True Colors Conference & Related Stuff
So, last week was the True Colors Conference at UConn. I didn't manage to go with GaSM on Friday, due to a lovely stomach bug, so I dragged my butt up for Saturday, as I was determined not to just totally miss out. Friday definitely has more workshop offerings, but I still found at least one for each time slot to interest me. Someday, I'd like to go both days so I could mix it up a bit more between serious and fun workshops. This time around, I went to two on the professional track and one on the general track.
Discussing Sexual Taboos was the first. Most others in the room were teachers (which makes sense, as it's a primarily education-focused program) but there was one other nurse, two social workers, and a pediatrician too, all with slightly different takes on the issue. One thing everyone was mostly agreed on is that talking about STD and pregnancy prevention is almost normalized these days, as is talking about issues around consent. Venture beyond those "big three" though, and you're in murky waters. We got a bit bogged down in the problems we each identified in our own professions with raising these issues and didn't get to do the activities on how to actually *deal* with this stuff, which I found disappointing.
Next was (and I'm sure I'm bungling the title) Separating Personal Values from Professional Ethics. This had a great hands-on exercise in applied ethics (Dude, why did we *all* follow the facilitator's instructions, even though we knew they were bs? Scary herd mentality stuff, scarier because when she called us on it, she added that only once has she ever had someone break ranks.) Some great discussion around workplace cultures in social service and education jobs and a great case study that really, really illustrated the need to leave even socially-acceptable prejudices (in this case, against smoking) at the door if your intention is to actually help people. Also some great suggestions on how to discern where to draw the line at what you can and can't step back from and how to re-connect with your values outside of work. Most of which looked like total common sense once it was said, but which I wouldn't have thought of quite that way previously.
Last was "Queering It Up" which promised to trace Queer Theory through the performing arts, and sort of did but not quite in the way I'd expected. Still, it was neat, and it left me wishing, yet again, that I had all kinds of time and money to spend studying things just because I bloody want to.
On a somewhat related note, I had a conversation with someone related to my job search earlier in the week in which she suggested I apply at the local Navy base. I hadn't realized they hired civilians and said so, only to be told they most certainly do. I thought about it for a moment and had a bit of mental whiplash in which the thoughts, "Well, I'm too out now to deal with DADT" "But, wait, DADT is gone" "Well, it's on its way out, but is it actually gone yet?" ran through my head. There are other reasons that I'm ambivalent about the idea of working for the Navy, in particular, but it occurs to me that I should actually know the answers to these questions. However, for all the queer news sources I follow, the actual status of DADT repeal seems to have fallen off the radar, and it's hard to tell whether it's because other stuff like DOMA has taken over, because TPTB are still wringing their hands over how to implement repeal of not only DADT but relevant areas of the Uniform Code of Military Justice and thus all is at a standstill (which was where things stood the last I knew), or because it really is all over and I just missed the memo.
Discussing Sexual Taboos was the first. Most others in the room were teachers (which makes sense, as it's a primarily education-focused program) but there was one other nurse, two social workers, and a pediatrician too, all with slightly different takes on the issue. One thing everyone was mostly agreed on is that talking about STD and pregnancy prevention is almost normalized these days, as is talking about issues around consent. Venture beyond those "big three" though, and you're in murky waters. We got a bit bogged down in the problems we each identified in our own professions with raising these issues and didn't get to do the activities on how to actually *deal* with this stuff, which I found disappointing.
Next was (and I'm sure I'm bungling the title) Separating Personal Values from Professional Ethics. This had a great hands-on exercise in applied ethics (Dude, why did we *all* follow the facilitator's instructions, even though we knew they were bs? Scary herd mentality stuff, scarier because when she called us on it, she added that only once has she ever had someone break ranks.) Some great discussion around workplace cultures in social service and education jobs and a great case study that really, really illustrated the need to leave even socially-acceptable prejudices (in this case, against smoking) at the door if your intention is to actually help people. Also some great suggestions on how to discern where to draw the line at what you can and can't step back from and how to re-connect with your values outside of work. Most of which looked like total common sense once it was said, but which I wouldn't have thought of quite that way previously.
Last was "Queering It Up" which promised to trace Queer Theory through the performing arts, and sort of did but not quite in the way I'd expected. Still, it was neat, and it left me wishing, yet again, that I had all kinds of time and money to spend studying things just because I bloody want to.
On a somewhat related note, I had a conversation with someone related to my job search earlier in the week in which she suggested I apply at the local Navy base. I hadn't realized they hired civilians and said so, only to be told they most certainly do. I thought about it for a moment and had a bit of mental whiplash in which the thoughts, "Well, I'm too out now to deal with DADT" "But, wait, DADT is gone" "Well, it's on its way out, but is it actually gone yet?" ran through my head. There are other reasons that I'm ambivalent about the idea of working for the Navy, in particular, but it occurs to me that I should actually know the answers to these questions. However, for all the queer news sources I follow, the actual status of DADT repeal seems to have fallen off the radar, and it's hard to tell whether it's because other stuff like DOMA has taken over, because TPTB are still wringing their hands over how to implement repeal of not only DADT but relevant areas of the Uniform Code of Military Justice and thus all is at a standstill (which was where things stood the last I knew), or because it really is all over and I just missed the memo.