Reflecting on the Digital Stories

Sawubona!!

OMG!! my brain is just sooooooooo heavy with all info from the interesting & educational sessions I attended. But I will only blog about my 1st morning session – Fitting THEM in….

Work with “sexual minorities” is often perceived as niche work; that can only be done by specialist originations. HIV prevention work is increasingly being informed by approaches that have a basis in understandings of sexuality. How are “mainstream” HIV and AIDS organizations responding to the need to incorporate sex and sexuality issues in their prevention work? How are these needs of marginal identities being incorporated into our programs?

Sally & Vanessa were our dynamic facilitators, along with Navin. It was a funfilled & informative session. For me personally, there were (are) some new issues which I got to reflect on. We hit the floor identifying our gender & sexual orientation. I might say it was a teeny-weeny awkward for some. I guess some people are “not comfortable” talking about ‘sexual orientation”. This is a challenge to those who are working within the issue of sexuality. Questions we need to ask ourselves. Are we ready to be open-minded & deal with different sexual orientations? Will we be able to respect one’s decisions regarding their sexual life? Are we able to give them their human rights?

Our facilitators asked us to close our eyes and think of when we last had sex!!! Some just did that. And then we discussed what erupted in our brain with our partner sitting next to us. We realized later in the open floor discussions that there was no mention of vagina, penis or condoms! The question was thrown out if “we” ourselves are uncomfortable to talk about our sex life what about those who come to our organizations to access services? This is where we need to seriously understand and be comfortable with gender identity, sexual orientation and other sexual issues. We just cannot assume (the key word for me (quite interesting & which I never really reflected on).

The questions was asked when we talk about “women and men” – who are we really talking about? Are we inclusive? What about LGBTI? What about the human rights violations they face? What are we doing as individuals, organizations and a community as a whole?

Digital stories were shown regarding Gender Dynamics to further illustrate the importance of understanding the sexuality issues in the community.