia & campus persons’ identities
transphobia) and education others

Literature Review:
Lit scan and introduction and key findings
Prior to developing a training program, I conducted a literature review on LGBTQ+ students’
experiences in campus housing and Ally Training.
LGBTQ+ students’ experiences in campus housing
● Residential Life Staff needs training on strategies to support LGBTQ+ students based on the
lived experiences of those students (Mollet et al., 2021).
● Conversations and training regarding gender-inclusive housing and supporting trans and gender
non-conforming (TGNC) students need to center the lives and experiences of TGNC
individuals rather than cis-gender staff members’ fears and feelings (Nicolazzo et al., 2018).
● “While not all LGBTQ students experience hostile living and learning environments, part of
the role of educators is to assure that all students have equitable access to living and learning
environments” (Kortegast, 2017, p 68).
● Data from the National Transgender Discrimination Survey indicate that a notable proportion
of TGNC college students “are not allowed to access gender-appropriate housing (19%) and/or
appropriate bathrooms and other facilities (23.9%)” and the TGNC students who could access
these spaces still faced harassment or violence (Seelman, 2014). Data from this survey also
shows that 81% of TGNC students did not have access to gender-appropriate housing
(Kortegast, 2017).
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● Transgender women are more likely than transgender men and cis-gender people to be denied
access to gender-appropriate housing and bathrooms. This issue relates to transgender women’s
authenticity being questioned and the societal norm that women and women-only spaces should
be protected from predatorial men (Seelman, 2014, p. 200).
Critiques and suggestions for LGBTQ+ ally trainings
● Ally training programs tend to focus on awareness building, often leaving participants as
passive bystanders without the skills and strategies to address LGBTQ+ discrimination
(Woodford et al., 2014).
● All residence life staff, professional staff and students, should be required to attend training on
TGNC issues (Beemyn et al., 2005; Mollet et al., 2021). Mollet and colleagues (2021)
emphasize that residential life staff “need understanding of queer students’ lived experiences
and strategies queer students find effective” (p. 11-12).
● Woodford and colleagues (2014) recommended four main learning outcomes for ally training
programs:
○ Understanding LGBTQ+ concepts and developing one’s own awareness of biases
○ Understanding common LGBTQ+ issues and recognizing discrimination and gender
and sexuality privilege
○ Becoming a support person to LGBTQ+ people
○ Becoming an advocate to create LGBTQ+ affirming campuses

Training Details:
● Get training approved by the director of the Pride Center and the director of Residential Life
● Develop a partnership with director and assistant directors of residential life to review training
curriculum and learning outcomes
● Training occurs during summer before student staff returns
● All participants check-in on clipboard
● A follow-up survey will be sent to all participants

Training Supplies:
● A/V Equipment (computer, projector, screen)
● Flipchart
● Pens and markers
● Blue painters tape (1 roll)
● Sticky notes (1-2 pads)
● Check-in sheet with clipboard and pen

Learning Outcomes of Training:

As a result of training staff will:
● Develop a basic understanding of LGBTQ+ terminology and students’ experiences.
● Understand what homophobia and transphobia is and develop skills to address these issues in
their halls and on-campus.
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● Begin building a collaborative relationship between the Pride Center and the Office of
Residential Life.
● Create strategies for supporting LGBTQ+ students’ physical, mental, and emotional well-being
in the halls.
● Develop a proximity map to create an inclusive community.

Step by Step Instructions:

Welcome and introduction

● Facilitators introduce themselves with name, pronouns, and affiliation with UWL
● Participants introduce themselves with name, pronouns, and position in Res Life
● Presentation created on Canva to be consistent with the other Pride Center presentations

LGBTQ+ acronym
● Go through each letter, asking if participants know what it stands for (ex. “What does the L stand
for”)
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● LGBTQQIAAAP2S+ definitions found in panel leader guide

● Instead of adding more slides with each identity label, I am going over this acronym the same
way I do for panels. During Ally Training, the Peer Educators provide definitions and my hope is
the hall directors will attend an Ally Training during the semester.

Gender Unicorn
● Gender identity: Someone’s internal sense of being man, woman, both, or other gender(s)
● Gender expression: the physical representation of gender identity through clothing, hairstyle,
voice, body shape, etc. Gender expression (how you look) does not necessarily have to match
gender identity (who you are)
● Sex assigned at birth: the assignment of male or female (or intersex) when a child is born
● Physical attraction: sexual orientation and exists on a spectrum
● Emotional attraction: romantic/emotional orientation and exists on a spectrum

Homophobia and Transphobia

● Provide examples or ask participants to share examples of homophobia or transphobia
● These forms of discrimination can happen individual-to-individual, but also at the institutional
level (within an office, university, community, state, or nation)
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Suicide and Mental Health

● These are just some of the data from the Trevor Project’s 2021 survey. “Youth” is defined as ages
13-24, which includes the college students we work with.
● Click on the title to show the full report
● I intentionally discuss suicide statistics because, in Education Northwest’s guide for trauma-
informed practices for postsecondary education, Davidson (2017) explains how transgender
students “often encounter gender-based societal risk factors, including violence, and experience a
higher level of individual risk factors and predictors associated with suicidality” (p. 11).

Hate/bias incidents at UWL

● 40 reported incidents
● 22.5% targeted sexual orientation and 40% targeted gender identity/expression
● 47.5% happened in residence halls
● This information is updated frequently on the Center for Transformative Justice page, so update
before any training session.
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LGBTQ+ students’ experiences in res life

● This information was pulled from literature on gender-inclusive housing and LGBTQ+ students’
experience in campus housing.

Break
● 10-minute break
● Facilitators: Before the workshop, write each question (next slide) on the top of one filp chart
sheet. During the break hang these sheets around the room.
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Questions and activity

● The following questions come from Kortegast’s research on LGBTQ+ students’ experiences in
campus housing. Instead of us, the Pride Center staff, telling you all how to change and run
residential life, we are sharing these questions to assist in evaluating housing practices and
policies.
● Divide the group into three groups. Each group will discuss two questions
○ Group 1 (question 1 and 2)
○ Group 2 (question 3 and 4)
○ Group 4 (question 5 and 6)
● Encourage participants to use sticky notes (provided) to write down ideas, responses, and
reactions. They should write their responses on the flip chart sheet that facilitators hung up during
the break.
● Give participants 20-25 minutes (10 minutes per question)
● After 25 minutes, small groups will share their responses to the large group.
● At the end of the training, the Pride Center staff should take photos of each flip chart sheet then
give the sheets to the Res Life director and/or assistant director and encourage the office to
continue these conversations.

Polarity map
● Polarity thinking is about “both-and”
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● The map has four sections with each pole having a positive and negative outcome. The more
attention we pay to one side the more likely we are to be pulled in the opposite direction.
● Applying this concept to LGBTQ+ students’ experiences in campus housing, and let’s focus on
regular housing not gender-inclusive or LGBTQ+ specific housing. Just the regular housing most
students live in. If our goal is to create an inclusive community, what might this look like on a
polarity map?

Polarity map applied to inclusive community

● For this activity, let’s say the right side is an intentionally designed inclusive community and the
left side is a passively designed inclusive community.
● What are the positive results of both an intentional and a passive inclusive community? What are
the action steps we need to take to create this community?
● What are the negative results, or ways focusing too much of creating an inclusive community
could become hostile for LGBTQ+ students? What are the early warning signs that we are
moving towards a hostile environment?
● Divide the participants into three groups, different from the first groups, and give them 10-15
minutes to discuss and draft their maps onto the flip-chart pages. After 15 minutes, each group
will present, and together as a large group we will create the final draft of the polarity map. This
will be given to the director and assistant directors to share with the hall directors.
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Ways to support LGBTQ+ students in campus housing

● These suggestions come from the literature and the Pride Center Ally Training
● Encourage each participant to share one way they are going to work towards supporting
LGBTQ+ students in their halls

Time for any further questions

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References

ACPA & NASPA. (2015). Professional competency areas for student affairs educators. Washington, DC.

Beemyn, B. G., Domingue, A., Pettitt, J., & Smith, T. (2005). Suggested steps to make campuses more

trans-inclusive. Journal of Gay & Lesbian Issues in Education, 3(1), 89-94.

doi:10.1300/J367v03n01_09

Center for Transformative Justice (2021). Overview of hate/bias incidents. University of Wisconsin La

Crosse. Retrieved December 5, 2021, https://www.uwlax.edu/center/transformative-

justice/hatebias-response/overview-of-hatebias-incidents/#tab-previous-reports

Davidson, S. (2017). Trauma-informed practices for postsecondary education: A guide. Education

Northwest.

Kortegast, C. A., (2017). “But it’s not the space that I would need”: Narrative for LGBTQ students’

experiences in campus housing. Journal of College and University Student Housing, 43(2), 58-71.

Levkencht, L. (2013). Using ‘polarity thinking’ to achieve sustainable positive outcomes.

https://www.elsevier.com/connect/using-polarity-thinking-to-achieve-sustainable-positive-

outcomes

Mollet, A., Weaver, K. E., Holmes, J. M., Linley, J. L., Hurley, E., & Renn, K. A. (2021). Queer in

residence: Exploring the on-campus housing experiences of queer colleges students. Journal of

Student Affairs Research and Practice, 58(1), 1-14.

https://doi.org/10.1080/19496591.2020.1717962

Nicolazzo, Z., Marine, S. B., & Wagner, R. (2018). From best to intentional practices: Reimagining

implication for gender-inclusive housing. Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice,

55(2), 225-236. https://doi.org/10.1080/19496591.2018.1399896

Paley, A. (2021). National survey on LGBTQ youth mental health 2021. The Trevor Project.

https://www.thetrevorproject.org/survey-2021/?section=Introduction

PFLAG. (2021). PFLAG national glossary of terms. Retrieved November 27, 2021,

https://pflag.org/glossary
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Pride Center. (n.d.). Welcome. University of Wisconsin La Crosse. Retrieved December 5, 2021,

https://www.uwlax.edu/pride-center/

Residence Life. (n.d.). Mission. University of Wisconsin La Crosse. Retrieved December 5, 2021,

https://www.uwlax.edu/reslife/orl-resources/office-of-residence-life/#tm-mission-and-guiding-

principles

Seelman, K. L. (2014). Transgender individuals’ access to college housing and bathrooms: Findings from

the national transgender discrimination survey. Journal of Gay & Lesbian Social Services, 26(2),

196-206. https://doi.org/10.1080/10538720.2014.891091

TSER. (n.d.). Gender unicorn. https://transstudent.org/gender/

Woodford, M. R., Kolb, C. L., Durocher-Radeka, G., & Javier, G. (2014). Lesbian gay, bisexual, and

transgender ally training programs on campus: Current variation and future directions. Journal of

College Student Development, 55(3), 317-322. https://doi.org/10.1353/csd.2014.0022