White Americans aren't the only people being asked to “check their privilege.” Marshall University in West Virginia is inviting faculty and staff to attend a “heterosexual privilege” training course to help them better understand the struggles faced by their LGBTQ students.
“Our society is geared toward traditional heterosexual roles and relationships, and as a result there are certain privileges that heterosexuals in traditional relationships are afforded that they may take for granted that others in the LGBTQ community may not have,” Morgan Conley, a mental health specialist for the university, told Heat Street.
The optional course is a part of the school’s "Safe Space" program which aims to promote inclusiveness on campus and raise awareness about what it means to be apart of the LGBTQ community.
Those attending the course will be asked to participate in its “Privilege for Sale” exercise.
“People attending the training will be broken into groups and have a list of privileges that heterosexuals typically have but that others in the LGBTQ community may not have, and they will only be able to select a few of those privileges,” Conley explained. “The group has to collectively agree and then explain why they picked what they picked and why they didn’t pick others.”
Marshall isn't the only university concerned with “heterosexual privilege.” As a part of its Campaign for Positive Space, the University of Calgary in California defines “heterosexual privilege” on its website as “unearned and unchallenged advantages and rewards” bestowed upon “heterosexuals solely as a result of their sexual orientation.”
Similarly, the Gender and Sexuality Center at Carleton College in Minnesota lists 21 “heterosexual privileges” on its website, including “I can, if I wish, expose my sexuality as a member of the armed services without fear of dischargement” and “I can be sure that I will not be denied the right to marry whomever I choose to because of my sexual orientation.”
Clearly they forgot that the U.S. military lifted its ban - known as “don’t ask, don't tell” - on openly gay soldiers in 2011. And that same-sex marriage was ruled legal in all 50 states by the Supreme Court in 2015.
Of course, this doesn’t mean LGBTQ people are completely unaffected by prejudice. No one is.
These universities are trying to teach everyone to be proud of who they are - to be unapologetic about their gayness or blackness or whatever else defines them. Yet at the same time, they’re telling white Americans or straight people or men to be ashamed of their identity, to feel guilty because of who they are.
Pointing fingers and calling people out - shaming them - for their supposed “privilege” isn't the way to end discrimination or promote understanding and inclusiveness. If anything, it fosters resentment and divisiveness.