The Savvy Ally

A Guide for Becoming a Skilled LGBTQ+ Advocate

Jeannie Gainsburg

The Savvy Ally: A Guide for Becoming a Skilled LGBTQ+ Advocate is an enjoyable, humorous, encouraging, easy to understand guidebook for being an ally to the LGBTQ+ communities. It is chock full of practical and useful tools for LGBTQ+ advocacy, including:

Current and relevant information on identities and LGBTQ+ language
Tips for what to say and what not to say when someone comes out to you
LGBTQ+ etiquette and techniques for respectful conversations
Common bloopers to avoid
Tools for effectively navigating difficult conversations
Suggestions for addressing common questions and concerns
Actions for creating more LGBTQ+ inclusive spaces
Recommendations for self-care and sustainable allyship

This book will be useful for teachers, counselors, social workers, nurses, medical technicians, and college professors, as well as parents who want to be supportive of their LGBTQ+ child, but don't know how. This is not a book about why to be an ally. This is a book about how to be an ally. The goal of The Savvy Ally is to create more confident, active allies who are effective advocates for change. This informative, entertaining, and supportive guidebook will surely jump-start even the most tentative ally.

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 184 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-1-5381-3940-0 • Hardback • March 2020 • $34.00 • (£26.00)

978-1-5381-3677-5 • Paperback • March 2020 • $17.00 • (£12.99)

978-1-5381-3678-2 • eBook • March 2020 • $16.00 • (£11.99)

Subjects: Family & Relationships / LGBT, Social Science / Gay Studies, Social Science / LGBT Studies / General, Social Science / Human Sexuality

The Savvy Ally

A Guide for Becoming a Skilled LGBTQ+ Advocate

Hardback

Paperback

eBook

Summary

The Savvy Ally: A Guide for Becoming a Skilled LGBTQ+ Advocate is an enjoyable, humorous, encouraging, easy to understand guidebook for being an ally to the LGBTQ+ communities. It is chock full of practical and useful tools for LGBTQ+ advocacy, including:
- Current and relevant information on identities and LGBTQ+ language
- Tips for what to say and what not to say when someone comes out to you
- LGBTQ+ etiquette and techniques for respectful conversations
- Common bloopers to avoid
- Tools for effectively navigating difficult conversations
- Suggestions for addressing common questions and concerns
- Actions for creating more LGBTQ+ inclusive spaces
- Recommendations for self-care and sustainable allyship
This book will be useful for teachers, counselors, social workers, nurses, medical technicians, and college professors, as well as parents who want to be supportive of their LGBTQ+ child, but don't know how. This is not a book about why to be an ally. This is a book about how to be an ally. The goal of The Savvy Ally is to create more confident, active allies who are effective advocates for change. This informative, entertaining, and supportive guidebook will surely jump-start even the most tentative ally.

Details

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 184 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-1-5381-3940-0 • Hardback • March 2020 • $34.00 • (£26.00)

978-1-5381-3677-5 • Paperback • March 2020 • $17.00 • (£12.99)

978-1-5381-3678-2 • eBook • March 2020 • $16.00 • (£11.99)

Subjects: Family & Relationships / LGBT, Social Science / Gay Studies, Social Science / LGBT Studies / General, Social Science / Human Sexuality

Author

Jeannie Gainsburg is an educational trainer and consultant in the field of LGBTQ+ inclusion and effective allyship. Formerly the Education Director at the Out Alliance in Rochester, New York, she has personally facilitated or cofacilitated more than five hundred trainings and workshops in more than twenty different states at corporations, colleges, government agencies, K-12 schools, hospitals, faith communities, and more. She was under the impression that a citation was the result of driving too fast until January of 2019, when she received one from the New York State Assembly for Distinguished Educational & Human Rights Services for her work in promoting LGBTQ+ rights and inclusion. Visit her website and download free ally goodies at: www.savvyallyaction.com.

Table of Contents

Prologue

1 Getting Started

PART I: BECOMING KNOWLEDGEABLE ALLIES

2 The Glossary Is at the Back

3 Coming Out as LGBTQ+

4 Orientations, Identities, Behaviors—Oh My!

PART II: BUILDING SKILLS FOR HAVING RESPECTFUL CONVERSATIONS

5 LGBTQ+ Etiquette

6 Gaydar and Other Problematic Assumptions

7 Good Talk: The Art of Useful Conversations

8 Common Bloopers

PART III: TAKING ACTION TO CREATE MORE INCLUSIVE SPACES

9 Straight Pride Parades and Special Snowflakes:

Addressing Common Questions

10 Duct Tape Patch-up Jobs and Big Fixes: Two Paths to Travel toward More Inclusive Spaces

11 Taking It to the Streets

PART IV: ALLYING RESPONSIBLY

12 Ally Backlash

13 Sustainability

Glossary

Bibliography

Acknowledgments

Index

About the Author

Reviews

This is it. You found it—the very best guide on how not to make mistakes with LGBTQ+ employees, customers, students, congregants, patients, and family members. If you want to be an effective ally for LGBTQ+ people, buy and read The Savvy Ally. I very enthusiastically endorse this book.
— Brian McNaught, named by The New York Times “The Godfather of Gay Diversity Training”

"An ideal, practical, effective, and thoroughly 'user friendly' DIY instructional guide and manual, The Savvy Ally: A Guide for Becoming a Skilled LGBTQ+ Advocate is an especially and unreservedly recommended addition to family, personal, professional, community, college, and university library LGBTQ collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists."

— Midwest Book Review; Midwest Book Review

I was really hesitant to read a book written about the LGBTQ+ community by someone who does not identify as LGBTQ+. I read the first few pages with skepticism, ready to poke holes in the book. And... I have never been so happy to be proven wrong! Jeannie's book is filled with great information for anyone who wants to understand what it means to be an advocate for LGBTQ+ people and how to act as an ally. It's also educational for those within the community - I found myself saying "huh! I didn't know that!" multiple times as I was reading. I loved the book so much that we offered the book as a virtual book club at work during pride month this June. My colleagues had rich and meaningful discussion and we would highly recommend it!
— Cara Pelletier, senior director of Diversity, Equity & Belonging, Ultimate Kronos Group

This is a beautiful book. A necessary book. An unputdownable book. Please read this book.
— Alison Smith, Lambda Literary Award Winner and author of Name All the Animals

If you want to support LGBTQ+ people but no one has ever taught you how, this is the book for you. Written in an accessible and entertaining style, The Savvy Ally is filled with useful scenarios, tips, and examples to help you transition from well-intentioned bystander to effective and informed advocate.
— Robyn Ochs, named by Teen Vogue as one of “9 Bisexual Women Who are Making History”

This book is long overdue and I loved reading it! It is a call to action in a positive, optimistic and engaging way - a masterful blend of information, personal stories, humor and serious content. This is much more than just an informative book. It is designed to build skills that can be translated into ongoing, meaningful action. If you want to be an effective LBGTQ+ ally, buy this book. It won’t just sit on your shelf. You’ll use it every day!
— Mike Streeter, executive director, Workforce Diversity Network

The Savvy Ally provides a successful foray into the confusing and ever-changing world of being an ally to the LGBTQ+ community. The thoughtful definitions, the various analogies, and the personal examples used to clarify issues are always helpful and often brilliant. Clearly, Gainsburg’s many years of “operating in solidarity with” the LGBTQ+ community have provided her with the necessary insight to create such a useful tool. I am grateful for such a perceptive and kindhearted book!
— Matthew Burns, Dean of Students, University of Rochester

The Savvy Ally is a read for everyone. It is one of the best tutorials I’ve read that offers key insights into LGBTQ communities while offering practical guidance and action-oriented tips that will help allies become more culturally competent, respectful and impactful in their interactions, both personally and in business.
— Joseph L. Searles, Corporate Diversity Relations Director, Excellus BlueCross BlueShield

I love the compassionate sentiment that is weaved through this book that being an ally doesn’t mean you have to be perfect, it means being able to acknowledge when a mistake is made and then trying your best to be better. If you truly want to be an ally, The Savvy Ally will lead the way through real life examples, questions that make you go hmm. . . and ‘what if’ scenarios. Thank you Jeannie Gainsburg for supporting my ally journey!
— Kimberly Braithwaite, Senior Human Resource Manager, Barilla America Inc. and one of Diversity Journal’s 2019 “Women Worth Watching”

Our Active Ally workshops on campus are full of folks who genuinely want to be great allies but lack the information and more importantly the confidence to step proudly into that role. The Savvy Ally is a book I will recommend again and again for its thoughtful approach to gaining knowledge, skill and confidence. It's a much needed tool in our box!
— Kelly Clark, director of the Q Center, Binghamton University

If you have LGBTQ+ friends, family, colleagues, service users, or are simply keen to be more knowledgeable about the subject of gender equity, The Savvy Ally is the best reference guide you are ever likely to read. Jeannie Gainsburg is a skilled and professional ally, as well as a tremendous author.
— Matt McAvoy, senior editor, MJV Literary Author Services

This is such an amazing book about how someone who is not part of the LGBTQ+ community can be a helpful advocate to those who are. I was surprised to see that a book about LGBTQ+ was written by a cisgender straight woman. (I learned the term cisgender from the book.) . . . I think she did a wonderful job both explaining all the confusing terms as well as explaining how anyone not LGBTQ+ can be an ally or advocate for those who are…I highly recommend this book to everyone.

— Kathleen Garber, SMS Nonfiction Book Reviews

"An ideal, practical, effective, and thoroughly 'user friendly' DIY instructional guide and manual, The Savvy Ally: A Guide for Becoming a Skilled LGBTQ+ Advocate is an especially and unreservedly recommended addition to family, personal, professional, community, college, and university library LGBTQ collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists."

— Midwest Book Review

Features

Ongoing
Savvy Ally Action’s YouTube Channel features fun videos with savvy ally tips. Link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNTbZy88kyTvZklSdiCi00w/videos

Feb. 9, 2020
The Rainbow Roc podcast featured author Jeannie Gainsburg in an hour-long episode about her book and its subject. Link: https://www.mixcloud.com/michael-lill2/rainbow-roc-02092020-hour-1-rainbow-interviews-jeannie-gainsburg-about-her-book-the-savvy-ally/

Oct. 6, 2020
Change Catalyst Founder & CEO, Melinda Briana Epler, talks with Jeannie Gainsburg, author of The Savvy Ally, about responsible and respectful LGBTQ+ allyship.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIaLqSUC5gE&list=PLulnXCQalQfYNeF3tdU7RFCF27x6qAklT&index=2&t=1304s&ab_channel=ChangeCatalyst

Oct. 18, 2020
Soulfront Founder, Scott Riddell, talks with Jeannie Gainsburg about her personal ally journey, her new book The Savvy Ally, and best-practices for creating LGBTQ+ inclusive workplaces and schools.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DPukyi4ufs&list=PLulnXCQalQfYNeF3tdU7RFCF27x6qAklT&index=1&t=133s&ab_channel=SoulfrontwithScottRiddell

Oct. 28, 2020
Reilly Hirst, of Writers & Books literary center, facilitates this Savvy Ally book reading and interview with Jeannie Gainsburg.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Chd-7cl9ZUw&list=PLulnXCQalQfYNeF3tdU7RFCF27x6qAklT&index=3&ab_channel=Writers%26Books

Spring 2021, Teaching Tolerance Magazine: Chosen as a Staff Pick Favorite. Link: https://www.learningforjustice.org/sites/default/files/2021-02/Teaching-Tolerance-Magazine-66-Spring-2021.pdf

August 20, 2021
"5 Ways to Become a Skilled LGBTQ+ Advocate"
Code Like a Girl
https://code.likeagirl.io/5-ways-to-become-a-skilled-lgbtq-advocate-d63c64b65c7a

April 26, 2021
The School Social Work Association of America (SSWAA) posts “5 Tips for Creating LGBTQ+ Welcoming Spaces” by Jeannie Gainsburg
https://www.sswaa.org/post/5-tips-for-creating-lgbtq-welcoming-spaces

March 28, 2021
CNY Woman Online publishes “LGBTQ + Allyship” by Jeannie Gainsburg
https://issuu.com/kellybreuer/docs/cny_marchapril2021final

March 10, 2021
Rochester Business Connections interviewed Jeannie Gainsburg on episode 47 of their podcast.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjTnaeVYt5M

March 5, 2021
Afternoon Cocktail featured Jeannie Gainsburg on their episode titled, "Action and Allies".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8j-MMlmhkw&list=PLulnXCQalQfYNeF3tdU7RFCF27x6qAklT&index=9&t=75s

March 10, 2021
Rochester Business Connections interviewed Jeannie Gainsburg on episode 47 of their podcast.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjTnaeVYt5M

March 28, 2021
CNY Woman Online publishes “LGBTQ + Allyship” by Jeannie Gainsburg
https://issuu.com/kellybreuer/docs/cny_marchapril2021final

April 26, 2021
The School Social Work Association of America (SSWAA) posts “5 Tips for Creating LGBTQ+ Welcoming Spaces” by Jeannie Gainsburg
https://www.sswaa.org/post/5-tips-for-creating-lgbtq-welcoming-spaces

April 30, 2021
(585) Magazine publishes Gainsburg’s “Five Things Allies Should Know About LGBTQ+ Pride” article.
https://www.585mag.com/five-things-allies-should-know/

June 16, 2021
Stonewall National Museum & Archives Interview with Author Jeannie Gainsburg:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k47UgIakk80&t=3561s&ab_channel=StonewallNationalMuseum%26Archives

August 20, 2021
Code Like a Girl Website features Gainsburg’s "5 Ways to Become a Skilled LGBTQ+ Advocate"
https://code.likeagirl.io/5-ways-to-become-a-skilled-lgbtq-advocate-d63c64b65c7a

November 8, 2021
Chapters4Change founders interview Gainsburg about “The Savvy Ally”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kv2IpDOuHn4&list=PLulnXCQalQfYNeF3tdU7RFCF27x6qAklT&index=12&ab_channel=Chapters4Change

The Savvy Ally

A Guide for Becoming a Skilled LGBTQ+ Advocate

Jeannie Gainsburg

The Savvy Ally

A Guide for Becoming a Skilled LGBTQ+ Advocate

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