Abstract from materials provided by the publisher.
Learn how to provide awareness training on sexual orientation and reduce stigmatization. This results-oriented teaching package provides all materials needed by instructors to conduct workshops, seminars, semester courses, or lectures on sensitivity to sexual orientation. Sexually Stigmatized Communities is a training manual designed primarily as a resource for education to reduce homophobia and heterosexism. It is also appropriate for any course addressing the stigmatization of certain groups based on race, ethnicity, religion, or gender. Author Chuck Stewart outlines specific curricula for both general audiences and those with a specific emphasis. Field-tested in law enforcement, education, and business contexts, this cultural awareness program has succeeded within a general climate of sensitivity, skepticism, and even anger.
In a convenient loose-leaf notebook format, this comprehensive training manual provides the following tools:
This comprehensive manual provides the trainer or instructor with the resources to compel students to reflect on their feelings, beliefs, and knowledge about sexual and affection orientation and to guide them in resolving internal conflicts and reducing heterosexism.
Chuck Stewart brings an eclectic mix of experiences and expertise to this teaching manual. He obtained degrees in physics from California State University, Northridge (CSUN), with a specialization in quantum mechanics. At the same time, he studied classical ballet and eventually danced with and taught in many companies in the United States. While working on a master's degree in thermodynamics combustion engineering, he built custom automobiles for the southern California custom car circuit. These several paths have intertwined during the past 30 years.
By his late 20s, Chuck had obtained a teaching credential in English as a second language from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and taught in the community adult schools of Los Angeles. It was there that he first experienced the richness of other cultures.
In his 20s and 30s, to supplement his income from dance jobs, he would obtain employment in aerospace engineering while still dancing at night and on weekends.
Chuck decided by his late 30s to become an expert on how to effectively overcome heterosexism and homophobia, which he himself had experienced at almost every turn. His first step was to obtain a secondary teaching credential from California State University, Chico. At age 40, Chuck was accepted into the University of Southern California to pursue a doctorate in education. For the next 6 years, he focused every class toward this goal. During this time, Chuck was the newsletter editor for the Los Angeles Unified School District's Lesbian and Gay Education Commission. He was also cochair for the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Scientists, of which he has been a member since the late 1970s.
For his Ph.D. field research, he was funded by the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) and the Institute for the Study of
Human Resources to spend time with many police agencies and academies throughout the state to observe an measure the effectiveness of their training on sexual orientation (as part of their mandated cultural awareness training programs). This was a fascinating experience that completed the Ph.D. For the next 3 years, Chuck used his model to teach courses on sexual orientation at Rio Hondo College as well as collected materials and activities for this book.
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