Thane: In an attempt to sensitise their teachers about the
LGBTQ community, city-based Vasant Vihar School organised a two-hour gender and sexuality sensitization seminar at the school on Thursday morning.
Over 300 teachers who participated in this seminar, led by Mumbai-based psychiatrists Kersi Chavda and Avinash Desousa, were not only made aware about the LGBTQ community, but also imparted information about correctly responding to queries from students about sexual preferences or deal with instances where students are themselves conflicted about their sexuality.
βI went for one such workshop at a public hospital in Mumbai earlier and realised that it is crucial for teachers and school counsellors to be sensitised towards the LGBTQ community,β said V Kannan, principal.
βIn this workshop, our teachers not only learned that being a part of the LGBTQ community is not an illness, but also how to deal with students who may feel depressed or suicidal because of the negative connotation their sexuality has in society,β he added.