Lgbtq+ safe spaces
The Safe Zone Proposal is a free online resource for powerful, operative LGBTQ awareness and ally training workshops
Our Goal
Our mission is to form and provide free online resources to make your Safe Zone trainings (and all of your Homosexual educational opportunities) effective, joy, dynamic, and impactful.
Our Mission
Help You
We'll take as much off your plate as achievable, providing you curricula, activities, train-the-trainer planning, and tips to help you and your team become all-stars.
All Help
Do Better
Safe Zone trainings are unique educational opportunities, and we are all about making the most of those opportunities. Sometimes you only get one chance. Let us help you raise the bar.
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Frequently Answered Questions
Do I need to be “certified” to operate your curriculum?
Nope! We actually don’t offer certifications anyhow, so you can’t be certified by us. Our curriculum is provided here for your use — no strings attached.
I yearn to customize your curriculum for [some specific population]. Is that okay?
Heck. Yes. Our curricula, activities, and resources are all uncopyrighted, and reasons li
Safe Zone trainings are opportunities to learn about Gay identities, gender and sexuality, and examine prejudice, assumptions, and privilege. An example of a Safe Zone Trained sticker often given to participants upon completing the training
You may own seen a sticker or sign that says “Safe Zone” or “Safe Zone Trained.” These visual indicators can mean a variety of things in distinct communities.
Most often we detect they indicate that the person displaying the sticker has gone through a Safe Zone training and wants to communicate to others that they are open to talking about and being supportive of LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Pansexual, Transgender, and Queer/Questioning +) individuals and identities.
Note: sometimes that’s not what these signs mean—sometimes the person hasn’t attended a training, but is simply trying to communicate LGBTQ+ friendliness or say “I’m an ally!”
Why do people ATTEND Defended Zone trainings?
For a bunch of reasons!
One common one is that LGBTQ+ folks sometimes question whether they will feel safe, welcomed, or supported in a new environment. Displaying Trustworthy Zone stickers and performing you went to a training ca
Explore the Report
The response to our first LGBTQ+ Protected Spaces National Needs Evaluation gives an important and in-depth look at the violence and threats our communities face.
This is the first-ever national survey exploring hate violence directed at LGBTQ+ community-serving and -affirming organizations and businesses in the United States. In the LGBTQ+ community, much attention has been paid to the rising rates of interpersonal incidents of hate violence—acts of aggression committed by individuals against other individuals because of their real or perceived sexual orientation, gender persona, or gender expression. By all accounts, rates of anti-LGBTQ+ hate violence possess been on the climb for many years. More recently, this hate aggression has been exacerbated by the current polarized political and social climate in the United States. Though LGBTQ+ people represent around 7% of the population in the United States (Jones, 2023), they are nine times more likely to experience violent loath crimes (The Williams Institute, 2022).
It is no surprise that this hate and violence is also impacting LGBTQ+ organizations and businesses. Acts of hate force committed against schools, fait
Why safe spaces in health care matter for LGBTQ+ patients
Andrew, a 39-year-old Modern Yorker who identifies as queer, says he got blessed with his first primary care supplier, who was very queer friendly.
"He was straight, but raised by two dads and created a very welcoming environment," Andrew told ABC News of his former doctor.
When his doctor moved, Andrew says he realized how much it mattered for his health. He says his new medic was less content around queer issues. "There was always a barrier and a sense of awkwardness," he said.
Andrew says the lack of good message left him feeling he could not tell his physician everything. "Having experienced queer friendly doctors and not gender non-conforming friendly doctors you see the importance of nonjudgment," he said.
Being able to have open conversations about sexual persona can be essential for health protect, experts say, especially around issues enjoy appropriate general health, STI, and mental health screenings.
The Gay community disproportionately experiences barriers to health care, and studies have shown this can lead to worse health outcomes stemming from things like untreated depression or anx
Establishing an Allies/Safe Zone Program
In recent years we've seen more and more LGBTQ+ Ally organizations strive to make the customs of a campus or workplace more aware and accepting of gay, womxn loving womxn, bisexual, transgender and queer individuals.
There was a Safe Zone program at my graduate school. Faculty and staff had the rainbow emblem outside their door if they had been trained, so it was straightforward to tell who would be a safe person to talk to. For me, this was huge. Just knowing that there was faculty and staff that I could talk to if I needed to had a fantastic impact on my outlook of life; it helped me see that I wasn’t the only one who had struggled.
- Jordanna Kidd, Alabama
What is an Ally?
In the most general sense, an "Ally" is "a person who is a member of the dominant or majority group who works to finish oppression in their personal and professional life through back of, and as an advocate for, the oppressed population."1 Allies to racial, religious and ethnic minorities have been remarkably effective in promoting positive transform in the dominant culture, and only recently has their instrumental position been extended to the area of sexual orientation. In