Call for Participants – Gender Queer University: Questioning Norms in Higher Education

ANSO would like to invite you to a study session called Gender Queer University: Questioning Norms in Higher Education, with the aim of creating knowledge and tools for working with gender, gender identity and gender expression in higher education. It will be held in Strasbourg 14^th- 21^st March 2010.

The call for participants with detailed information on the event can be found here as well as the online application  form. Please, submit your application not later than 23:59 29th January 2010. Participants will be selected by the prep team on the 1st February and you will be notified the following week.

The event will be run using non-formal education as a main methodology.

Please note also that participants preferably should be between 18-30 years old and from the Council of Europe member states, however, exceptions might be made, so do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions! (studysession10(at)anso.dk)

We hope that you will join us in this ground breaking discussion and will try to make a change with us!
Please forward the call to anyone you think might be interested in applying!

Media coverage of ANSO’s kiss-in in front of Lithuanian parliament

ANSO received a lot of media attention yesterday, 26th November 2009 when organizing kiss-in to protest against homophobia in Lithuania.

There was TV present and their material can be found here and also some newspaper came to document everything. The pictures can be found here.

More pictures will be added soon!

Kiss homophobia away! <3

Students kissing against Lithuanian homophobia

Press release 2009.11.26

Students kissing against Lithuanian homophobia

On Thursday 26th of November a group of LGBTQ activists will be kissing against the Lithuanian government and their homophobic legislation through a public kiss-in in front of the parliament.

The public kissing is organized as a demonstration against the state homophobia which is violating the human rights of LGBTQ people in Lithuania. The event was organized by ANSO – Association of Nordic and Pol-Balt LGBTQ Student Organizations, in cooperation with Lithuanian LGBTQ activists.

“Lithuania has long been known as one of the most homophobic and biphobic countries in Europe but the situation will get dramatically worse when the new legislation for The Law on the Protection of Minors against Detrimental Effect of Public Information comes into effect in March 2010” says Madle Saluveer, board member of ANSO and vice president of EGN, the Estonian member organization of ANSO.

ANSO is this week organizing a 4 days long conference on LGBTQ issues in Vilnius to shed light on the Lithuanian situation and to show international support to local LGBTQ activists. ANSO is very concerned about the human rights situation in Lithuania and by organizing an event in Vilnius the organization hopes to draw attention to the homophobia and discrimination that LGBTQ people face with this new legislation.

“With this demonstration we hope to attract the attention of our national governments to put pressure on their Lithuanian colleagues to reverse this legislation and protect the human rights of all people” explains vice president of ANSO, Ann Kristin Fagerlund.

 

ANSO – Association of Nordic and POl-Balt LGBTQ Student Organizations is an organization working for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and Queer students in the Nordic countries, Poland and Baltic states. The organization focuses on preventing heteronormativity in higher education and on improving the situation for LGBTQ people in the member countries.

 

For more information, contact:

Ann Kristin Fagerlund – vice president of ANSO: +4792065379, vicepresident@anso.dk

 

ANSO Workout: Building Organizational Muscles

ANSO would like to invite you to a seminar called ANSO Workout: Building Organizational Muscles with the aim of equipping students activists for capacity building and organizational strengthening. It will be held in Vilnius, November 24-29, 2009.

The main aim of the seminar is to strengthen LGBTQ student organizations by sharing best practices on how to run an LGBTQ student organization. It will gather experienced activists from the member organizations of ANSO who will together accumulate the knowledge existing on local level within different areas of our work. By strengthening the work of LGBTQ student groups we are fighting homophobia and heteronormativity in higher education as well as contributing to the social inclusion of LGBTQ students.

Objectives
The objective is to share and accumulate knowledge and experience regarding:
* How to cooperate with local student unions
* How to lobby institutions of higher education
* How to create networks with other organizations
* How to create a safer space for LGBTQ students
* Community building within the organization
* How to recruit and motivate new members
* How to manage conflict situations within the organization
* Planning activities within the organization
* Communication within the organization
* Sharing the knowledge and making the organization sustainable
* Project management
* Fundraising and financial management

Target group: ANSO member organizations:
We encourage the board members from the member organizations of ANSO to participate in the seminar as it focuses on the capacity building and is strictly connected to managing the organization.
Participants should be able to work and communicate in English and be able to participate in the whole event.

Deadline for applications: November 1, 2009
You can find an application form here:
http://ansoblog.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/anso-call-for-vilnius-seminar1.doc

PRESS RELEASE: ANSO’s Annual General Meeting: Nordic and Pol-Balt LGBTQ students ready for new challenges

ANSO’s Annual General Meeting: Nordic and Pol-Balt LGBTQ students ready for new challenges

PRESS RELEASE

1 October 2009
On Tuesday, 1st of September, a new board of ANSO (Association of Nordic and Pol-Balt LGBTQ Student Organizations) was elected during the organization’s Annual General Meeting in Stockholm. Both, the president, Monika Grzywnowicz, and the vice president, Ann Kristin Fagerlund, were re-elected for their posts.
“I am proud to still be a part of such an important and dynamic organization as ANSO,” states Grzywnowicz. “The last year was full of challenges and successes and I am truly looking forward to start working with the new board and see what 2009/2010 has to offer us”
The new board consists of 12 young activists from all over the Nordic and Pol-Balt (Poland and the Baltic States) regions. The board members are diverse in experiences, competences and visions, which will enable the organization to grow and develop even further.
The Annual General Meeting also decided to change the name of the organization to ANSO, Association of Nordic and Pol-Balt LGBTQ Student Organizations (previously Association of Nordic LGBTQ Student Organizations), making it more inclusive and reality-based.
“The name change is a good start in building a stronger connection with our member organizations and make all of them more visible”, Grzywnowicz explains, and adds: “We will continue fighting heteronormativity in higher education and working on transgender issues, eventually making our universities anti-discriminatory and safe places for all students.”
The members of the new board are as follows:
President
Monika Grzywnowicz, Poland
Vice president
Ann Kristin Fagerlund, Norway
Treasurer
Patrycja Kulka, Poland
Secretary
Arnt V. Arntsen, Norway
Board members
Malou Zilliacus, Sweden
Alice Guéna, Sweden
Anthony Holm, Denmark
Vilmantas Juknelis, Lithuania
Madle Saluveer, Estonia
Laurynas Pliuskys, Lithuania
Guðmundur Smári Veigarsson Iceland
Helga Kristjana Bjarnadóttir, Iceland

ANSO is the Association of Nordic and Pol-Balt Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Student Organizations. It is working in the interest of LGBTQ students all over the Nordic and Baltic region and Poland. ANSO fights discrimination based on homophobia and transphobia in Nordic universities and aims to increase the quality of higher education by fighting heteronormativity. It supports local student organizations so they can both be safe places for LGBTQ students and be an important part of its local university community.

For more information please contact:
President: Monika Grzywnowicz
Mobile: +46 768956168
Email: president@anso.dk

Vice president: Ann Kristin Fagerlund
Mobile: +46 700541170
Email: vicepresident@anso.dk
www.anso.dk

Calling on ANSO seminar in Vilnius, November 09

Association of Nordic and Pol-Balt LGBTQ Student Organizations calls for a participant to join the preparation team for a capacity building seminar for ANSO member organizations, in Vilnius, Lithuania the 24th -29th of November. The seminar is funded by the European Youth Foundation.

The deadline for applications is the 6th of October.

Please read through the call here

Do not hesitate to contact Arnt at secretary (at) anso.dk if you have any questions concerning applying for the prep-team.

Lithuanian parliament passes the homophobic law…

Dear friends,

Today  the President’s veto has been rejected and the law has been adopted. Homo/bisexuality will be an official detrimental effect for minors in Lithuania starting from March 2010. Our parliamentarians: 87 morons, 25 undecided and only 6 sane (out of 141). This law was adopted only for LGBT issues despite the fact that negative is considered public information relating to the physical or mental violence imaging: the detail is shown for human and (or) animal mutilation, torture or killing, when you deliberate property damage or destruction.Before such information is classified erotic, causing fear and horror of information. The Act provides that the adverse impact of the information will be treated as information to promote gamble, calling, offering to participate in gambling, lotteries and other games, which formed the impression of easy winnings.

Lithuanian Parliament (Seimas) made the decision which will have the huge impact on Lithuanians life. We look forward to your support of the LGBTQ community in Lithuania. Every small action is very important for us.

Tonight we asking you to put the candles in front of Lithuania embassy or consulate in your country/city tomorrow in the evening (the exact time it’s not important) (the list of Lithuania embassies is http://www.urm.lt/index.php?-891452779) , to make a photo and send us until Thursday. We will prepare the press release and will add your photos.

Thank you in advance!

Best wishes,

Vilmantas Juknelis,
project coordinator
LGL

Call for candidates for positions in Presidium and Board of ANSO

Dear ANSO friends,

ANSO election committee would like to announce a call for candidates for positions in Presidium and Board of ANSO for the period of 2009/2010. Please find the call here.

In order to nominate a person, please send an email to the election committee at candidates@anso.dk with your proposal and shortly say why you think the person is suitable for the position.

Hope to hear from you soon,

ANSO election committee: Clara, Ellen and Martin

ANSO survey

Dear ANSO blog reader

We’ve recently sent out a survey to our member organizations to help the ANSO Board work out ANSOs 3-Year Activity Plan for 2010-2012. The plan will be presented for further discussions at the Annual General Meeting.

The ANSO board would like to get input from more people so if possible please take the time to answer the questions from our survey and return your replies to anso@anso.dk no later than 25th of July 2009.

The survey can be found here:

Survey_3yrs_StrategicPlanning

Our very best and Happy Summer!

ANSO’s annual conference Genderbending Your Utopia

ANSO, Association of Nordic Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Student (LGBTQ) Organizations would like to invite you to its annual conference Genderbending Your Utopia. It will be held in Stockholm, Sweden 16th – 23rd August 2009, hosted by SFQ – the Swedish Federation of LGBTQ Student Organizations.

This conference’s main theme is gender beyond the binary understanding and the main aim is to bring member organizations together and discuss what gender can be if we allow ourselves to think beyond our heteronormative boxes.

The six days long event will be filled with lectures, workshops, and work groups. The participants will have a chance to exchange knowledge and share their experiences. All this is in order to reach the goal of educating Nordic, Baltic and Polish students and facilitating their everyday work within their own organizations concerning (trans)gender issues.

If you would like to get more information, please, contact, Ann Kristin at vicepresident@anso.dk