Working for an LGBT Organisation

I work for Allsorts Youth Project, a Brighton based LGBT youth charity. Last week we held a leaving do for one of my colleagues who's moving onto pastures new into employment that's not anything to do with the LGBT community.  As we all wished him luck with his future, it got us thinking - and joking - about working for an LGBT organisation where for the youth worker roles especially, your sexuality was one of the criteria that landed you the job.

5 of the Allsorts Youth Project Staff

I'm what I like to refer to as 'a Professional Gay' where for the best part of your week you are challenging and responding to LGBT issues, more than you do in your personal life.  It's very much a reversal where socially, you may actually spend less time doing anything 'gay' because of this. Maybe that's why I rant more than my friends about the more subtle forms of homophobia in the media, on TV, in songs, when they just shrug their shoulders and tell me I'm being OTT?!

I go into work and the latest copy of Diva and Gay Times has arrived, which is shared around the office. I turn on my PC to immediately view the latest LGBT news, social media feeds, blog articles and Tweets to identify anything of relevance to the team, the young people, our on-line followers and fans. The boss comes in ranting about the latest Government cuts and how the LGBT community will be effected. Whilst I ask if anyone saw Rihanna on the BritAwards last night because she was looking hot, which has everyone cramming around my computer to watch Youtube.

Here you are not the 'only gay in the village'. What's hot and what's not in the entertainment world along with what's being reported in the news and social media sites are discussed - all with a gay slant. Office gossip is about what Elton John is up to and of course there is the day to day work that we are employed to do.

So you're probably thinking how lovely, you don't have to come out, you can be yourself and you don't have to face prejudice. But yes, we still experience these things. At Allsorts we provide LGBT awareness training in schools, colleges and the workplace, which can be challenging as you are faced with LGBT phobic attitudes and confrontation, potentially in front of 100's of people. This, along with working directly with LGBT youth can often mean revisiting your own difficulties from the past.  Whilst there's no 'coming out' to colleagues within the office, you are coming out when people ask you 'so what do you do?' On your CV you're effectively outing yourself before you've even got an interview when applying for a new job.

An LGBT organisation might provide you with the opportunity to make new friends and may be even that special someone. You certainly get to know more of the people involved in the community, both locally and nationally. It feels good to be involved in the future of generations of LGBT youth challenging the stigma, bullying and prejudice that is still present in society. I'm happy being a 'professional gay' championing LGBT rights and providing a voice for those unable to speak for themselves.

How Gay Are You?

Out shopping for a Valentine's card and I got distracted by the array of jokes, feel good slogans and pretty pictures in the birthday section and more specifically, a card detailing a 'birthday gayness test' involving a pink cat. I didn't quite know whether to take offence or find it amusing - in the end settling for an uncomfortable laugh as I proceeded to do the quiz.  Concerns about Valentine's Day and that all important card were forgotten, as results declared that according to my choice I was 'super-gay'! Well, I didn't need a card to tell me that, but I did ponder whether, as a lesbian, the result was because I liked cats or simply because it was pink - or were they covering all bases within the word 'gayness', by using a pink cat?!

It made me remember a similar but lengthier test I became aware of whilst supervising a group of teenagers, who were finding out how gay everyone was, using a quiz by Channel 4 called the  'Gay-O-Meter'. Again I was left undecided whether it was just a bit of harmless fun or whether it reinforced stereotypes about gay people, with it still being deemed ok for the gay community to be the butt of the joke? 

Where as I do quite well on the Birthday Gayness Test, the 'Gay-O-Meter, declares me only 36% gay. It mocks my result by asking 'How does a straight acting girl ever manage to get a date? Any more girlie and you'd have to be straight!' (Straight acting - now there's a whole other blog just in that line!) It didn't ask me about cats or the colour pink and so I can only put my 'gayness' failure down to my lack of DIY skills, never having shaved my head and being really bad at pool.

I asked my mate about it and my dilema of whether to laugh or rant. She responded, 'good to see you lightening up on these things!' (in reference to my past ranting about Katy Perry and why I would not dance to her songs with her subtle forms of homophobia in her lyrics within 'I Kissed A Girl' and 'UR So Gay'). 

Is this another form of subtle homophobia that I'm right to question?

Maybe my friend is right, I should lighten up; a joke card with a gayness test is harmless, the 'gay-o-meter' is just a bit of fun. If 'gayness' is all around us - in comedy, in songs, on TV and on birthday cards is it all helping everyone to feel a little more accepting? 

I'm not so sure.