Mapping the Key Words, Actors and Controversies of LGBTIQ Issues

Post 7 by Zhengzhi Chen

To gain an insight into LGBTIQ issues, my group (Kathy Ngo, April Bae, Josh Parker, Calvin Thy and me) drew several mind maps to share our knowledge.

100 Words

My group came up with 100 words relevant to LGBTIQ issues.

Actors and Stakeholders

2-actors-stakeholders — Actors and Stakeholders of LGBTIQ Issues, created by Kathy Ngo, April Bae, Josh Parker, Calvin Thy and me

We also created a mind map of the actors and stakeholders of LGBTIQ issues based on the first participant map we created (I personally refined the first participant map and included it at the beginning of my Post 3).

Polemic: Controversies, Emotions and Motivations

We then listed out some controversies involved in the polemic of LGBTIQ issues and the emotions and motivations of the both parties of every controversy.

The Controversy Between LGBTIQ Right Advocates and Those who Think Only Heterosexuals are Normal

4-polemic — The Controversy Between LGBTIQ Right Advocates and Those who Think Only Heterosexuals are Normal: Actors, Emotions and Motivations, created by Kathy Ngo and me

5-polemic — The Controversy Between LGBTIQ Right Advocates and Those who Think Only Heterosexuals are Normal: Locations and Attitudes, created by Kathy Ngo and me

We picked the controversy between LGBTIQ right advocates and those who think only heterosexuals are normal from the polemic chart we created and mapped out the actors, emotions, motivations, locations and attitudes involved in this controversy, coming up with the above two maps. The first one includes the actors, emotions and motivations, while the second one includes the locations and the attitudes showcased in each location (positive + and negative -).

Actors in Controversies

6-actors — Actors in LGBTIQ Controversies, created by Kathy Ngo, April Bae, Josh Parker and me

In the above chart, we categorised all the actors of LGBTIQ controversies into 13 categories: causes, people, objects, emotions, behaviours, identity, laws & regulations, assistance, networks, representations, politics, emotional climate and barriers.

Analyses of the Actors in the Controversy of Safe School Programs

Each of my group picked an actor in the controversy of Safe School Programs and did some analysis on the actors we chose. I picked the LGBTIQ community and three of them picked children, Christian fundamentalists and school teachers. Every actor was analysed in terms of capacities, hierarchies, politics, associates, value alignments, issues and challenges.

Reflection

The group mapping exercises really allowed me to obtain more information on LGBTIQ issues than my individual research. I had the opportunity to hear others’ viewpoints, what they are concerned about this issue, and what they have learned from their research.
I am a rational person who tends to have a clear logic in my thinking processes, but I lack some visualisation skills that my group members possess. This became really clear while I was creating the maps of the controversy between LGBTIQ right advocates and those who think only heterosexuals are normal with Kathy Ngo. My proposal for our visual approach was to have a clear division between the two opposing parties in the controversy, but Kathy suggested we should do it like a casual mind map for aesthetic reasons. While mapping the locations of the controversy, Kathy came up with the idea of using icons to represent locations and using symbols to represent their attitudes towards LGBTIQ rights. Because of Kathy’s visualisation ideas and skills, the outcome looked prettier than the individual version I would make. I learned to always have visuals in your mind while creating a mind map.
The knowledge of Safe School Programs Josh and April have really helped enrich my research on the importance of education on LGBTIQ issues and how the education can be conducted.