Post 7: Issue mapping

In week 5 we were asked to explore the controversies in our chosen issue and to identify the human and non-human actors involved in our issue’s controversy.

The first map consists of listing all the polemics within our categorized stakeholders. This mapping exercise allowed us to unpack the controversies within our issue.

The second task was the listing exercise, which allowed us to list all the controversies and describing the emotions and motivations behind them. This task helped us understand the effect and influence around the controversies. It further allowed us to understand the importance of intangible actors that contribute to this controversy.

In the third map we identified stakeholders (orange), emotion (green), motivation (blue) and controversy location (red) associated to our polemic, safe schools coalition program. This mapping exercise allowed us to see the connection between human and non-human actors and weather the actors was a mediator or an intermediary actor.

Through this exercise we were able to see the difference between participation and collaboration in group/pair work. I saw that the participation allowed us to understand the variety in our issue through one another’s contribution. The collaboration aided us to become more effective and encouraging towards our exercise through our capacity to negotiate the complexity of our controversy. It was obvious that the mapping exercise could not have been completed without each member’s full attention and commitment. During the exercise it was crucial to develop our critical consciousness in order to negotiate situations that become complex and dynamic.

 

By April Bae

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Post 5: Approaches to design for change, design-led ethnography

Kathy Ngo

“Designers should care about ethnography because it can help produce more compelling innovative design that really connects with users – in a way that creates delight” – Darrel Rhea

Design-led ethnography is “to learn and understand cultural phenomena which reflect the knowledge and system of meanings guiding the life of a cultural group” – Clifford Geerts.

Ethnography has 3 step process:

• Go to them
• Talk to them
• Write things down (Rick Robinson)

Therefore, to approach to design for change and design-led ethnography, we need to interview people to find out different insights towards the LGBTIQ rights issue.

My main goals in this interview was to:

• How is the LGBTIQ community life in Asia like?
• How did the country decrease discrimination? By what methods (social media, movies…)
• A personal experience of the interviewee of homosexual bullies
• Sexual & gender education in an Asian country
• How TV series and dramas influence and support LGBTIQ

 

The interview questions:

• Do you know what LGBTIQ stands for?
• Have you known/experienced anyone any verbal abuse/discrimination relating to different genders before?
• Did they have any challenges to fit in the society?
• What are the issues of LGBTIQ rights you think the community is facing?
• Do you often see videos/articles related to LGBTIQ on social media? Where?
• What is the most important right that the LGBTIQ should have?

My questions in the interview were intentionally lack of in-depth in order to let her give me her own perspective towards the issue. Interestingly, her answers gave me another view that I had not expected. From the interview, it could be assumed that young people in China had little knowledge about this issue. She didn’t know what LGBTIQ stood for and also didn’t pay much attention to this issue. However, when I asked some questions related to her, the conversation got more open and more in-depth. She said that in her country China, LGBTIQ had gone quite popular in tv series, dramas and social media, where the young generation mostly associated with. However, in real life, general public and especially the government often ignored this issue. People still called homosexual people mental illness or need to be sent to hospital.

After the interview, a task I gave to her was to collect any TV dramas and series she watched and could fine that were with LGBTIQ characters or storylines. The result was far from my expectations.

Love of Siam – Thai Movie

 

Alternative Love – 2016

 

 

Go Princess Go – 2016

 

 

Yes or No – Thai Movie

Some of the movies she mentioned were very popular that I had watched several times. Most of them brought the gay relationships to the big screen in such a natural way that there was no different between straight and gay relationship. Those movies had influence the audience for a long period of time and were called the big revolution of gay movies in Asia. They normalised the LGBITQ people in order to erase the discrimination and impact to those very traditional and cultural societies. 2016 has been a big year that there are many Chinese dramas released with gay storylines. Therefore, as an impact, the perspective towards this community has shifted positively.

However, most of the films and dramas were banned by the government as being called “not appropriate”. This had raised a lot of questions from the audience of the definition of being “appropriate”. It can be assumed that for now, China government still doesn’t support much to LGBITQ.

 

 

Key insights:

• Discrimination in China ( Asia in general) was not as intense as I imagined. In fact, social media and film industry play a vital role in the change and in raising awareness about LGBTIQ issue.
• There is still a lack of knowledge of young generation on this topic. It is important and essential to educate people from different generation about the issues.
• However, the youth are the main factor of the change. They are easily influenced by what they read, watch and see everyday.
• It was very awkward at the beginning of the interview. However, if I let the conversation grow, there are many more information from the participant that are unexpected and very interesting to know since the person slowly relates the questions to herself. Also it is very good to have some generic questions and to avoid yes/no ones. Those could kill the flow!
• I think the next step of my research is to understand more about Religion in LGBTIQ rights as they are potentially a major factor in the change of LGBTIQ rights.

Post 4: Redesign for LGBTIQ’s Rainbow

Kathy Ngo

Lundgren + Lindqvist: HBTQ

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As it was the time last year in Ireland, the country voted in favour of legalising gay marriage, Lundgren + Lindqvist’s redesign work of the symbols and flag of LGBT was featured on Rethink: ICON magazine and its website on.

The Rainbow flag has such a rich value and history. However, there is a need for an alternative icon that could work on one colour or black and white for technical demands because the rainbow flag is unrecognisable when printed.

“Not only is the community an extremely diverse group, including a host of sub-groups, but it is also a community that has been using a multitude of symbols over the years,” the studio explains.

The studios spent a great deal of time to do some research, including reading up on the history of the LGBT community and interviewing some LGBT friends.The studios explain that

The studios explain that their starting point was the chromatology and light of the rainbow. The overlapping areas of six circles in the traditional spectrum wheel create a flower-like shape. The six rhombus-like leafs corresponding to the 6 colours in the rainbow flag became the foundation of their design concept.

The idea evolved from the rainbow flag and colour spectrum wheel – Rethink: ICON magazine 2015

It is very interesting for me to get to know their design thinking. Through their research, the flower has such a strong universal symbol.

“It is impossible to find a culture on earth that does not embrace and celebrate the flower. They break through the concrete pavements of our cities and are presented in celebration of good deeds and love. Throughout the ages, the flower has also been adopted in different forms by gay men and women.” (Lundgren + Lindqvist, 2016)

The best strength of this symbol is that it can almost apply to anything, from logotype to signs in the streets or pins on your shirt to show the support to HBTQ community. As the ideas kept coming, the studios presented their various ideas through a 32-page newsprint publication and a website. Readers can download images, dingbats and icons from this website. I’m really inspired by their well thought-out and contextualised. Designing an emergent practice context such as LGBT or gender equality is very complex and has a lot of responsibilities to its applications to the society.

Reference:

Alderson R. 2015, HBTQ, It's Nice That, viewed 22 August 2016, <http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/lundgren-lindqvist-lgbt-community-icon-rethink>

Lundgren & Lindqvist 2015, LGBT Visual Language, Rethink: Icon Magazine, viewed 22 August 2016, <http://www.iconeye.com/opinion/rethink/item/11959-lgbt-visual-language>

Post 4: A Project That’s Highlighting the Overlooked LGBT Stories

The New York City LGBT Historic Sites Project is an ongoing participatory design project that began in 2014 by Andrew S. Dolkart, Ken Lustbader, and Jay Shockley. The project was made available by the National Park Service grant to create awareness of the LGBT culture and community’s impact on the city and the country in the past. This will be achieved through adding diversity to the National Register of Historic Places.

LGBT individuals and communities of New York city has immensely influenced the history and culture of their city and the rest of United States of America. However even up until today specific sites and places across the city, associated with LGBT history remained invisible and undocumented. In spite of that, the New York City LGBT Historic Sites Project made it their mission to make these unknown and unappreciated sites significant again.

“It will show young people that gay spaces didn’t just develop overnight, and these sites show us that people were not alone in their struggle to come out and develop a sense of community.” – Lustbader

Currently the project is encouraging LGBT scholars, organizations and archives, the LGBT community, and the general public to input their knowledge and to participate in taking surveys to benefit the project in becoming more inclusive and comprehensive on the LGBT influence and history. By the end of 2016 the project aims to introduce an online archive and interactive map of all the research and data documented of significant sites. So far sites such as theatres and performance venues, bars, clubs, and restaurants, residences of notable figures, LGBT rights and organizational sites, the AIDS epidemic, and community and public spaces have been identified as place of significance.

Beside the outreach and input from professionals, organizations, and community members the special project also holds engaging events for the public. The most recent event ‘Making the Invisible Visible: Documenting NYC’s Place-Based LGBT Cultural Heritage’ discusses the use of interactive online map of sites that public will have access to. Although we may not know how the final outcome will look like at this point it is clear that The New York City LGBT Historic Sites Project will provide these documentation to the community in a ground breaking way. Projects that require high participation from the public like this will not only educate people about historic LGBT sites but it will inspire and shape the way we speak up about LGBT.

“This is a narrative: people like them existed for decades, hundreds of years, before they did, and knowing and seeing that can help foster some continuity in their own intangible pride.” – Lustbader

 

Bibliography

Anzilotti, Ellie. “Mapping Where LGBT History Unfolded in New York .” 22 July 2016. CityLab. 18 August 2016 <http://www.citylab.com/navigator/2016/07/where-lgbt-history-unfolded-in-new-york/492611/&gt;.

New York City LGBT Historic Sites Project. New York City LGBT Historic Sites Project. August 2015. 18 August 2016 <http://nyclgbtsites.org/&gt;.

Warerkar, Tanya. “Meet the Preservationists Who Are Cataloging NYC’s LGBT History.” 24 June 2016. Curbed New York. 19 August 2016 <http://ny.curbed.com/2016/6/24/12019644/nyc-pride-lgbt-historic-sites-project&gt;.

 

By April Bae

 

A Look into Different Faces of Homophobia in the Current Society

Post 1 by Zhengzhi Chen

 

 

Islamic Twitter Trolls Seek to Dox Liberal Arabs on Social Media, by Nick Whigham

This article (2016b) was written for news.com.au, which is one of the most popular news websites in Australia. Whigham was triggered to write the article by his discovery of many a case that people in countries governed by strict Islamic law are faced with a various degree of gaol time for their remarks considered blasphemous against Islam. Whigham is a regular contributor to news.com.au and he is a department member of Media and Communications Department at University of Technology, Sydney. Whigham has written about LGBTIQ issues and social media before. He wrote Supermarket Stormed by Kissing Gay Couples (2016c) about a kiss-in at a store in London and he also wrote ‘If You don’t Leave, I’m Going to Kill You’ (2016a) about the power Facebook has, both for New Zealand Herald.

Back to this article on news.com.au, Whigham presents quite a few factual cases to prove his position that social networks are evidently a perilous outlet for users of strictly Islamic countries. He also quotes a Dubai-based Twitter user saying that Twitter user @old_gaes dedicates his entire account to dox LGBTQ and ex-Muslims, which I think shows how religions affect individual’s thoughts upon LGBTIQ issues. Whigham’s position in this article is quite common.

NBA will Move 2017 All-Star Game from Charlotte, North Carolina over HB2 Law, by Tim Bontemps

This article (2016) was written for The Washington Post, the most widely circulated newspaper in Washington, D.C. The decision of the NBA to relocate the 2017 All-Star Game motivated Bontemps to write the article. Bontemps is a regular contributor to The Washington Post, reporting plenty of NBA and sport-related news on this platform. Hence I reckon he is an expert in sport news. However, he has never written about LGBTIQ issues before except for this piece of news.

Bontemps used quite a few quotes from the related sources and spokespeople in this article and this article is factual and well researched. Bontemps approaches the LGBTIQ issue presented in this piece of news from a sport and business perspective and he deems that the decision of the NBA to move the 2017 All-Star Game from Charlotte, North Carolina because of the anti-LGBT legislation, i.e. House Bill 2, will have a negative impact on Charlotte Hornets, which are owned by Michael Jordan. I agree with the author and so do other authors. The situation in this news is similar to what happened in that big kiss-in at Sainsbury’s in London (Whigham 2016c; Robertson 2016c). Both the situations show how the negative attitude of a business against LGBTIQ rights could damage its public image.

A ‘Kiss in’ at Sainsbury’s isn’t Going to Solve Homophobia Anytime Soon, by Douglas Robertson

This article (2016c) was written for The Independent, a British online newspaper and a professional and trustworthy source. It was the kiss-in at Sainsbury’s in London that triggered Robertson to write this article. The kiss-in was arranged in the Hackney store after a gay couple had been informed by a security guard with a woman’s complaint about their public displays of affection in a Sainsbury’s. Robertson is a regular contributor to The Independent and he has written quite a few articles related to LGBTIQ issues on this platform, such as I’m Not Surprised by the Grindr Gay Sex Scandal Engulfing a Catholic Seminary – I Almost Became a Priest Myself (2016b) and Call the Orlando Shooting What it was: a Homophobic Hate Crime, Not ‘an Attack on Us All’ (2016a).

I would classify this article as opinion based and biased, as Robertson articulates on his position towards this particular piece of news. He agrees that the situation the gay couple in the story faced was indeed horrible and argues that a big kiss-in is a great statement of solidarity. However, he believes that the understanding between two parties with a disagreement upon a certain issue only will have a chance to be achieved by a meaningful dialogue and that noisy expression can not change anything. Even though Robertson’s position is quite marginal, I do agree with him.

Why We should Think Twice Before Accusing Each other of Internalized Homophobia, by Jamie Tabberer

This article (2016c) was written for Gay Star News, an international media source focussed on the global LGBT community. Judged by the articles on the website, Gay Star News is trustworthy when it comes to the truthfulness of the facts in the articles but it is not quite professional considering the subjective tones of some articles. This subjective tone is showcased in this article as what motivated Tabberer to write it was a line from Looking: The Movie (2016) – ‘I love when gays argue with other gays about being gays.’ Tabberer is a regular contributor to Gay Star News, not only publishing his opinions on LGBTIQ issues like in Great British Bake Off Uses Gendered Icing in New Promo Shots (2016a) and in Justin Trudeau Wants to Apologize to Gay Canadians for the Most Admirable Reason (2016b), but also posting some entertainment news in a more casual tone.

This article is opinion based and definitely biased, similar to the article written by Robertson (2016c). Compared to Robertson’s article, in this article Tabberer takes a more personal approach. Tabberer suggests in this article that we should be less judgemental of others’ personal choices and learn to agree to disagree. I agree with Tabberer – it is already hard enough for the LGBTIQ community to have straight people judge them from a subjective perspective and the similar behaviour should be stopped within the LGBTIQ community.

Charlize Theron at AIDS Conference: HIV Spread Through ‘Sexism, Racism’ and ‘Homophobia’, by Daniel Nussbaum

This article (2016b) was written for Breitbart, a politically conservative American news and opinion website and a professional and trustworthy source. Charlize Theron’s opening speech motivated Nussbaum to write this article. Nussbaum is a regular contributor to Breitbart, and he is not an expert of LGBTIQ issues. However, Nussbaum has written about celebrity-related LGBTIQ news before such as in Barbra Streisand to Headline ‘LGBT for Hillary’ Fundraiser (2016a) and in Watch: Broadway Stars Lead Tribute to Gun Victims at DNC (2016c).

In this article, Nussbaum quoted Charlize Theron’s opening speech quite much and thus I would classify this article as factual and not biased at all. Nussbaum’s position in this article is that discrimination creates barriers in human beings’ enduring battle with HIV/AIDS. Discrimination created by culture isolates the vulnerable, the oppressed and the abused, shames them into silence and prevents them from getting the proper medical help, emotional support and education they need, thus helping HIV spread. It is ironic that the society blames a certain group of humans for a disaster that, in fact, spreads with the help of the narrow-mindedness of the society. Even though this position is quite different from the common opinion, I do agree with it. I believe that by realising the truthfulness of Theron’s speech, the society will focus on the actual problem.

Some Possible Positions Worth Investigating

Robertson (2016c) states that a meaningful dialogue is a starting point for two parties with a disagreement to understand each other’s point of view. Hence I think, in order to stop homophobia, research must be taken to analyse the mentality of homophobia, which can be one position to investigate.

Jabberer (2016c) points out the discrimination that occurs within the LGBTIQ community, which leads me to consider whether judging others and putting each other down is part of human nature. In my opinion, the mentality of this behaviour is a method of self protection against things or people that we have no knowledge of, because when we do not know something, we tend to fear it. That in a sense proves the importance of education in the elimination of homophobia. Sometimes, when people have no access to appropriate education of LGBTIQ, culture and religion will take the role of the educator to provide misleading notions of LGBTIQ as factual knowledge. If my first possible position takes an internal perspective, it will not be hard to say that this position takes an external approach.

I was also inspired and started to think about the relations between homophobia and sexism. In that outdated gender notion that female is the second gender, any personality traits related to female are considered negative, which is the cultural base of people’s hate against feminine men. I wonder if that is the cultural root for discrimination against LGBTIQ (homophobia is an extreme example of this discrimination).

 

 

References

Bontemps, T. 2016, NBA will Move 2017 All-Star Game from Charlotte, North Carolina over HB2 Law, The Sydney Morning Herald, viewed 31 July 2016, <http://www.smh.com.au/sport/basketball/nba-will-move-2017-allstar-game-from-charlotte-north-carolina-over-hb2-law-20160721-gqb794.html >.

Looking: The Movie 2016, motion picture, Fair Harbor Productions, San Francisco.

Nussbaum, D. 2016a, Barbra Streisand to Headline ‘LGBT for Hillary’ Fundraiser, Breitbart, viewed 9 August 2016, <http://www.breitbart.com/big-hollywood/2016/08/09/report-barbra-streisand-headline-lgbt-hillary-fundraiser/ >.

Nussbaum, D. 2016b, Charlize Theron at AIDS Conference: HIV Spread Through ‘Sexism, Racism’ and ‘Homophobia’, Breitbart, viewed 30 July 2016, <http://www.breitbart.com/big-hollywood/2016/07/18/charlize-theron-hiv-also-spread-sexism-homophobia/ >.

Nussbaum, D. 2016c, Watch: Broadway Stars Lead Tribute to Gun Victims at DNC, Breitbart, viewed 28 July 2016, <http://www.breitbart.com/big-hollywood/2016/07/27/broadway-stars-sing-world-needs-now-love-tribute-gun-victims-dnc/ >.

Robertson, D. 2016a, Call the Orlando Shooting What it was: a Homophobic Hate Crime, Not ‘an Attack on Us All’, The Independent, viewed 29 July 2016, <http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/orlando-shooting-pulse-florida-not-attack-on-us-all-owen-jones-homophobic-anti-gay-crime-omar-mateen-a7079221.html >.

Robertson, D. 2016b, I’m Not Surprised by the Grindr Gay Sex Scandal Engulfing a Catholic Seminary – I Almost Became a Priest Myself, The Independent, viewed 5 August 2016, <http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/im-not-surprised-by-the-grindr-gay-sex-scandal-engulfing-a-catholic-seminary-i-almost-became-a-a7171771.html >.

Robertson, D. 2016c, A ‘Kiss in’ at Sainsbury’s isn’t Going to Solve Homophobia Anytime Soon, The Independent, viewed 14 August 2016, <http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/hackney-sainsburys-homophobia-lgbt-kiss-in-dismissing-people-as-homophobes-may-make-us-feel-better-a7188886.html >.

Tabberer, J. 2016a, Great British Bake Off Uses Gendered Icing in New Promo Shots, Gay Star News, viewed 16 August 2016, <http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/great-british-bake-off-uses-gendered-icing-new-promo-shots/#gs.tq7qGHg >.

Tabberer, J. 2016b, Justin Trudeau Wants to Apologize to Gay Canadians for the Most Admirable Reason, Gay Star News, viewed 15 August 2016, <http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/great-british-bake-off-uses-gendered-icing-new-promo-shots/#gs.tq7qGHg >.

Tabberer, J. 2016c, Why We should Think Twice Before Accusing Each other of Internalized Homophobia, Gay Star News, viewed 16 August 2016, <http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/think-twice-accusing-internalized-homophobia/#gs.null >.

Whigham, N. 2016a, ‘If You don’t Leave, I’m Going to Kill You’, New Zealand Herald, viewed 4 August 2016, <http://m.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11687362 >.

Whigham, N. 2016b, Islamic Twitter Trolls Seek to Dox Liberal Arabs on Social Media, news.com.au, viewed 1 August 2016, <http://www.news.com.au/technology/online/social/islamic-twitter-trolls-seek-to-dox-liberal-arabs-on-social-media/news-story/8df313ef9b1060cb5cba0a5df056384c >.

Whigham, N. 2016c, Supermarket Stormed by Kissing Gay Couples, New Zealand Herald, viewed 15 August 2016, <http://m.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=11693970 >.

Post 2: The Life of LGBT Youth

Source 1.

Special Issue Introduction: New Research on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Youth: Studying Lives in Context

The Journal of Youth and Adolescence is a multidisciplinary Research Publication. The Journal is written for psychologists, psychiatrists, biologists, criminologists, educators, and professionals in many other allied disciplines who address the subject of youth and adolescence. This scholarly source is based on quantitative analyses, theoretical papers, and comprehensive review article. Therefore the source addresses the issue in formal respective manner.

The research on LGBT youth by Stacy Horn, Joseph Kosciw and Stephen Russell explores the paradigms of risk and challenges LGBT youth face as to any population of youth. The key aspect of this research is to move beyond studying LGBT youth as at-risk, but instead for exploration and understanding the ways LGBT youth convey their development within various social contexts. The Journal shows evidence of in depth examination of the issue through consideration of diverse external and internal influences that may hostile school environment for LGBT students. The authors of the source displays empathetic approach on the paper. This is evident through their aim to understand context of victimization whereby they continually mention throughout the paper.

 

Source 2. 

Out Law: What LGBT Youth Should Know About Their Legal Rights

Lisa Keen, an award-winning vetern Journalist and Chief Correspondent for Keen News Service write an accessible guide for LGBT youth called Out Law: What LGBT Youth Should Know about Their Legal Rights. Although our civil rights have advanced significantly over many years, consequently these movements has unfortunately led to countless legal issues such as freedom of expression, sexual harassment, and even right to privacy within ones own families.

Keen’s experience in covering LGBT issues and gay legislation for over 20 years is exceptionally showcased through her book Out Law What LGBT Youth Should Know About Their Legal Rights. The book explores the rights of LGBT youth for their protection and responsibility. She position herself to empower LGBT youth to not only know aware of their rights but to also stand up for themselves.

 

Bibliography

Keen, Lisa. Out Law: What LGBT Youth Should Know about Their Legal Rights . Boston: Beacon Press, 2007.

Stacey S. Horn, Joseph G. Kosciw, Stephen T. Russell. “Special Issue Introduction: New Research on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Youth: Studying Lives in Context.” 6 June 2009. Springer Link. 9 August 2016 <http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10964-009-9420-1?LI=true&gt;.

 

By April Bae