Resources for Specific Populations

• Don't assume that everyone is heterosexual.

• Avoid using terms like boyfriend and girlfriend, try using partner or spouse instead.

• I am not likely to hear intimate self-disclosures.

• Review your office's publications. Suggest changes to remove non-inclusive language and to include pictorial representations of people who are gay, lesbian, or bisexual.

• Acquaint yourself with people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered. Learn about the culture that is unique to the G/L/B community. Read books, make a friend, attend a talk or celebrate with them.

• Avoid homophobic remarks, jokes, and statements. As you feel confortable, confront these actions of hatred.

• Create an atmosphere of acceptance in your surrounding environment through education. Share your experience with others.

• Provide informed referral by learning the resources available to gay, lesbian, and bisexual people in your area and share the information.

• Learn the developmental process of coming out that is unique to the gay, lesbian, and bisexual experience.

• Join with gay, lesbian, and bisexual persons to protect their civil rights and constitutional freedoms.

• If you have identified your affectional feelings as gay, lesbian, or bisexual, consider coming out to others and work to provide a role model for students, faculty, and staff.

How do I become a Safe Zone?

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