Safe Zone Training will be held Friday, Nov. 16 at the Owl’s Nest in Ely Hall from 1-4 p.m. All faculty, students, and staff can register by contacting Charlotte Capogna-Amias or Professor Hillary Sackett. Availability is limited.

Safe Zone training sessions are held once a semester. All sessions are 3 hours long, with one 15-minute break. According to the program, “The mission of the Safe Zone program at WSU is to improve visibility and support for LGBTQIA [Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer or Questioning, Intersex, and Asexual or Allied] students and employees by identifying and training a network of allies who are sensitive and affirmative to the needs of the LGBTQIA community on campus.”

Professor Sackett, Safe Zone trainer since fall 2013 and co-chair of the program since fall 2017, explains the first session of training starts with
“establishing group norms.” Then sharing when each participant first heard about a certain group. This allows the trainees to examine the ways in which society talks about these issues, and how that frames views and discussions.

Sackett says that the program would then involve a “genderbread person” as a “visualization of how gender identity, gender expression and sexuality” exist on spectrum and are separate. For instance, a person may have gender expression that does not line up traditionally with what society expects of their sexuality- a queer man who expresses himself in masculine modes, for instance.

The second session of Safe Zone involves learning to be a better ally using the information and vocabulary you have learned throughout the course.