On December 1^st, 2011, ANSO (Association of Nordic and Pol-Balt LGBTQ Student Organizations) wears a red ribbon with the occasion of World Aids Day.

Ever since 1988, the 1^st of December has been marking World Aids Day, a day when “people worldwide…unite in the fight against HIV, show their support for people living with HIV and…commemorate people who have died” (www.worldaidsday.org).

With this occasion ANSO would like to stand in solidarity with the people living with HIV/AIDS and raise awareness on the importance of gaining factual knowledge regarding HIV/AIDS and breaking down the stereotypes and prejudices around these issues.

Moreover, ANSO would like to stress the importance of a free and non-discriminatory access to treatment and medical services, irrespective of gender, gender identity, ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, sexual practices or any other identity category. Furthermore, we would like to emphasize the relevance of inclusive and non-discriminatory sexual education campaigns that reach out to all groups of society and provide objective and factual information, free from homophobic, transphobic, sexist and racist statements.  

With this occasion ANSO encourages everybody to wear a red ribbon in solidarity with people living with HIV/AIDS!

For more information please contact:

Pat Kulka (email: president@anso.dk, tel: +48501980369)

Gisela Janis (email: secretary@anso.dk, tel: +46730651905)

Go and follow us on @ANSOnians – since out Media conference and training are coming soon, there will be plenty of updates and things to follow!

Hope to see you and hear from you on Twitter!

During the event young LGBTQ activists will be trained to use technology to capture their own experiences and social realities, as well as the opinions and ideas, in a variety of multimedia forms. The six days long training will have a direct practical output: the publication of the work done throughout the week on a new online portal, Loud And Visible, will generate a living resource for activists, sharing newly gained good practices, multimedia techniques, and social media strategies on an international level. The training will be based on strategies used in “10 Tactics: How to Turn Information into Practice”, which is a very powerful tool for human rights activists. Participants will be able to put the Tactics into practice during the training and potentially adapt them to their own cultural and political contexts after coming home. 

The call can be found here.

The conference is ope to all ANSO member organizations.

It is sponsored by the European Commission’s Program Youth in Action

For immediate release

On July 23^rd, 2010, ANSO (Association of Nordic and Pol – Balt LGBTQ Student Organizations) had its Annual General Meeting (AGM).

ANSO AGM 2010 took place on July 23^rd 2010 in Copenhagen, Denmark. The meeting was attended by delegates and observers from member organizations such as: BLUS (Denmark), OVI ry (Finland), Homoglobiini (Finland), Telehpy (Finland), Estonian Gay Youth (Estonia), Lithuanian Gay League (Lithuania), Tolerant Youth Association (Lithuania), Campaign Against Homophobia (Poland), Trans-Fuzja (Poland), Q (Iceland), UgleZ (Norway), SFQ (Sweden), and independent observers.

The Agenda of the AGM consisted of approving new member organizations, approving the 2009 Annual Report, the 2010 Activity Report, the 2009 Fiscal Report and electing a new board for the organization.

The ANSO AGM approved two new member organizations: Trans-Fuzja from Poland, who plays a major role in educating students on transgender issues and providing help for transgender students that feel their rights are not respected; Opiskelijavinokkaat Ovi ry, who works as a peer group and a supporting network for LGBTQ students in Finland, working in favor of the human rights of such individuals.

The elections resulted in the formation of a new board. The Presidium now consists of Micah Grzywnowicz (president), Fej Ganebo Skantz (vice-president), Pat Kulka (treasurer) and Irina Dimitriade (secretary). Scandinavia is represented by Maret Ney and Roh Petas, the Pol-Balt region is represented by Wiktor Dynarski and Justinas Suliokas, the representatives of the Vest-Norden region are Guðmundur Smari Veigarsson and Jón Kjartan Ágústsson, and the independent members are Janika Saul and Laurynas Pliuškys.

“It is great to see ANSO growing year after year, developing from all of its events and from the continuous input of its member organizations. I am really excited to see the 2010/2011 ANSO board with so many new faces and new energy, for which I have no doubt this will be another very successful year for our organization,” said Micah Grzywnowicz, the re-elected ANSO president.

ANSO AGM 2010 was part of the School of Diversity conference organized by BLUS between July 18^th and July 25^th. 60 participants from eight countries gathered to work on projects regarding the process of including diversity in higher education. The conference took place at Kastanievej Efterskole in Frederiksberg, Copenhagen, Denmark.

For more information please contact:
Irina Dimitriade
email: secretary@anso.dk
tel: +31616677311

So have a look at it NOW! Just follow the link

If you have any questions, comments, or would like to contribute, please contact us at ansozine(at)anso.dk

ENJOY!

One of them, Students for Transgender Inclusion, is devoted to transgender issues and can be found here

The second one, On Heteronormativity, talks about what heteronormativity is and what consequences it has! It has been created in cooperation with the Swedish Federation of LGBTQ Student Organizations, SFQ, who is also one of member organizations of ANSO. You can download this brochure following the link.

With time we will also provide those brochures in languages of our member organizations. So please, stay tuned!

If you have any questions concerning the brochures, please, don’t hesitate to contact us at: info(at)anso.dk

Every summer these 11 organizations come together for a week long conference to discuss issues that are relevant for us as LGBTQ students. This summer BLUS will host the conference.

The conference is an international conference with 60 participants from eight different countries. The whole shebang will take place in July 18-25. For a week we will be living at Kastanievej Efterskole in Frederiksberg. The theme of the conference is ‘School of Diversity’. Today many institutions of higher education are realising the benefits of having a diverse  staff and student body. Therefore it is important for us as members of LGBTQ student organizations to be able to influence the process of working towards an inclusion of diversity. What does diversity mean for us and how do we, who represent LGBTQ issues, get the best out of this development? We will have discussions, lectures, workshops and loads of social activity. An ANSO conference is a great way to meet LGBTQ people from other countries.

Participation in the conference is free. All participants will be living at the venue for the week and food will be supplied. BLUS will pay 70% of travel costs. If you have any questions or if you want to help with the planning of the conference please contact Ellen at diversity@blus.dk.

And for more info, go to: http://diversity.blus.dk/

Join our week full of Diversity and Revolution!!

Do you want to work with LGBT issues internationally or do know someone who would be well suited for the job? Nominate them for the ANSO board now!

A new board and election committee will be elected at the AGM which will be held in Copenhagen, Denmark from July18^th to 25^th.

The following positions are up for nomination:

President

Vice president

Treasurer

Secretary

6 board members

3 Election committee Members

The nomination has to be endorsed by a member organisation and please make sure that the person is interested in the position before you nominate him/hir/her.

Send in your nomination together with the person’s contact info to candidates@anso.dk before May 30th  .

If you have any questions you are very welcome to contact us in the election committee.

With best regards,

ANSO election committee,

Aldís, Clara and Jonsi

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!

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