we have very few hispanic folks at our shop, but we get a variety of different people who might not otherwise have to work in proximity with each other, or maybe even encounter each other at all: queer and trans folk, very recent african immigrants who barely speak english, people dealing with moderate to serious mental health issues, suburbanites, solvent abusers, and on and on.

we've rethought our initial "racism, sexism, classism, homophobia WILL NOT BE TOLERATED" policy, not by abandoning those ideals, but by recognizing that people are coming from different places, and just may not at all be used to being around teh gays, or people trying to hang cupcakes to the tool board so they can be used by others, or whoever, and they might say some stupid bigoted shit, but it usually doesn't have to be that big of a deal, and is much better if you can try to talk through it, as long as you don't let it create a toxic environment or let that become the dominant atmosphere in the shop. i think this is much more productive than asking people who might have some bigoted values to censor themselves while in the shop. after all, who hasn't internalized some aspects of classism, homophobia, or white supremacy?

that's really vague and doesn't always work the way i would like, but maybe it helps? i'd be interested to hear the experiences of other shops.

macho http://bike-dump.ca

veganboyjosh@gmail.com wrote:

Howdy folks,

Community Cycles has a team of very motivated people working to get a women and trans bike night started here in Boulder. We're ironing out the last logistical issues, and have hit upon another potentially major one.

We've heard from a volunteer who's hispanic herself, and deeply connected with a lot of our lower income hispanic residents that homosexuality and transgenderedness is pretty taboo in Latino culture/Catholocism. (Of course, this is a broad statement, and not intended by me or by her to implicate every Catholic person, or all those of Hispanic descent in some sort of homophobic conspiracy.)

I'm wondering how those of you with a night or time set aside for women and/or trans people have overcome the taboo of queer folk and Latino "conservatism" in this regard? Any resources you can point us towards?

Advertising for the night itself will definitely include both "women" and "trans" in the language, so how to provide or present a welcoming environment if someone is uncomfortable or even against something like homosexuality? I'm confident that we can handle the in-shop issues of innapropriate comments, awkwardness, etc.

I'm more interested in hearing about the initial outreach steps.

Any input is highly welcome.

Thanks!

josh.

I would suggest doing/saying nothing, and just continuing on with your plans for the night without "explaining" anything ahead of time. Sometimes calling attention to a potential situation makes those who might not otherwise think it is a problem wonder if perhaps they SHOULD have a problem with it. We just have our women's shop night (and don't set apart the women who happen to be transgendered by calling it anything other than just that--period), with no prior explanation necessary in the description. Otherwise you run the risk of being perceived as thinking that there is something wrong with the way that they are. Do you want to alienate those women who are transgendered whom you wish to include?

It is really important to be truly inclusive. We have never had any issues arise, and we live in a heavily Mormon community. I think that sometimes merely being "exposed" to individuals who might be "different" can make those who might otherwise judge them see them as simply people, after all. We have actually have positive feedback from women who might not have otherwise interacted with a woman who is transgendered. It is much harder to judge a person whom you look in the eye than to generalize against a whole group of "them."

Ultimately, it is the responsibility of the individuals who have the problem of prejudice to deal with sharing the space with someone who is transgendered. If you were to substitute the label of a different race for the transgendered label, would you feel the same responsibility for preparing someone who doesn't like people of that race to be around those they judge?

On Mon, Apr 27, 2009 at 11:51 AM, rachael spiewak rachael@sopobikes.orgwrote:

I think there are other kinds of organizations that provide special services for lgbtq and latina populations in addition to providing services to the general population. Our local rape crisis centerhttp://dekalbrapecrisiscenter.org/comes to mind first. Perhaps we can get some ideas from those kinds of organizations?

-rachael

On Mon, Apr 27, 2009 at 12:52 PM, veganboyjosh@gmail.com wrote:

...

Howdy folks,

Community Cycles has a team of very motivated people working to get a women and trans bike night started here in Boulder. We're ironing out the last logistical issues, and have hit upon another potentially major one.

We've heard from a volunteer who's hispanic herself, and deeply connected with a lot of our lower income hispanic residents that homosexuality and transgenderedness is pretty taboo in Latino culture/Catholocism. (Of course, this is a broad statement, and not intended by me or by her to implicate every Catholic person, or all those of Hispanic descent in some sort of homophobic conspiracy.)

I'm wondering how those of you with a night or time set aside for women and/or trans people have overcome the taboo of queer folk and Latino "conservatism" in this regard? Any resources you can point us towards?

Advertising for the night itself will definitely include both "women" and "trans" in the language, so how to provide or present a welcoming environment if someone is uncomfortable or even against something like homosexuality? I'm confident that we can handle the in-shop issues of innapropriate comments, awkwardness, etc.

I'm more interested in hearing about the initial outreach steps.

Any input is highly welcome.

Thanks!

josh.

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