Sometimes we just don’t give ourselves enough credit.

Over the last week at Equality Ohio, I have had the great privilege of working on several tasks. I’m solidifying a fundraising event that I put together and working with codes in the volunteer database. As time goes on, I’m getting more familiar with that nine-to-five lifestyle and I finally understand why my parents were so tired when they got home from work growing up. I’m also realizing how convenient conference calls can be because you can get in touch with everyone as opposed to trying to coordinate a meeting. Everything is falling into place for me, and I’m lucky to be here.

Most importantly, this week I was assigned to put together a curriculum for a local organization in Columbus to help them be more inclusive with LGBTQ+ clients. Even to this day, it still surprising to me that I’m in a position where I can teach others. It’s a big responsibility, and it definitely leaves you second-guessing yourself constantly.

LGBTQ+ Anti-Discrimination Curriculum

My biggest obstacle when creating this curriculum was updating terms such as “gender identity” and “sex assigned at birth” – words that are constant in my vocabulary, but perhaps not others. I find the term “sex assigned at birth” to be very minimizing to transgender individuals, and I think we too often fixate on that term when we should be recognizing people for who they know themselves to be. Creating this curriculum gave me the opportunity to create the representation that I know is needed out there, which definitely comes with changing some outdated terms.

I can’t say how many times I’ve been sitting in on a training that was meant to be inclusive but there were still just some things about it that rubbed me the wrong way. I know I shouldn’t be too much of a critic because we’re all constantly learning, but it was certainly an honor to be trusted to put this together and receive positive feedback. I feel like I’m making the difference that needs to be made for the LGBTQ+ community one step at a time.