Education, Training and Coming Out Straight: Online

Coming Out Straight: Online is an educational tool which can be utilized to give college students in several disciplines a new perspective. It is also an excellent tool for diversity and sensitivity training.

It is very difficult for one who has never experienced discrimination to understand its effects. Asking a heterosexual person to "imagine what it must be like to be gay" rarely leads to understanding. Objections arise, underscoring heterosexist bias: "But I'd never choose to do that." "I can't imagine having sex with someone of my sex." "I'd just be out to everyone, to hell with what people think."

Coming Out Straight: Online removes those objections: A heterosexual can relate to being heterosexual; it's the world that's different. Now your students or participants can be themselves and learn about discrimination.

Coming Out Straight: Online enhances diversity awareness by putting someone it the shoes of someone different from her or him. That's what sensitivity is all about. The game can be used as a jumping off point for a structured discussion about sexual identity differences.

Coming Out Straight: Online will soon have a journal feature which catalogs the decisions that players make. An excellent assignment is to play the game for a week and print out the journal. It shows that the students have completed the assignment, and there are so many possible outcomes that it is unlikely that two students in a hundred will have the exact same journal.

Lesbian, gay, and bisexual students can also benefit from the game. They can critique the scenarios and write about their own experiences in relation to the ones presented in the game.

As creator of the game and the novel, and as an educator, if I can be of further assistance to you in bringing a new perspective to your class, please email me at: tony@arr-the-kraken.com

--Tony Hellmann