SafeZone Training
Designed to promote awareness and education on the needs and concerns of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex individuals as well as other sexual and gender minorities.
Upcoming Trainings
Safe Zone at NIH
Safe Zone seeks to promote NIH community awareness and education about the needs and concerns of people who identify as Sexual and Gender Minorities, represented by the acronym SGM. We encourage everyone to show support for—and actively affirm—colleagues and friends who are SGM. These individuals include lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, Two Spirit, gender non-conforming people, and other populations whose sexual orientation and/or gender identity, and reproductive development is considered outside cultural, societal, or physiological norms.
Learn More About Sexual and Gender Minorities
You may have questions about how to show your support. One active way to support your colleagues is by taking NIH-sponsored Safe Zone training. The training offers the NIH community an opportunity to ask questions and learn more about sexual orientation and gender identity from certified Safe Zone Trainers.
To affirm SGM employees and colleagues, the NIH offers Safe Zone training as part of the agency’s broader diversity and inclusion portfolios. Safe Zone training addresses many of the commonly held misperceptions, myths, and stereotypes related to SGM communities.
The training is a 3 hour interactive session designed to improve understanding and help everyone at the NIH accept fellow employees as they are and as they want to be identified.
After completing the training, you will have the background and knowledge to display Safe Zone materials in offices, labs, and common areas. By displaying the NIH Safe Zone sticker and posters, Safe Zone team members help promote an atmosphere of openness and safety at the NIH; visibly welcome and celebrate SGM employees and colleagues; and encourage people to be themselves, ask questions, and speak openly.
Safe Zone Method
NIH’s Safe Zone committee used a variety of approaches including formal committee meetings via Skype, literature reviews, discussions with universities and medical schools that have Safe Zone programs, and consultations with various SGM nonprofit organizations and other community stakeholders to design this program.
The committee determined that Safe Zone participants experience the following learning outcomes:
Awareness: Gaining insights into the lives and experiences of SGM people;
Knowledge: Learning about SGM facts and issues; and
Action: Bringing together awareness of their own and others’ experience to create positive change.[i]
The committee’s work is guided by the conceptual frameworks outlined in the Institute of Medicine’s report, The Health of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender People: Building a Foundation for Better Understanding.
The life course framework acknowledges that events at each stage of life influence subsequent stages and recognizes that experiences are shaped by one’s age cohort and historical context
The minority stress model posits that sexual and gender minorities experience chronic stress as a result of their stigmatization
Intersectionality examines an individual’s multiple identities and how they interact
The social ecology perspective emphasizes that individuals are surrounded by spheres of influence, including families, communities, and society
The committee also considered several student affairs theories and medical and psychiatric perspectives on gender identity.
D’Augelli’s lifespan model acknowledges human development as unfolding in multiple concurrent paths, including the development of a person’s self-concept, relationships with family, and connections to peer groups and community. The model suggests that sexual orientation is fluid at certain times in life and more fixed at others and that human growth is intimately connected to and shaped by environmental and biological factors.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders posits “normal” gender identity as that in which gender identity corresponds in traditional ways to biological sex; transgenderism and transsexuality are viewed as psychiatric disorders.
Stage models of sexual orientation identity development examine the linear progression from lack of awareness of sexual orientation through immersion in identity to integration of identity.
What is the history of Safe Zone?
Safe Zone originated through LGBT student activism at U.S. colleges and universities. Since the concept more broadly addresses the modern ideal of freedom, affirming that all human beings, regardless of difference, are equal in dignity and rights, the NIH Safe Zone committee adapted the essential elements of the university Safe Zone model to develop a curriculum within a governmental agency that is also a biomedical research community. Since SGM research and data are limited, and the medical community lacks knowledge about SGM people, the committee conducted comprehensive, labor-intensive literature reviews about the SGM people and communities.
What does it mean if I see a Safe Zone sticker or poster displayed on campus?
Displaying a Safe Zone sticker or poster means that the occupant of that space affirms their openness and acceptance of all sexual orientations and gender representations. In addition, they have participated in a training workshop to increase their awareness of and sensitivity to SGM issues and can serve as an educational resource to the NIH community.
Why do we need Safe Zone at NIH?
SafeZone is part of NIH’s workplace diversity and inclusion strategy. Although many of the nation’s SGM employees are now publicly “out” about their sexual orientation and/or gender identity, some fear—with good reason—that public disclosure could threaten their job security and safety. Research shows that employees who openly identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender report higher rates of discrimination and harassment than those who don’t.[ii] SafeZone fights workplace discrimination by making supportive locales and personnel visible throughout the agency.
I am interested in becoming a Safe Zone team member. How do I participate?
Getting involved is simple. Attend a Safe Zone training sponsored by the Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion and the SGM Special Emphasis Portfolio to become a member of the Safe Zone team. The training furthers your understanding and challenges your perceptions of sex, sexuality, gender, and human difference in a safe atmosphere.
Do I have to be SGM to participate in Safe Zone?
No. Everyone can participate in the Safe Zone. Likewise, displaying a Safe Zone sticker or poster is not an indication of a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. Safe Zone gladly welcomes support from individuals who identify as heterosexual and demonstrate genuine interest in reducing homophobia and heterosexism at NIH.
What do Safe Zone team members do?
Welcome Diversity: Safe Zone team members recognize that inclusion is excellence and welcome SGM employees and colleagues. They encourage everyone to be themselves, ask questions, and speak openly.
Stay informed: Safe Zone team members commit to being educated and up to date on SGM issues.
Stand up: Safe Zone team members commit to combating all forms of discrimination.
Remain alert: Safe Zone team members demonstrate SGM-affirmative language and behavior and encourage everyone to learn about SGM diversity and inclusion.
Show support: Team members display Safe Zone stickers and posters in their offices, labs, and work areas to visibly welcome SGM employees and colleagues and establish a safe and respectful environment.
[i] Outcomes are adapted from Emory University’s Safe Zone training.