Author Spotlight Kodi Rain, CHOOSING APPROPRIATE LGBTQ+ RESOURCES FOR THE WORLD LANGUAGE CLASSROOM

August 14, 2024 • Command Performance • author spotlight • blog • Comprehensible Readers • FVR • LGBTQ • Spanish Books

CHOOSING APPROPRIATE LGBTQ+ RESOURCES FOR THE WORLD LANGUAGE CLASSROOM

Kodi Rain, co-author of Los viernes de películas

Queer characters and themes are often stereotypes. If you’re not sure how to choose queer resources or are unsure whether something is positive representation or might be problematic, that’s OK. Anti-bias education training teaches that we all have biases and it’s important to learn what they are so that we can stop perpetuating them. The following questions are meant to help you make thoughtful choices.

What does LGBTQ+ inclusion and normalization look like?

Often when there is a queer character there is a plot line about being queer connected to that character. There does not need to be. Seeing a queer character or, better yet, more than one queer character just living their lives and doing ordinary things normalizes queerness.

Also, a story doesn’t need to have queer characters to be inclusive. For languages that use the generic masculine any story can be gender-inclusive if groups of people of mixed or unknown genders are referred to with gender-neutral terms rather than the generic masculine.

GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) article highlighting Los viernes de peliculas as a groundbreaking gender-inclusive book in Spanish

Is there a queer struggle trope or straight savior?

Avoiding stereotypes is part of being inclusive. Just like there are tropes regarding Latinas, Latines, and Latinos and Latin American countries, like poverty porn and the white savior myth, there are tropes regarding queer characters.

A very common trope is that the queer character is struggling with their identity or self-acceptance or some aspect of being queer and through the support of straight people, they find happiness. This reinforces the straight/queer power differential.

Try to choose stories where the queer character(s) is not struggling with some aspect of being queer and validation from straight people is not part of the development of the story.

Does queer = object of mockery or target of trauma?

Trauma porn is a common queer trope. There was an unspoken rule in Hollywood for decades that if a queer character was not an object of mockery, providing laughs, something bad had to happen to them. This was intended to demean queerness and the patterns still exist.

Is the predominant assumption of Cisgender / Heterosexuality?

Coming out stories had an important place in history when there was next to zero queer visibility in the media. They were the first and have been the most common story about queer people for decades. Unfortunately, these stories are reductive and don't adequately represent our lives or our culture.

There are other problems with coming out stories too. If straight people don’t need to come out, why do queer people need to? The closet was created by straight culture and maintains the straight/queer power differential. Queer people are put in the closet, often throughout our entire lives, by binary and other rigid mindsets and the predominant assumption that everyone is cisgender and heterosexual.

Whose voice is telling the story and do they have lived experience and personal understanding?

Coming out stories, as they are often told, are about an internal struggle and the need for validation from straight people. They do not represent queer culture, but rather, portray a biased story of domination of queerness by straight culture.

We all want to feel accepted and safe, but the idea that a queer person is not being honest or can’t really be happy unless everyone knows and accepts their queerness is an oppressive concept. It is a concept created by privileged people who don't understand code-switching.

In order to avoid the commodification of queer struggles, personal stories about discrimination or any queer plight are probably best coming from voices who’ve experienced them, rather than from someone who hasn’t.

Are queer characters “othered”, portrayed as inspirational just for living?

Inspiration porn is another trope. It’s an expression created by the disability community, like that someone who uses a wheelchair is “inspiring.” A queer character/person who is inspiring because they are living as a queer person might seem like a positive representation, and while it’s not directly negative, it’s othering and kind of patronizing.

To sum up: queer resources should include us, not commodify us. Look for stories where we are whole in our queerness, not struggling with it.

Please consider vetting the materials you use and if you do choose materials that perpetuate stereotypes, please consider discussing/critically analyzing the stereotypes with your students.

There is a need for more LGBTQ+ inclusive language learner readers and materials, which inspired me to write Los viernes de películas, my first foray into writing for language learners. If you identify as LGBTQ+ please consider writing LGBTQ+ inclusive readers. Thanks!"

The above is adapted from a Spring 2024 webinar with Kodi Rain and Maris Hawkins, How to Use Gender-Inclusive Spanish in the Classroom, offered through Team ¡Lo logramos! Notes and resources from that workshop can be found here.

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How to Use Gender-Inclusive Spanish in the Classroom

workshop with Maris Hawkins and Kodi Rain

notes and resources

This document is organized into the following sections:

Introduction

1 How to advocate for the use of gender-inclusive language

2 How to use gender-inclusive Spanish

3 How to make classrooms more LGBTQIA+ inclusive

4 Finding gender-inclusive resources

5 Choosing gender-inclusive resources

6 Creating gender-inclusive resources with your class and beyond

7 Some good resources

¡Hola todas, todes, todos! As you all know Spanish is a rich, beautiful, and expressive language. Gender-inclusive Spanish only adds to that, making it even richer, more beautiful, and more expressive. Gender-inclusive Spanish mostly adds new endings to familiar binary words, to provide a third gender-neutral option.

Gender-inclusive Spanish is used throughout the Spanish speaking world, although mostly within pockets of queer and feminist communities. My understanding is that historically the push for gender-inclusive Spanish began in 1970’s if not earlier, mostly as part of feminist, anti-sexist movements to counter the generic masculine.

Language is a kind of living thing. English in the USA is different from British English, which is different from Australian English. The Spanish spoken in Chile is different from the Spanish spoken in México is different from the Spanish spoken in Colombia. Gender-inclusive Spanish is not one rigid thing. Diversity is part of the beauty and value in acquiring new languages and gender-inclusive language only adds more beauty and value.

1 How to advocate for the use of gender-inclusive language. I don’t really recommend advocating for its use, unless it’s necessary. It’s better to speak it, use it, and teach it, as you feel free to do so. That’s how languages evolve. Code-switching is OK. That’s what my queer friends in Spanish speaking countries do. People in the USA too, and probably people in every culture in every language around the world.

If it is necessary to advocate for its use (like with administration for example), we can’t make people care about something they don’t care about. Try to find a value that already exists in the person or institution and connect that value to the use of gender-inclusive Spanish, like: non-discrimination policy; anti-bullying; suicide prevention; some higher institutions teach it, including Amherst College, Vanderbilt University. Language and culture are interrelated. Language (and a classroom environment) that is accepting will help prevent bullying, isolation, and suicide. Also, it’s a human right:

“While the spread of gender-inclusive Spanish is not uncontroversial among different Spanish-speaking communities, its usage is becoming more and more visible among genderqueer speakers, for whom access to gender-inclusive language must be understood as a fundamental human right.” Ben Papadopoulos from A Brief History of Gender-Inclusive Spanish, shared in the resources section of this doc.

Languages evolve. The purpose of every language is to communicate, to communicate about events, ideas, things, people, everything. If something exists and there is no word for it, languages evolve and embrace new words. Each year there's new words in every language. The RAE (Real Academia Española) adds approximately 200 new words each year. Some recent additions are: emoji, trol, muac, and vapear. Make no mistake, the only reason the RAE has not accepted gender-inclusive vocabulary is discrimination.

Spain colonized the Americas raping, pilaging, murdering, and enslaving Indigenous peoples, pushing hundreds of Indigenous languages to extinction or near extinction. Some of those languages were not gendered, some of them recognized more than two genders. Now, with the RAE, 200 years after the majority of those colonies gained independence, Spain still wants to control the language.

Also- we need to move away from a Eurocentric view on language. In addition, we want to be careful that we are not putting down students’/adults’ language. There are more and more people who live in the US that are also using inclusive language. Just as we don’t want to negate the use of language that is emerging in the US- we also don’t negate this use.

2 How to use gender inclusive Spanish. Gender-inclusive Spanish applies to nonbinary individuals and groups of people of mixed genders. It affects the endings of words. There are a few options: e, x, i, * (the @ is binary and not inclusive). The e and the x are the most common. The letter e is more common in South America. In México, both are common in written form, but in speech, they pronounce the “x” as “e.”

I use the letter "e.” Because the pronunciation is easy. There are already gender-neutral words that end in “e” in Spanish like excelente, alegre, grande. Plus it seems to be heading toward being the most popular option.

Gender-inclusive Spanish includes the 3rd person singular pronoun “elle," which corresponds to the singular “they” in English. It also includes the endings of adjectives and nouns that refer directly to a person, like contente, ocupade, emocionade, and maestre, concinere. Example: Elle está contente. Gender-inclusive Spanish does not apply to objects.

Note that while elle translates to they singular in English it differs in that it uses 3rd person singular conjugations whereas they singular uses 3rd person plural conjugations (like you singular and you plural in English)

Gender-inclusive Spanish also refers to groups of people. words like hijes, niñes, todes, nosotres, elles, amigues, hermanes, xadres.

And it uses the direct and indirect articles: le, les, une, unes.

3 How to make classrooms more LGBTQIA+ inclusive. Maybe you want queer people to feel safe and welcome in your classroom, but gender-inclusive Spanish is new to you and you feel uncomfortable using it, you can share that with the class. You can explain that you want all people to feel safe and accepted, that you're learning gender-inclusive Spanish and you may make mistakes.

You would be a great role model for your students. Learning language is not easy, we all make mistakes, it takes time, it can feel awkward, frustrating, and embarrassing. Many times, expressing your mistakes goes extremely far with your students.

How we approach gender-inclusive language signals to queer people about how safe and welcome they are.

If you show the options for gender-inclusive spanish and give students the choice to use them if they want, but if you don't use them, students won’t acquire gender-inclusive language, there’s no input. And nonbinary and queer students might not feel safe or accepted in your classroom. (If you want gender-inclusive Spanish input, look at the resource list, and you can contact Kodi Rain at kalecrate@gmail.com)

If you won’t/don’t use gender-inclusive Spanish unless one of your students identifies as nonbinary, nonbinary and other queer students again might not feel safe and welcome and might not want to share their identities with you.

You can help make the environment of your classroom feel safe and accepting by using the plural forms of gender-inclusive Spanish, using todes, nosotres, chiques, amigues, les alumnes, les compañeres, etc.

Explaining when and where to use gender-inclusive Spanish. Be honest. It is not very common yet and Spanish is spoken differently among different communities. You can explain it the same way that you explain when and where to use tu, usted, vos, vosotras/vosotros

As far as acceptance- you can explain how gender inclusivity is seen in Spanish-speaking countries- it isn’t seen any differently in the US and our students will understand that. At times, we don’t give them enough credit for understanding. In my school, we talk about elle with students as young as third grade.

In the Montessori School I teach at, there have been kids as young as four years old who identify as nonbinary.

4 Finding gender-inclusive resources. Check out wattpad and fanfiction, popular queer platforms.

I have found good resources on Instagram and Twitter. This is helpful because it is accessible for novice students. I don’t necessarily find a specific account but look up themes and then find posts that relate to my theme. Weaving it into your curriculum instead of talking about it separately.

5 Choosing gender-inclusive resources. Queer characters and themes are often stereotypes. If you’re not sure how to choose queer resources or are unsure whether something is positive representation or might be problematic, that’s OK. Anti-bias education training teaches that we all have biases and it’s important to learn what they are so that we can stop propagating them. The following is meant to help you make informed choices.

A story doesn’t need to have queer characters to be inclusive. Any story can be gender-inclusive if groups of people are referred to with gender-neutral terms rather than the generic masculine.

Often when there is a queer character there is a plot line about being queer connected to that character. There does not need to be.

Try to choose stories where the queer character(s) is not struggling with some aspect of being queer, where validation from straight people is not part of the development of the story.

Trauma porn is a common queer trope. There was an unspoken rule in Hollywood for decades that something bad had to happen to any queer character. It was intended to demean queerness.

These days, youth (and adults) with access to social media can connect and find community, as contrasted with coming out. That’s not to say that safety at home, school, work etc. and acceptance from family aren’t important, they are. And often they are not easy to come by. In order to avoid the commodification of queer struggles, personal stories like these are probably best coming from voices who’ve experienced them, rather than from someone who hasn’t.

We all want to feel accepted and safe, but the image of a queer person not being able to be happy unless everyone knows and accepts their queerness is an oppressive concept. It is a concept created by privileged people who don't understand code-switching.

To sum up: queer resources should include us, not commodify us. Look for stories where we are whole in our queerness, not struggling with it.

Please consider vetting the materials you use and if you do choose materials that perpetuate stereotypes, please consider discussing/critically analyzing the stereotypes with your students.

6 Creating gender-inclusive resources with your class and beyond. In class, my students and I create stories with nonbinary characters. For example, I begin with:

Hay una familia. ¿Cuantes hijes hay? ¿Cómo se llaman? For each name I ask: ¿Y Victor, cuál es su pronombre? ¿Y Isabela, cuál es su pronombre?

Or I can start a story with

Hay une chique…

If you or any of your students are nonbinary, you can incorporate yourselves into stories.

You can use famous nonbinary people as examples (Sara Ramírez, Demi Lovato)

An activity you can do with your class is take a story with people in it and write a summary in gender-inclusive Spanish with your students or have them write one.

You can also take or write any story with people in it and change it to be gender-inclusive by referring to all groups of people with gender-neutral language instead of the generic masculine and/or by randomly making any of the characters nonbinary and changing the language to match the nonbinary characters’ identity. For larger work, you might want to have someone skilled do a sensitivity reading to make sure everything is copacetic. Queerterpreter (Ártemis López) provides sensitivity reading services.

Representation of nonbinary and queer people and the use of gender-inclusive language will make a difference. Nonbinary people, youth in particular, will benefit from seeing themselves positively represented and hearing language that directly includes them. And all genders will benefit from language that doesn’t prioritize masculinity. As language teachers, what we say and do sends a message.

Resources

History

A Brief History of Gender-Inclusive Spanish

Gender Neutral Pronouns: A Quick History and Best Practices Video Transcript (from MIT about English language)

Learn Spanish With Esteban: Gender and Inclusivity In Spanish

Understanding gender-inclusive Spanish

Guía de Comunicación Inclusiva para la Inclusión Laboral de Personas Trans y No Binarias

Spanish & Inclusive Partial Grammar of Spanish

You, Me, Hir, and Non-Binary Language

https://www.krisknisely.com/resources-for-educators

Gender-inclusive Spanish materials

Los viernes de películas by Kodi Rain and Tian Torrano paperback and eBook