Virginia Tech® home

VirTual Safe Zone

The Safe Zone program has existed on Virginia Tech’s campus since 1998, when it was founded in an effort to create a more welcoming environment for the LGBTQ+ community.

Over the years, the program has grown and evolved into what we now call the VirTual Safe Zone program. This current iteration, established in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic, offers a more expansive and comprehensive training opportunity that encompasses three separate five week courses: VirTual Safe Zone 101, VirTual Trans Safe Zone, and a rotating selection of VirTual Safe Zone electives.

Each course is designed to encourage participants to explore topics of identity, community, and connection through the lens of gender and attraction. Learn from queer and trans authors, activists, and scholars as they shed light on topics such as common misconceptions about LGBTQ+ communities, structural barriers that restrict access to vital resources, and harmful social practices that limit LGBTQ+ lives. Together, we will reflect on the widespread impact of these issues and how we can all work together to build communities that are safer and more inclusive for people of all genders and sexualities.

The VirTual Safe Zone Pathway

The VirTual Safe Zone program consists of a sequence of three courses completed in order: VirTual Safe Zone 101, VirTual Trans Safe Zone, and your choice of VirTual Safe Zone elective.

This 5 week course is the first installment in the VirTual Safe Zone series. It offers an introduction to LGBTQ+ identities and issues, which serves as the foundation for VirTual Trans Safe Zone and the VirTual Safe Zone electives. This course covers topics like: the importance of language and inclusive language practices, intersectionality and gender/sexuality, coming out, cisheterosexual privilege, and what it means to be an ally.

This 5 week course is the second installment in the VirTual Safe Zone series. It offers an introduction to transgender and nonbinary identities and issues that builds on the material covered in VirTual Safe Zone 101. As such, VirTual Safe Zone 101 is a prerequisite for registration in this course. This course covers topics like: the expansiveness of the transgender umbrella and the diversity of trans narratives and experiences, gender affirming practices, structural barriers to care and acceptance, trans visibility and representation, transmisogyny, and what it means to be an ally.

This 5 week course is the third installment in the VirTual Safe Zone series. It offers an introduction to asexual and intersex identities and issues that builds on the material covered in VirTual Safe Zone 101 and VirTual Trans Safe Zone. As such, VirTual Safe Zone 101 and VirTual Trans Safe Zone are both prerequisites for registration in this course. This course covers topics like: asexual and intersex terminology and labels, the historic treatment of these identities as “problems to be fixed,” the historic erasure and exclusion of these identities both inside and outside the broader LGBTQ+ community, and what allyship towards these communities looks like.

This 5 week course is the third installment in the VirTual Safe Zone series. It offers an introduction to queer U.S. history that builds on the material covered in VirTual Safe Zone 101 and VirTual Trans Safe Zone. As such, VirTual Safe Zone 101 and VirTual Trans Safe Zone are both prerequisites for registration in this course. This course focuses on the cultural elements that have shaped understandings of gender and sexuality in the U.S. and how those understandings have gone on to inform legal policies and social norms that have impacted the LGBTQ+ community across history. Course materials will cover topics like: native understandings of gender, the earliest examples of drag balls and gay bars, the impact of cultural moments like the World Wars and the Lavender Scare, pre-Stonewall uprisings against harassment, and other examples of queer and trans resistance throughout U.S. history.

This 5 week course is the third installment in the VirTual Safe Zone series. It offers an introduction to queer film that builds on the material covered in VirTual Safe Zone 101 and VirTual Trans Safe Zone. As such, VirTual Safe Zone 101 and VirTual Trans Safe Zone are both prerequisites for registration in this course. This course focuses on the ways in which historical context, genre, and film as a medium affect queer representation and the real world consequences of both good and bad representation in popular media. Course materials will cover topics like: the complexity of defining film as queer or trans, the Hays Code’s impact on depictions of gender and sexuality, the inherent queerness of camp aesthetics, queercoding and the establishment of the queer/trans villain trope, and the future of queer/trans film. Note: Due to limited time, we will not be watching full films together, however, there will be film suggestions for those who would like to do that independently.

Course Format and Requirements

Each course runs for five weeks and includes a combination of weekly readings and videos, discussion board posts, and a live Zoom session.

Course materials are thoughtfully sequenced to encourage learners to develop foundational competencies when discussing identity, sexual orientation, gender, and gender expression before introducing more complex and nuanced topics. The discussion boards build on these materials by providing an important space for contemplation, reflection, and sharing of personal experiences. Finally, the weekly Zoom sessions offer the opportunity to bring everything together in community.

In order to receive credit for completing a VirTual Safe Zone course, participants must attend at least four of the five Zoom sessions and contribute one discussion board post and two comments each week.

2026-27 Calendar

For the 2026-27 academic year, VirTual Safe Zone sessions will be offered on the following dates:

Session Dates
Fall 2026 October 19-November 20
Spring 2027 March 22-April 23
Summer 2027 May 31 - July 2

Registration links are available at least two weeks prior to the start of the new session. They can be found via TLOS' Professional Development Network, in the Pride Center newsletter, in the Virginia Tech News daily email, and down below. Additionally, you can request to be added to the VirTual Safe Zone mailing list so that registration links will be sent directly to you when they open. To join the mailing list, please email Skylar Christensen at schristensen@vt.edu.

Upcoming Session: Fall 2026 Session

Course Time Instructor Registration
VirTual Safe Zone 101 TBD TBD TBD
VirTual Safe Zone 101 TBD TBD TBD
VirTual Trans Safe Zone Fridays at 9 a.m. Dr. Bing TBD
Pre-Stonewall Queer U.S. History: A VirTual Safe Zone Elective Tuesdays at 12 p.m. Haleigh Wallace TBD
U.S. History: A VirTual Safe Zone Elective TBD TBD TBD

Request an Office Cohort

In addition to participating independently, the Pride Center also offers the option to request a cohort training. This is a great opportunity for offices or units with at least five interested individuals who want to think deeply about how the lessons learned in VirTual Safe Zone can be applied specifically to their area of work. Our team will set up a section of VirTual Safe Zone that will be reserved only for people in your group, and we will work with you to determine what dates and times work best for you. Cohorts will have the option to hold the weekly discussion sessions either on Zoom or in person (if you are located on the Blacksburg campus).

To express interest in a cohort training, please email Haleigh Wallace at haleighwallace@vt.edu.

Contact Information

Haleigh Wallace (she/her)