The group last month decided on the workshop topics for the next few months, so in case you weren’t in attendance, here is what the group wanted to cover:

October: Makeup workshop.

November: Clothing – maybe organising a swop shop, and some people volunteered to look into some other ideas around approaching local shops to see about organising maybe a monthly shopping time outside of shop hours. If anyone wants to help develop this idea, or get involved, or have any contacts in galway based clothes shops that would be suitable, let us know!

December - short films / movie evening and Xmas party.

As always, anyone is more than welcome to get involved with the organising, contributing ideas, or helping out with the running of the group in any way.

And a reminder, that this Saturday is the TENI General Assembly from 2-5pm in Outhouse on Capel St in Dublin. More info about that on the TENI website: http://teni.ie/news-post.aspx?contentid=254 You do need to be a member of TENI to attend, but you can become a member on the day if you are interested. It’s your opportunity to have a say in who is on the board of TENI.

However, we are meeting tomorrow to celebrate GOSSIP’s 2nd birthday! We will meet in the Spirit Centre at the usual time first, just for catch-ups, and in case people are late.

What we have changed the plan to slightly, is that we have a space upstairs in Wilde’s reserved for us for the evening, so we’re gonna go up there, have some pizza and play some board games and have a relaxed social celebration. Meeting in the Spirit Centre first gives us a chance to catch up and chat first in case anyone has anything they’d like to talk about just in the private group space, to facilitate any new members who may show up, and also to facilitate anyone who wouldn’t feel comfortable going into the bar with the rest of the group.

I hope that suffices. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to secure a nice garden space for a BBQ, nor would I be able to guarantee fine weather! It’s been a bit of wet month hasn’t it? Regardless, we will have a blast.

If I could ask people to have a few euro on them to help cover the costs of the pizza – but we’re gonna get a deal on them so we won’t be reaching too deep into our pockets. I know it’s a "gay bar", but it’s meant to be an LGBT friendly space, and we were made very welcome there last month when a few of us had a post-meeting pint there.

Also, a heads up, Galway’s LGBT pride will be the week of the 15th – 21st of August, and GOSSIP have been asked to be a part of the information day that will be taking place mid-week, where various groups who cater to sections of the wider LGBT community will be helping to spread knowledge about their groups, and the people they create a space for. I’ve also chatted to one of the organisers about the possibility of some kind of T event or representation through showing a movie or something over the duration of the festival, and we’re going to look into that a bit more and see what we can do. But that is looking good!

The workshop we have planned for August is an introduction to Yoga. Anyone who wants to get involved with helping for the information day over Pride, I guess we can arrange to meet about planning for that, and we might chat tomorrow about looking at representing the T community in the Pride parade somehow this year again.

I hope you’ve all been well, and I’m sorry that this email is so late getting to you – some of ye might not even read it until after the meeting I realise, and I apologise for that. However, some of the information is there for what’s happening in the next two months, so I hope you’ll forgive me!

If anyone still doesn’t know where the Spirit Centre is, email us for a handy map!

And a further heads up on our summer events here at GOSSIP:

• The first friday in June looks like we’ll have folk from TENI down to GOSSIP.
• In July we’re gonna celebrate the 2nd birthday of GOSSIP with a BBQ in Galway city – and we’re planning on putting out an open invitation to the other groups around the country if they want to come to Galway for it!
• In August we’re looking at running a Yoga workshop, and then we’re also hoping to be involved in Galway’s LGBT pride festival this year and running a T event for that.

So, there’s lots happening over the summer here with GOSSIP. If you want to get involved to help organise any of the events, don’t hesitate to ask! And hopefully we’ll see you at one of the events this summer.

We will be having a visit from the TENI staff in May or June too, so keep an eye out and be sure to come along and meet the wonderful people running that great organisation.

GOSSIP will be moving premises in the next month or so, but we will let everyone know by email and text when we know when and where. It’s definitely a transitional period for the group as we see two of our organisers move on from the group, and others coming up and getting involved in the group behind the scenes. If anyone would like to get more involved in the running of the group, simply just make yourself known! There’s always ways of helping out and keeping GOSSIP supporting Trans people in the west of Ireland.

“When I was younger I used to refer to myself as a ‘non-op transexual,’” writes the singer-songwriter Justin Bond, “meaning I was a transexual who didn’t need to have surgery to assert what I was. But I was wrong because without assertions people can only make assumptions and I no longer wish to indulge or refute the assumptions or labels other people choose to place on me, I simply want to inhabit my very clear vision of myself.” Which means Bond, in addition to beginning a hormone regimen, is adding the name “Vivian” and assuming the prefix “Mx.” And so: Mx. Justin Vivian Bond is neither male nor female, but transgender, and you may refer to Bond as neither a he nor a she, but a v.

- [via Queerty]

I’ve not seen “Mx” before, nor had I seen the use of “v” instead of he/she. But we can add that to the many other proposed gender neutral pronouns for the english language, like “ze” and “xe”.

Although I’m sure if everyone decided to have a personal pronoun applicable to just themselves, we would have a very messy language, but I do like the reasoning behind choosing “v” as a third pronoun option:

Pronoun: V

[...] after introducing two of the other panelists I heard my name followed by “they” and I began looking around to find out who the other people were he was talking about, then I remembered that “they” was me. I got a good chuckle out of it but my pronoun quandary was clearly NOT solved.

So what I’ve come up with is “v”. Since my name is Justin Vivian Bond and since Vivian begins with a V and visually a V is two even sides which meet in the middle I would like v to be my pronoun.

For example:

Justin Vivian Bond was described in The New Yorker as “a bar of gold in the new depression”. V’s latest eponymous show at Joe’s Pub will be Saturday January 8th at 11:30

or

“Have you seen Justin Vivian?”

“Yes, V ran to the store to pick up the dress v is having altered .”

V covers it all.

In the future if I see or hear the words he or she, her or him, hers or his, in reference to me, I will take it either as a personal insult, a weak mind (easily forgivable), or (worst case scenario) sloppy journalism.

The reasoning behind “Mx” in place of Mr / Ms / Miss / Mrs is similarly thought provoking:

Prefix: Mx.

I don’t like any of the prefixes currently in common usage as none of them seem to apply… check one: _Mr. _Mrs. _Ms. _Miss. None of these work so I have adopted Mx because it implies a mix which is the least offensive and most general way I’ve been able to come up with to find a prefix that clearly states a trans identity without amplifying a binary gender preference, or even acknowledging the gender binary at all.

For those of you who haven’t heard of Mx Justin Vivian Bond before, here’s a video of v’s Tony Award nominated, drag cabaret act “Kiki and Herb”:

Other videos from that performance are on that same youtube account: a mix of comedy standup talking about Celine Dion and Britney Spears, and performance of classic songs like “Being Alive”, “Let The River Run”, “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love” and more.

Have a laugh, a smile, a cry and enjoy the show.

Dublin, Ireland
Will be holding a Transgender Day of Remembrance event on Saturday, November 20, 2010 at 8:00 pm, at the Unitarian Church, St Stephens Green. All are welcome. Once again there will be a number of guests joining us for reflection, song and a candle lighting ceremony.

Belfast, Northern Ireland
Will be holding a Transgender Day of Remembrance and reception on Thursday, Novembers 18, 2010
at 8:00 pm at QFT as part of Outburst Queer Arts Festival. There will be the highlighting of research carried out into trans people’s experiences of Hate Crime in Northern Ireland called “The Luck of the Draw”, and also the launch of a Trans Hate Crime poster. Memorials will be displayed on a tree to both inspire and commemorate.

There will be live music, poetry reading, and other performance pieces; some wonderful hearty food from the very fine kitchen of Café No. 8; and some fundraising for support group. We’re asking for €10 as a contribution towards the costs of the event, and after costs are covered all the money raised will be going towards the funding of GOSSIP for the future months.

Some people have emailed and queried if there was a way to donate to GOSSIP separately, as they couldn’t make the event itself, and it’s something we are working on. As soon as we have a viable way of accepting donations other than in person, we’ll email out a solution to that issue.

So, come one and all, and help celebrate GOSSIP’s continued existence, while supporting the work that the group continues to do for the trans community in the west of Ireland.

But for now, here’s Antony Hegarty singing “For Today I Am A Boy”

Lyrics:

One day I’ll grow up, I’ll be a beautiful woman
One day I’ll grow up, I’ll be a beautiful girl
One day I’ll grow up, I’ll be a beautiful woman
One day I’ll grow up, I’ll be a beautiful girl

But for today I am a child, for today I am a boy
For today I am a child, for today I am a boy
For today I am a child, for today I am a boy

One day I’ll grow up, I’ll feel the power in me
One day I’ll grow up, of this I’m sure
One day I’ll grow up, I know whom within me
One day I’ll grow up, feel it full and pure

But for today I am a child, for today I am a boy
For today I am a child, for today I am a boy
For today I am a child, for today I am a boy

For today I am a child, for today I am a boy
For today I am a child, for today I am a boy
For today I am a child, for today I am a boy
For today I am a child, for today I am a boy