At the Museum of Liverpool we are passionate about telling real people’s stories and using them to champion social justice. As part of the event series for Tales from the city we are teaming up with Diversity Role Models to offer a great opportunity for young people aged 12-16 to learn about Liverpool’s LGBT+ communities, their stories and their histories. Diversity Role Model Kate Hutchinson tells us more about their work and what you can expect from this wonderful free session-
“Diversity Role Models is a charity that aims to prevent homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying within UK schools. We believe that no student should ever be bullied for being themselves and by embracing and celebrating our differences we can create understanding.
As our name suggests we also use volunteer role models from the LGBT+ community and their allies, who take part in our workshops to share their experiences and stories. We find that these shared stories have a big impact. To have a person standing in front of you talking about their personal experience of coming out as LGBT+, instead of a sensationalist media story, breaks so many negative stereotypes of the community. When we re-visit the schools the students often remember the role models and their experiences. After hearing the stories, the students get to ask questions they want to ask about the role models’ experiences.
Stories are important, our personal experiences shared verbally or by the written word can be extremely powerful. Our history exists in stories; we learn from them. Stories make us laugh, they make us cry. Stories also build empathy and spread understanding.
This year as part of LGBT History Month, Diversity Role Models are proud to be holding an event with the Museum of Liverpool 10am-12pm on 26 February to look at the progression of LGBT+ rights from a local perspective. Where we were, where we are now and where we need to progress to.
We would like to invite students and staff from local schools to attend and examine the subject through the experiences of a panel of our volunteer role models, some of whom are featured in the museum’s current Tales from the City exhibition. Hear about the culture, the places, the people, the struggles, the hopes and the dreams of Liverpool’s LGBT+ community.
We want to give the opportunity not only to hear experiences but also to be able to ask questions of our role models who have lived through a great progression in LGBT+ rights but also hear what further progress needs to be made.
Our role models will also be happy to talk about the parts of the Tales from the City exhibition that they have contributed to as we take a tour through the exhibition showing the city’s LGBT+ history.
So please get in touch and book your students in for this special event.”
If you are interested in bringing a group of students aged 12-16 to this free event please contact Kate from Diversity Role Models at kate@diversityrolemodels.org