This part of the website is about what everyone can do to ensure that the diversity of gender and sexual identities is visible and respected and recognized in our society. We have put together information and tips that are intended to encourage people to think more consciously about queer people and their needs, to pass this on and to react to discriminatory behavior. Also, there is a detailed list with further links and literature.
What Can I Do?
In everyday life, at school or university, at work, with friends or family - lesbian, gay, bi- or pansexual, trans, intersex, non-binary and queer people exist everywhere. Unfortunately, treating them with respect is not yet a matter of course.
To make it easier for you to deal with queer people, we have put together some tips and options for action.
We'll show you what you can do to ...
… support queer people, relationships and lives in everyday life and to respond to discrimination.
… to create a “safer space” where queer people feel safe and valued and have someone they can confide in when they need to talk.
… react to derogatory statements and discriminatory behaviour within groups .
In the voluntary AFS work
In 2011, AFS Germany expanded its policy statement in order to consciously counteract discrimination based on sexual identity. The success of its implementation lies with all volunteers and full-time employees in the association.
We want towards a deconstruction of prejudices against people with different sexual and gender identities, especially in intercultural exchange, and wish to encourage a decisive reaction to explicit and implicit discrimination. We do this by talking about gender and sexual diversity, recognizing and accepting personal boundaries and ultimately respecting the diversity of life in Germany or seeing it as an enrichment.
All QueerTausch documents that might be useful for your work can be found in the download area of the AFS intranet AFSer.de. You can also find the guide to inclusive language at AFS there.
The Queer Game Collection contains e.g. methods and games for all areas of program work (e.g. sending and hosting seminars in the student program or in the voluntary services).