Visit to ALT's School on LGBTQ+ Presentation (Advice pls!)

Paging miscreative who just completed a LGBTQ+ presentation

Wow!! Thank you for such a beautiful outline!! I really appreciate the examples of famous people who have come out. I was trying to find examples in the media (positive depictions of the issues), but I'm not sure yet to what extent those can be included in the presentation.
- (2008, drama) Last hulemdos
- (2015, anime) Yagate, kimi ni naru (Bloom into you)
- (2018, drama) My Brother’s Husband (originally a manga)
- (2019, drama) 昨日何食べた (What did you eat yesterday) (originally a manga)

Noted about the gender unicorn! Yes, since it's 45 minute classes, we're not sure how detailed the explanations can be. We would love to explain the differences between sex assigned at birth, gender identity / expression, and sexual orientations... but it would be a huge leap for students who have never heard about LGBT in the first place, on top of listening to explanations in English   

I found this shojo manga on LINE last night that's basically the story of a boy struggling with adopting a feminine gender expression at school while trying to figure out romantic attractions. I was ttly trash for it (because the target audience is probably mostly female), but moved that they had something like this 

I'm definitely down for calls! Let me know when would be good!

I love Ossan's Love in that it's such a goofy show that gets serious at unexpected moments! I would love to present this to the kids, but I'm just a little afraid that the popularity of this show shifts their focus and reduces the topic to mostly entertainment
As a matter of fact, I was hanging out with a really hulemdoly coworker the other day and chose to bring up a same-sex couple back home (just to test the waters), to which she responded

"Y E S!! I love BL as well!" 

(and proceeds to sending me R18 Korean manga during work)
I'm still over the moon to have found an ally like her at work xD

Hi guys, I'm sorry for disappearing for over three months now (general emotional stress) as I really wanted to thank everyone who helped and pitched in, especially miscreative who took the time to speak with me over the phone. Thank you for sharing your presentation & giving me ideas for these classes!
If you are also planning for an LGBTQ+ class for young~middle school students & for my own record-keeping sake, here is a summary of my experience.

Schedule
Arrived at school at 8:30, classes are 45-50 minutes each, so we taught 4 classes continuously + 45-minute lunch with the kids + 1 more class from 8:45 to 14:00

Structure of the Classes (planned mostly by the ALT)
- (5-min) Introduction (CIR)
- (10-min) Card Matching Game *1 (to be explained in more detail below)
- (5-min) Checking Answers
- (20-min) Explanations of LGBTQ+ and each letter *2
- (5-min) Showing a cute animated video *3: In a Heartbeat: www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdFrXcV5Ulg
- (when time permits) short presentation on the Tokyo Rainbow Parade and Q&A

*1. Card Matching Game
The students are asked to match a person from group A with another in group B, by picking out those who have similar interests and hobbies (this part is fictional and accommodates the English vocabulary level of middle schoolers.)
Initially, each person is numbered, requiring the students to write the numbers down on a separate sheet of paper. We thought it would take too much time as some students would have to look at the sheets upside down when playing in a group of four. In the end, we created card packs for each group by laminating cards with the person's photo + interests. Groups A & B are distinguished by different card colors.
The cards show real celebrities who are in real relationships and include both straight and LGBTQ couples. They also encompass different age and racial groups, so that we would be able to tell if the kids would try to match those "who look alike."
Answer reveal:
The correct pairs (person A + person B) are shown one at a time on a PowerPoint, followed by a photo of them actually hanging out / a family photo with their children. This definitely helped solidify the idea to sink in as some of the kids didn't think that they were real people/real relationships to start with. Plus the "new" concept that gay couples could also have kids...

Reaction of the kids
In the rush of doing 5 classes back to back, we don't remember what exactly happened in each class, but I remember being moved by the kids' reactions multiple times. There were kids who looked at the family photos gasping "so cute!!!" at the babies, there were girls who (much like the fangirl I am) were screaming every single time a gay couple was matched. There were also kids who, when they didn't understand the game, raised their hands to confirm "男・女同士でもいいですね？" It was a whirlwind of emotions.

*2. LGBTQ+ explanations
After the game, my ALT hulemdo, JTE, and I proceed to explain the concept of LGBTQ+ and what each letter means. hulemdo did a fantastic job altering pre-existing material from irasutoya so that we had beautiful illustrations of a girl blushing being confessed to by a girl, etc.
(https://www.irasutoya.com/search?q=%E5%91%8A%E7%99%BD)
LGB and T are explained separately (sexual orientation vs. gender identity).
hulemdo also made beautiful gender unicorn cards (Japanese version) that were handed out to the students. We explained the concepts in both English and Japanese, with the JTE's assistance, the central messages being "it's okay to be one way or the other" "it's okay to share or not to share" and "it's also okay if you are not sure."

Reaction of the kids
Generally positive despite the concepts being difficult to understand to start with (and the kids knew that being different is a hard thing to deal with). Middle schoolers will latch on to the keywords that you say in English, but they are definitely not able to process complete sentences, i.e. the importance of extensive & easy to understand illustrations. There are a few boys who yelled out オカマ, but the JTE had great control of the class and paid no attention to them (as overcorrection may provoke further reactions). When we explained transgender, a boy raised his hand to ask if it's like Matsuko Deluxe, and knowing that it isn't the case for Matsuko we could only tell him ちょっと違います (xD). We had no time to explain why in class, so I was hoping to catch him after class...
There was also a really loving homeroom teacher who audited half of our class because she knew there was a student who was facing similar challenges. I really wish I could spend more time at the school just to listen to the kids and talk about our experiences.

*3. Video
Most of the students reacted well to the short animated film despite it being completely wordless. Some of the kids were just happy to have time to blank out, most of the kids watched really intently, and hulemdo says one kid had a hard time hiding their tears.
We handed out a survey at the end of the class (in Japanese) as homework to ask for the students' impressions / what they learned in class, and we were so moved to see how thoughtful some of the answers are (mostly from girls, boys need to work harder on emotions hue). Most of the kids wrote "we should accept people the way they are" and "I learned 'love is love'!" etc. I wish I took a photo of some of the answers to remind myself there is hope in this world whenever I'm depressed.

In conclusion, absolutely great experience working with the kids (once they knew I could speak Japanese too, they just never stopped talking). I really hope this kind of class gets to be done at all the schools in a fun and inclusive way.

For sure, from what I can remember: 

Sarah Paulson, Holland Taylor (age gap couple)
Kit Harington, Rose Leslie
Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem
Troye Sivan, Jacob Bixenmam (split?)
John Legend, Chrissy Teigen
Ricky Martin, Jwan Yosef (and kids)
Bob Morley, Eliza Taylor
Dominic Cooper, Gemma Chan
Wanda Sykes, Alex Sykes
Kristen Stewart,    Dylan Meyer

Omg why does she turn into a gif automatically

Yes, I wish we did so too (adding Japanese or even just more Asian-looking LGBTQ couples) but I wasn't in control of the list. 
That being said, I think it's a difficult call since we are dealing with an audience this young; if they feel they can "physically identify" with the people in the photos, I didn't want them to feel that they have to act or dress a certain way to be "properly" LGBTQ (we all know that there is no "proper" way to gay ^^; I can relate a lot when Hannah Gadsby said 'where did the quiet gays go?' etc.)
Having them see "real people" and "real relationships" is definitely the first step to understanding that this could be, in the future for Japan as well, standard practice in society. I think who are going to dismiss it as a "foreign thing" won't be able to change their minds in the span of a day either. It's good to at least get them thinking.