LGBT workshop at Spring Agora 2010 in Leiden

During the Spring Agora 2010 in Leiden, a workshop was organised about LGBT rights. Despite the sunny weather and the lack of sleep, approximately 20 AEGEE members from all over the network participated.

At the start of the workshop, the participants were informed about the origins of the idea of ‘Love Goes Beyond Tradition’. They were told about the event in Budapest, which had taken place just 3 weeks prior to the Agora. The main results and the programme were explained.

After a couple of examples of the LGBT rights situation across Europe, and an introduction to the 4 main approaches that politicians use in dealing with LGBT rights, it was time for the participants to become active. In a highly-interactive session, they debated 3 statements about LGBT rights.

The first statement was about child adoption by same-sex couples and was debated in teams. Each team either had to argue in favour or against the statement, which meant that some participants had to argue against their personal opinion. This proved to be a very good exercise in debating skills. Furthermore, the participants appreciated the fact that they had to put themselves in other people’s shoes.

Following the discussion about child adoption by same-sex couples, 2 more statements were debated. The participants no longer had to argue according to the ‘team opinion’, but according to their own. Firstly, the place of LGBTs in the Christian religion was debated. This was followed by the idea of legalising same-sex marriage.

After the debates, the jury decided on the winner. In fact, a member of AEGEE-Toulouse and a member of AEGEE-Enschede had to share the price, as the jury thought their debating skills were equally outstanding.

Finally, the participants were informed about the workshop organisers’ desire to continue the discussion about LGBT rights within AEGEE. Most of them showed a lot of enthusiasm and were willing to become involved in the topic. After the Agora, they were contacted by the organisers, received a lot of information about the subject and were asked to share their ideas, opinions, and initiatives. Hopefully, they will take the lead and create a lot of interesting events in the future.

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