"Sowing the Seeds of Joy" While Living in the Weeds: Narratives of Volunteer Safe Zone Training Facilitators in the Southern United States

Since its inception in 1992 at Ball State University, safe zone trainings (SZT) have been conducted at hundreds of institutions of higher education (Poynter, 2017). While previous studies have focused on SZT programs, ally development, and the campus climate for the LGBTQIA community, there is a lack of scholarship on SZT facilitators. This narrative study explored the lived experiences of six volunteer SZT facilitators in the three states in the Southern United States: Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi that do not have any LGBTQIA centers (the Consortium of Higher Education LGBT Resource Professionals, n.d.). Guided by Meyerson and Scully’s (1995) tempered radicals’ theoretical framework, I found all of the participants were equally committed to their institutions as well as to advancing the LGBTQIA community as SZT facilitators. Themes consisted of navigating daunting obstacles, staying persistent even in the face of adversity, and gaining fulfilling moments of satisfaction, as this labor of love of “sowing the seeds of joy” while living in the weeds was worth the effort in creating a more welcoming campus for the LGBTQIA community.