BENEFITS
AND CHALLENGES OF BEING AN ALLY
Benefits
- You can help make a difference in someone's life.
- You can develop healthy relationships with people from the gay community.
- With the addition of those new friends you learn more about the world around you.
- You create an inclusive community where everyone can live, learn and play feeling
safe and valued.
- You make visible an invisible population.
- You are able to support someone when her/his life seems difficult and isolating.
- You will be making a personal contribution to improving the campus climate and
the lives of students, faculty, and staff.
- Staff, faculty, and students may be more at ease when sharing issues pertaining
to your job.
Challenges
- It may make you unpopular among some individuals.
- People may assume you are gay because you support gay issues.
- You may be criticized for being involved in a cause which is thought to be
unimportant by some people.
- Your friends or colleagues who are uncomfortable with the topic may be come
distant or disagree with your involvement.
- Sometimes, because of past negative interactions with heterosexuals, LGBT
individuals may question your motivations for being an Ally.
- It can be very difficult to stay away from being a counselor to those who
approach you for help.
Adapted from
University of Southern Maine's "Safe Zone Project" by Gregory M. Weight, Lesbian
Gay Bisexual Transgender Community Office, University of Delaware, March 2000 |
