(reposted from the original announcement by AuntySarah on the livejournal Transgender community)

We are a group of trans women and trans men who are starting a group to discuss and further all aspects of transfeminism, and raise awareness of the issues that we, as feminists and trans people face. As trans women and trans men are, through our experiences, acutely aware of the rigidity and oppressiveness of stereotypical gender roles; we seek to challenge this and instead to promote the idea of allowing people to flourish as individuals.

Please join us from 7:30 at Gays The Word bookshop in Marchmont Street (200 metres from Russell Square Tube) on Thursday 24th of July for our first full meeting. Transpeople as well as allies are welcome, with the understanding that this is a trans-positive space.

The first meeting is expected to focus on introducing transfeminism, looking at some of the language that's developing to describe transfeminist issues, the backgrounds and investment of different stakeholders. After a brief introduction, the format of the meeting is expected to be open discussion.

We're hoping this will become a regular event, repeating on the 4th Thursday of the month.

We have also started a blog for the group at: http://transfeminism.org.uk/

As I was curious, I asked for some more information about the event, and Sarah kindly replied.

The event is being held in a gay bookstore, and as such it definately can be considered a 'safe space'. The organisers hope for it to be considered relatively private, as well, and as other non-trans groups hold meetings there, the only problems stealth trans people may face would be due to the LGB association, rather than anything more blatantly outing.

(Personally, I'm all for the gay, however I understand that others may have issues with this)

The group is welcoming of any trans person and the allies of trans people, and no more than being polite will be expected of people - you can attend just to listen There will be some ground rules to prevent the discussion turning into a free-for-all, though (which is good!).

Some of the organisers are keen on getting involved in activism, and there are plans to protest Zucker's speech to the Royal Society of Medicine. However this will not be expected of members - it would be inappropriate of a group discussing transfeminism to not accept personal choices!

I shall finish by quoting what Sarah said to me:

Quote:

Please do come along - we'd like to hear different views and explore ideas about what this is *for*. What we've got so far has more or less grown out of a few of us getting righteously indignant about issues such as institutional cissexism (e.g. in the medical community - lack of body autonomy for transpeople, etc.), and wanting some way to advance the discussion.