During the past few years, discussions were held at JGU about diversity at the university, specifically in teaching. One question repeatedly came up: To what extent should sexual identity and orientation be a part of the university’s diversity activities? With a certain measure of discomfort, some occasionally opinioned this was each individual’s private affair and did not need to be included in the context of university teaching. While heterosexuality and the understanding of gender as binary continue to be the norm, homosexuality, bisexuality, trans* and inter* are usually seen as deviation from the norm. This fact does not necessarily become apparent through open disdain of queer lifestyles, but is already obvious in that these lifestyles are not considered in texts, pictures, and everyday interactions and that being gay or lesbian is still considered a characteristic.

As a member of teaching staff, you can play a positive role by:

• Preventing homophobic and transphobic comments or actions in your classes;
• Being clear to yourself that careless comments or jokes can have a ostracizing or insulting effect;
• Realizing that about 4% of your students are homosexual and 6% bisexual, and about 1% thinks of themselves as neither male nor female;
• As far as possible, offering homosexual and transgender topics;
• Abstaining from heteronormative assumptions about specific attributes in personal conversations;
• Addressing people who identify as transgender with the name they choose for themselves.
• …