GALE The Global Alliance for LGBT education
This page gives a short overview of the history of GALE.
GALE will focus on three priorities: strengthening the right to education, storytelling and working with schools. In this plan, these three priorities are worked out in 8 projects, which are interlinked and support each other. The projects focus on schools and storytelling. At this time, strengthening the right to education worldwide is too ambitious a plan to fit within the available budget. Additional funds need to be raised to implement the GALE right to education plan.
GALE operates as a global network of coordinators, and tries to bring the adagio Think Global, Act Local in practice. We clarify the international-local task division in the following short project descriptions under the bullets Think global and Act local.
On the international networking level, GALE brings together experts and local implementation partners in virtual think tanks or development groups. Open formats for methodology are developed and made available to GALE-members in the shape of toolkits. Selected tools from these toolkits are edited for local use and implemented in local projects. During the projects, qualitative and if possible quantitative feedback is collected to monitor the effect of the implementation and provide feedback on the quality of the tools. With this feedback, each tools is enhanced. In this way, GALE continuously enhances her toolkits into more advanced versions.
In 2009, the development of 2 toolkits 1.0 was started (working with schools, storytelling, monitoring the right to education). In 2010, three local school projects and five local storytelling projects will be implemented. The results will be used to upgrade the schools and storytelling toolkits to versions 2.
GALE develops a five level approach to mobilize people to act on human rights and to become more professional in education and training.
Although each level implies acquiring more skills and access to mainstream organizations and to authorities, the 5-level approach does not mean educators need to progress through each level subsequently.
In 2009, the Global Alliance for LGBT Education (GALE) shifted its focus from facilitating a global network of educators to initiating 10 concrete local projects on storytelling and on working with schools.
In Colombia, Chile and Peru, two year projects were initiated to work with schools. In the transnational GALE collaboration, baseline questionnaires, ways to approach schools and to collaborate with them, and methods to discuss heteronormativity and homophobia with students and school staff are being developed. Also, the development of a tool kit for working with schools with about 30 tools was started.
In Indonesia and the Philippines, a story collection project started in which about 50 stories will be collected and published in an educational format in 2010. In addition, a storytelling project with four small pilots and an international summer school for storytellers was developed and will be implemented in 2010. In addition, the development of a tool kit for storytellers and panel sessions about homophobia was started.
Much attention was given to the search for additional funding next to the core funding of HIVOS. A strategic fundraising plan was developed, a fundraising working group was created, over 40 donors were explored and 6 project proposals were developed and submitted. In Europe, a quick scan was done to lay a fundament of knowledge and future partners. However, partly because of the economic crisis, this considerable investment did not yet pay off.
Despite these setbacks, GALE grew with 25% to 360 members and the website had over 17000 visitors. Also, GALE was accepted as a formal operational partner of UNESCO, thus being the first UNESCO partner to focus on LGBT issues.
The GALE advisory board met in Colombo, Sri Lanka. It advised to strengthen the structure of the association.
A worldwide teacher training expert meeting was organized in Warsaw (November 2008) by our Implementing Partner Campaign Against Homophobia (Poland). The content of the meeting was prepared and chaired by Pride & Prejudice (Australia).
Fourteen experts met, explored good practices and the opportunities to collaborate on a joint format. The participants and some other expert were joined in a Development Group, which will develop concrete materials in 2009.
The GALE membership grew to 327 members.
The Dutch government invited GALE to be part of the government delegation in the 4-annual UNESCO World Conference on Education. GALE was able to make several statements on LGBT issues.
The Global Alliance for LGBT Education (GALE) has finished its starting phase in 2007. The website has become operational as a working platform for members. The first 60 members registered and a recruiting campaign was prepared. Strategies ands some projects were developed in Brazil (quick scan, expert meeting on teacher training), southern Africa (development of a media tool and training), Asia (quick scan, story collection and mainstream LGBT issues in feminist NGOs) and Europe (quick scan, teacher training and safer schools).
The Global Alliance for LGBT Education (GALE) had its starting phase in 2006. After a needs assessment by Peter Dankmeijer during 2003-2005, practical work was started to create a global association of educators who deal with LGBT issues. In the end of 2005 and start of 2006, a mission statement and general outline was developed. Experts were asked to join a preliminary board. The preliminary board met in March in Geneva, where the Global Alliance for LGBT Education was founded. After this, operational plans were developed and a trip to explore funding was made to New York. After the human rights conference in Montréal, the board met again and decided about the operational plans. In the last part of 2006, the implementation of these plans was started by developing an online platform and by planning concrete implementation projects, which should be the core of the alliance.
During the years 2003-2005, Empowerment Lifestyle Services initiated a worldwide assessment of views on education about LGBT issues and the need to create a network.
In 1998, Amnesty International and HIVOS invited Empowerment Lifestyle Services, a Dutch consultancy on LGBT Issues in Education, to organize a workshop on education against homophobia for the Human Rights Conference during the Gay Games in Amsterdam. This was the first workshop in its kind. The main recommendation of this workshop was to create a global network for exchange and to raise the quality of work being done.