Lgbt Class Reflection

I think I have grown tremendously in this class, not just because of the great talks that we have, rather the application of the things that we discuss in and even out of class. I find myself recognizing and putting my biases behind me. I find myself being more aware and more conscious of what is going on around me in terms of the people and what they 're saying. People have actually been surprised that I know so much as well. I have some friends in the LGBTQ+ community and last year I would always semi offend them with the words that I used such as tranny and faggot, because believe it or not, I had no idea that they were offensive because for me, I had always used them as a term of endearment and now I know so much more about the community

Through this semester, I have also grown to be more sensitive to others rather than doing or saying things with my own interests in mind. For example, when people are talking to me or are telling me something that is particularly sensitive, I used to say whatever came to my head just to hear myself talk and get my opinion across and I think I have learned to listen, think, and respond more effectively now. One of the most important things I think I learned finally, is how to be able to receive knowledge and apply it to my life and be able to spread that to others and get them thinking. When we do mock facilitations and even when we go to them, I learned how to reform statements to be more inclusive and accurate. I learn how to adapt my words to certain groups of people. I think that the most important thing when being a diversity educator is making sure that your main goal is to educate others and I think that my outlook has changed since august and I genuinely feel that I am much better prepared to facilitate next