Once again I was faced with a tough situation as a facilitator.

I was one of three presenters for the Gender Workshop at the Pre-Conference. I became a presenter after asking if transgender and sexuality issues were being addressed as part of the workshop. The issues weren’t; so they asked me if I’d like to cover it.

I found myself trying to plan a twenty minute presentation on gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer (g/l/b/t/q) youth issues related to HIV/AIDS internationally. The big obstacle that I found was a lack of information, an unfortunate sign of where these issues are on people’s priorities.

In the workshop, I wanted to provide a common language to use on these issues in order to have a conversation on issues g/l/b/t/q communities face. Given the number of languages and cultures represented at the Pre-conference, I knew this would be a challenge.

My solution was to listen. I handed out terms and asked participants to define them. This gave an opportunity for a broader conversation about each term’s meaning. We pulled from participants’ experiences with various organizations and networks doing work around these issues. Discussing the terms created a more comfortable environment for people to ask questions about things they had never heard of before. We had some very interesting conversations on the differences between sex and gender, sexual orientation and gender identity, and how people self identify.

There is a lack of sexuality and gender issues addressed at this conference, especially around young people. With more youth participants now prepared to highlight these issues, hopefully we can create some real change and ensure that these topics are fully addressed.