This is what an LGBTQI+ person should look like (Exercise)

• You will need: pen and paper
• Estimated time: 25 minutes

Task description

For this exercise we recommend you to watch the YouTube video – LGBTQI+ stereotypes which need to die. This video is a great prompt that helps start your thinking about stereotypes, “boxes” and assumptions.

After watching the videos, take a paper and a pen and start to answer the three questions below. Try to reflect on your automatic assumptions as best as you can. We all have assumptions, but it is important to be aware of them – that is actually the most powerful tool to defy them. You may have stronger assumptions around gender or sexuality, and you may not even agree with these assumptions consciously.

• What can you tell by looking and listening to the people in the video? Can you tell their sexual orientation, gender identity, sex assigned at birth or gender expression?
• How do we make sense of what we see? Are labels helpful, or do they limit our perceptions? What would be more helpful (eg. continuum or scale model)?
• Why is it problematic to try to guess what someone’s sex assigned at birth might be based on their identity and expression?

For further reading we recommend you to read the New York Times Magazine article “The struggles of rejecting the gender binary”.