Dia dhaoibh go Léir a chaired/Hello everyone,

What time is it? Monday at 9:01am baybee, so it’s time for another round of pride news!

GAYMES

The Pride/Games society collab Gaymes will be on again Tuesday (October 24th) at 6pm, upstairs in the John Hume building in JHT1 and JHT2, so come by and have a bit of craic with board games, Jackbox (with maybe the new one there :O) and chill vibes. (To find these rooms, you go up the stairs to floor 1, then turn to the right and go past lecture room 1). We have a sign pointing towards the rooms in case you're not sure. :)

Tea 4 Tea

We’ll be hosting the Pride coffee morning once again this Wednesday (October 25th) at 10am-12pm in the Students Union Info Centre (near the Phoenix building, it’s where you got goodie bags from orientation). Whether you're a coffee, tea, or biscuit enthusiast it's a nice chill time for everyone. Make sure to bring a reusable cup if you can, and to have a chill time.

Book club!!

We're bringing the pride soc book club back again! We also have a book this time! The picture of Dorian Gray! Exclamation mark! We’ll be having the first book club meeting on Thursday at 6pm in JHL7 in John Hume (To find JHL7 you go up the stairs in John Hume, then walk to the left past JHL5, and JHL6 to the room). Just to note that we'll be reading during the event and not before, so you can do it casually! (We're reading a book not doing an assignment smh) Attached is a file that looks eerily like a copy of the book… no reason… Hopefully we’ll see ye there for some chill vibes and literacyness!

Once again, that's another email, and once again, that’s all from ourselves!

Le Bród/With Pride,
-------
Seán KERRIGAN (He/They),
Secretary,
Maynooth University Pride Society

Hey everyone, 

Sorry for the late email this week! I hope everyone is doing great :) Just a recap on our events this week:

Tuesday: Our collab with Games Soc on "GAYMES Night" will continue in JHT2 from 6:30-9:30.

Wednesday: 

-  10am-12pm: Our Coffee Morning will take place in the MSU Info Centre. Please bring a reusable coffee cup if you have one :)

-  8pm+: Our commuter friendly Online GAYMES will take place on Discord! (Link Below)

Thursday: our Queer Book club will start again at 6.30pm in JHL6. We're currently reading "Everyone on the Moon Is Essential Personnel" by Julian K. Jarboe.

Purple Training Tickets

Purple Training Tickets are now for sale! Link: https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/purple-training-2023-tickets-580958882657. 

“Purple Training” is an event Maynooth Pride Society run annually for other college students throughout the country to attend. It is an informative weekend on trans and nonbinary topics, such as wellbeing, information around transitioning and general awareness, and other topics that impact the trans community.

This years Purple Training will take place on Maynooth University's campus from the 14th of April to the 16th, and will feature speakers from Small Trans Library, TENI (Transgender Equality Network Ireland), and CATU (Community Action Tenants Union) and more!

General admission tickets are 5 euro, and general admission plus accommodation costs 25 euro. Note that accommodation is in the South Campus Accommodation, and will be a shared twin room. This is going to be an amazing weekend long event and we absolutely cannot wait to see everyone there. Drag your friends into coming and buy your tickets ASAP before they're gone!!

Trans Day of Visibility 
Trans Day of Visibility is this Friday! Although we're not organising anything ourselves, Trans and Intersex Pride Dublin have organised a demonstration outside the Dáil at 6:00pm on Friday. There will be committee members attending, so don't be afraid to reach out and see if someone will meet you there. I'm sure there'll be a discussion in the WhatsApp group of members who are going, so keep an eye on that. 

That's all for now, have a good week! 

Hi everyone! 

Just sending a mini weekly email for reading week for some updates. As we have the week off, we don't have any events this week. 

However....

Tickets for Purple Training have gone live!!! You can buy your tickets on Eventbrite (link: https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/purple-training-2023-tickets-580958882657). 

There's two ticket prices, €5 for those who don't need accommodation, €25 for those who do. Judging from the interest form responses, we should be able to accommodate everyone who said yes and maybe with accommodation so we're inviting everyone who needs accommodation to buy an accommodation ticket.

ACCOMODATION IS SHARED IN TWIN ROOMS (2 BEDS PER ROOM) If that will be a problem for anyone or you're worried about sharing with a stranger, please reach out to a committee member, and we can sort something out. We will have committee members in the accommodation too so we can try and sort you sharing with one of our committee if you like. 

We've also made a WhatsApp group chat for everyone going, let us know if you want to be added after you buy a ticket :) 

That's all for now, I hope everyone has a nice week off. Don't push yourselves too hard, take a break, but best of luck with assignments for anyone who has them.

We'll see you next week!!!

Hey!

Welcome back everyone. I hope you all had a great reading week. Events are back on this week which are as follows:

Tuesday: Our collab with Games Soc on "GAYMES Night" will continue in JHT2 from 6:30-9:30.

Wednesday: 

-  10am-12pm: Our Coffee Morning will take place in the MSU Info Centre. Please bring a reusable coffee cup if you have one :)

-  8pm+: Our commuter friendly Online GAYMES will take place on Discord! (Link Below)

Thursday: our Queer Book club will start again at 6.30pm in JHL6. We'll beng "Everyone on the Moon Is Essential Personnel" by Julian K. Jarboe. Here is a paragraph detailing the book from goodreads:

In this debut collection of body-horror fairy tales and mid-apocalyptic Catholic cyberpunk, memory and myth, loss and age, these are the tools of storyteller Jarboe, a talent in the field of queer fabulism. Bodily autonomy and transformation, the importance of negative emotions, unhealthy relationships, and bad situations amidst the staggering and urgent question of how build and nurture meaning, love, and safety in a larger world/society that might not be "fixable."

Purple Training Tickets

Purple Training Tickets are now for sale! Link: https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/purple-training-2023-tickets-580958882657. 

“Purple Training” is an event Maynooth Pride Society run annually for other college students throughout the country to attend. It is an informative weekend on trans and nonbinary topics, such as wellbeing, information around transitioning and general awareness, and other topics that impact the trans community.

This years Purple Training will take place on Maynooth University's campus from the 14th of April to the 16th, and will feature speakers from Small Trans Library, TENI (Transgender Equality Network Ireland), and CATU (Community Action Tenants Union) and more!

General admission tickets are 5 euro, and general admission plus accommodation costs 25 euro. Note that accommodation is in the South Campus Accommodation, and will be a shared twin room. This is going to be an amazing weekend long event and we absolutely cannot wait to see everyone there. Drag your friends into coming and buy your tickets ASAP before they're gone!!

LGBT Advisory Panel

The second sitting of the SU's LGBT advisory panel is taking place on Wednesday at 2pm. This is an open forum for all students, and I'd highly recommend attending. Alternatively, I've attached a google forms link to leave any suggestions, and a committee member will bring them up on your behalf.  Link: https://forms.gle/G9nsZEbrgYxM9M6K6 

That's all for this week, hope you all have a great week and we'll see you around! 

Bye <3

Hi everyone!

I hope you’re all doing great! Just an update on our events this week:

Our Gaymes night is taking place as usual in JHT2 on Tuesday, from 6.30 to 9pm. We’ll be taking a break from Jackbox for the week to play UNO and Cards Against Humanity together. We’ll have a few different groups set up in the room with different games ?

Our coffee morning as usual will take place in the Info Centre in the SU from 10-12. However, during our coffee morning this week we will be collaborating with Arts and Crafts soc to have a poster making session for the Trans and Intersex protest that takes place on this Saturday 19th November. (Just a note about the protest itself- our Trans and Nonbinary officer Lee wants to arrange a meeting point for those going on Saturday in case anyone feels cautious about attending alone. This will probably be arranged in the WhatsApp group closer to the date, so keep an eye on that if you’re interested!)

On Thursday we will be continuing with our Queer Book Club. We’re in SE009 this week, instead of TSI. We had a ready great turnout last week and we hope to see as many there this week! For anyone who is unaware, we are reading Loveless by Alice Oseman.

Also, a note on something important:

The Open Closet, which is a pop-up charity shop organised by MSU and Pride Society is being held on the 23rd and 24th of November. This isn’t until next week, but we are taking donations up until Tuesday next week, so if you have some clothes that you don’t wear and think could have a better home with some one else, drop it in to us at the Info Centre!

We’ve also finally set up our Discord server! Link is attached below. I’ll be hoping to start up the weekly Gaybates on there sometime this week, so keep an eye on that!

That’s all for this week, hope to see you around!

Hi everyone!

I hope you’re all doing well! I hope everyone’s Halloween was fab and you had a good rest over reading week. As we’re back on campus this week our events will be resuming, so just a quick note about those:

GAYMES and Coffee Morning

Today (Tuesday), we will be continuing on with our collab with Games Soc on “Gaymes Night.” There will be a slight change to the times from now on: we will be starting at 6:30pm instead of 6pm and will finish up around 9pm. It will take place in JHT2, same as last time, however there was some confusion about where exactly that is in John Hume (its actually not signposted at all which is really weird but anyway.) When you go up the main stairs in JH and get to the top, follow the hallway around the right, go past the entrance to JH1 and around the corner, and it’s the first door on the left. Much like last week, there is no pressure to stay with us all evening, you can pop in and out of the other Games Soc rooms ?

On Wednesday, as per, we’ll be having our coffee morning in the info center in the SU from 10am to 12pm. Reminder again for anyone who has a reusable coffee cup to bring it if you can.

Pride Book Club

For some exciting news, we’re happy to announce the launch of our book club this Thursday! Over reading week, you all voted on Instagram to have your say in what book you wanted to read and discuss with us. The winning book was Loveless by Alice Oseman. Loveless has great asexual and aromantic rep, so be sure to come along! The way we’re running this book club is we will get together and read, rather than expecting you to read by yourself like other book clubs. Loveless is available in the Maynooth University bookshop in John Hume, who are kindly giving members a discount when buying. We are yet to get confirmation on a venue for this event, but I will follow up in another email whenever I get news on that. 

Pink Training

In other news, we also have an announcement about “Pink Training”. “Pink Training” is Europe’s largest LGBT+ Conference, which sees over 300 delegates attend a weekend of residential training. With talks, workshops and plenary sessions, Pink Training is about all things LGBT+, as well as activism, mental health, campaigning, leadership, and the diversity of our community. 

“Pink Training” takes place in NUIG on the weekend of the 18th to the 20th of November, and costs 100 euro to attend. This covers your accommodation in Galway, your meals and the workshops and entertainment taking place for the weekend. This is a wonderful event for anyone interested in learning more about these topics. We have an expression of interest form, so let us know if you’d like to attend: https://forms.gle/YCAZpC4m5dBtneAU8

That’s all for this week, I hope to see you around at our events this week. Best of luck for everyone with assignments due this week and next! (Apologies on the delay for the email everyone.)

Hi everyone! 

I hope you're all enjoying the time off from college this week, and everyone has a good Halloween tonight (or Samhain if you celebrate!) Brief note to stay safe tonight, I know we're old enough, but accidents still happen so please be responsible tonight if you're celebrating- that goes for alcohol, drugs, fireworks, anything that could be a hazard tonight. 

Thanks

Quick note to say thank you for everyone who supported our Halloween event "Gay Christmas". With your help we've raised over 300 euro to go towards Purple Training, so a big thank you is owed. 

Book Club

Obviously as we're on reading week, we don't have any events planned, but I'm coming to you with an update on the book club:

One of Pride Soc's initiatives this year is to establish a queer book club to offer members a chance to engage with queer literature, both fiction and non-fiction in an inclusive and accessible way. You're not an avid reader? You have too much reading to do for college and don't feel like you can commit to reading another book? Well, this book club is designed to be for you. Instead of expecting you to read beforehand, we plan on convening once a week and reading together so that nobody feels left out. We're planning to host our first meeting on Thursday November 10th in conjunction with the Literary and Debating Society and to meet every Thursday thereafter. However, in advance of our launch we need to decide on the first book! We've put together a short list of 8 books which we are asking you our pride soc members to vote on.

The list is as follows:

Queer Sex - Juno Roche; In this frank, funny and poignant book, transgender activist Juno Roche discusses sex, desire and dating with leading figures from the trans and non-binary community. Calling out prejudices and inspiring readers to explore their own concepts of intimacy and sexuality, the first-hand accounts celebrate the wonder and potential of trans bodies and push at the boundaries of how society views gender, sexuality and relationships. Empowering and necessary, this collection shows all trans people deserve to feel brave, beautiful and sexy.

Bad Gays - Huw Lemy & Ben Miller; Part revisionist history, part historical biography and based on the hugely popular podcast series, Bad Gays subverts the notion of gay icons and queer heroes and asks what we can learn about LGBTQ history, sexuality and identity through its villains and baddies. From the Emperor Hadrian to notorious gangster Ronnie Kray, the authors excavate the buried history of queer lives. This includes fascist thugs, famous artists, austere puritans and debauched bon viveurs, imperialists, G-men and architects.

The Gender Games - Juno Dawson; Featuring insights from well-known gender, feminist and trans activists including Rebecca Root, Laura Bates, Gemma Cairney, Anthony Anaxagorou, Hannah Witton, Alaska Thunderfuck and many more, The Gender Games is a frank, witty and powerful manifesto for a world in which everyone can truly be themselves.

Gender: A Graphic Guide - Meg-John Barker; The book looks at how gender has been ‘done’ differently – from patriarchal societies to trans communities – and how it has been viewed differently – from biological arguments for sex difference to cultural arguments about received gender norms. It dives into complex and shifting ideas about masculinity and femininity, look at non-binary, trans and fluid genders, and examines the intersection of experiences of gender with people’s race, sexuality, class, disability and more.

Black Flamingo- Dean Atta; A boy comes to terms with his identity as a mixed-race gay teen - then at university he finds his wings as a drag artist, The Black Flamingo. A bold story about the power of embracing your uniqueness. Sometimes, we need to take charge, to stand up wearing pink feathers - to show ourselves to the world in bold colour.

Loveless - Alice Oseman; This wise, warm and witty story of identity and self-acceptance sees Alice Oseman on towering form as Georgia and her friends discover that true love isn’t limited to romance.

Everyone on the Moon is Essential Personnel - Julian K. Jarboe; In this debut collection of body-horror fairy tales and mid-apocalyptic Catholic cyberpunk, memory and myth, loss and age, these are the tools of storyteller Jarboe, a talent in the field of queer fabulism. Bodily autonomy and transformation, the importance of negative emotions, unhealthy relationships, and bad situations amidst the staggering and urgent question of how build and nurture meaning, love, and safety in a larger world/society that might not be "fixable."

Finna - Nino cipri; Nino Cipri's Finna is a rambunctious, touching story that blends all the horrors the multiverse has to offer with the everyday awfulness of low-wage work. It explores queer relationships and queer feelings, capitalism and accountability, labor and love, all with a bouncing sense of humor and a commitment to the strange.

Voting will be taking place over the next 3 days on our Instagram story so head on over there to have your say. The first 4 are non-fiction, and the latter 4 are fiction. Head on over to instagram (link below) if you're interested in reading any of these! Enjoy the rest of your week, and we'll see you all back next week!

Hi all,

It's that time of the week again! There is an update to our events this week:

On Tuesday we will not be having a Movie night like the previous two weeks, but instead we will be doing a collab with Games Society called "Gaymes Night," that at 6pm. As there is a huge crossover of Pride Soc and Games Soc members, we thought it would be nice to combine the two, as our events were on the same evening and people were conflicted on which to go to... but now you can do both at the same time!! Our "Gaymes" room will be JHT2, but you can pop in and out of other rooms. :)

On Wednesday we have our coffee morning in the SU info centre at 10-12 as usual. Reminder to bring a reusable coffee cup if you have one. 

And finally, on Thursday (27th) we have our Halloween event "Gay Christmas". I've already sent an email about this last week, but for a reminder, it takes place in The Venue in the Students Union and doors open at 7. There will be a prize for the best dressed so come in costume! All proceeds go towards our annual event "Purple Training." Tickets are on sale on Eventbrite for 3 euro: https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/444604222197 

I hope you all come along to the events this week as next week is reading week and we won't see you!!! xoxox

Hi everyone,

Hope you all had a great weekend! Just an update on this week’s events;

Unfortunately, we’ve had a delay with organising the book club, so we probably won’t get to start until after reading week. Keep an eye on the socials where we’ll be having a poll to see what books we’ll read, and hopefully get that launched for the first week back.

Instead of that, we’ll be running another movie night this Tuesday in IONTAS. We’ll be meeting at 6 to watch “Carol” but we won’t start the movie until about 6.45 or so. We won’t be providing pizza this time, but we’ll have popcorn and you’re encouraged to bring your own snacks!

Our coffee morning will be Wednesday from 10-12 in the SU Info Centre (same as last week.) We’ll be providing the coffee, but if you have a reusable coffee cup, please bring it! (Also feel free to bring snacks.)

Hope to see you all soon!

-------
Wren Brennan (they/them),
Secretary.

Hi all,

I'm happy to be sending my first weekly email as secretary. I hope by now you’ve all settled in if you’re in first year, or settled back in if you’re not!

This week will be the start of our weekly events (finally!)

Tomorrow (Tuesday 11th) we will be hosting our first regular evening meeting. We’ll be watching “Pride”, which personally is one of my favourite movies ever. It will be taking place at 6.30pm in JH1 and we’ll be ordering pizza.  

On Wednesday, we’ll be holding our coffee morning in the Student Union Info Centre (Your Space- this is where we held our AGM) from 10 till 12. Coffee will be on us, but if you’d life you can bring a reusable coffee cup. This event is a chance to just chill out, have a rest, and hopefully make some friends!

We’re hoping next week to launch the official Pride Soc book club next week. In order to do that we need to know what books you want to read. Keep an eye on our social media this week as we will be launching a poll to decide what book we will be reading first, so stay tuned!

We hope to see you all throughout the week!

See you soon. ?

-------
Wren Brennan (they/them)
Secretary.

Haigh a chairde/Hello friends!

Happy Monday! I mean Mondays suck in general however this Marks the start of SHAG week so there will be many wonderful and queer/sex positive events taking place in the SU throughout the week. Although Pride Soc aren't organising these events, we highly recommend going. Info on the events will be shared on the MSU intagram @maynooth_su. If you're worried about going by yourself or not knowing anybody there, drop a message into our WhatsApp chat and I'm sure you'll find a queer buddy to join you <3

Pride Soc AGM

I emailed about this last week, however for all of the wonderful new people who joined during the recruitment drive last week, our AGM will be taking place tomorrow Tuesday October 4th at 6.30pm in the MSU Info Centre (aka Your Space). For those who don't know, the AGM is where we elect committee members and also decide the direction of the society for the year. Unfilled committee positions include treasurer, secretary, vice president and first year Rep. Even if you don't feel like putting yourself forward for a committee position, come along anyway as it will be a great chance to meet our members. We're hoping also to have pizza and snacks so there is that.

Queer Movies

This Wednesday October 5th at 7pm, there will be a screening of a queer movie taking place in the MSU venue as part of SHAG week. The movie we have chosen to screen is The Rocky Horror Picture Show - I know, classic! So I hope to see a few of you there repping the queers :)

#WheresMyLevy

As a final note I'd like to draw everyone's attention to MSU's #WheresMyLevy campaign. Again for those who don't know, since 2015 the university has been collecting a student levy, essentially a tax that you pay directly to the university on top of your fees, which was supposed to be used to deliver a new state of the art student centre. On Monday last week the University announced that the construction of that project, which was supposed to be delivered by 2019, has been cancelled, despite the university having collected somewhere between 15m and 20m euro over the last 7 years. The Student's Union (of which we are all members) is planning to take action in light of this decision. This Thursday October 6th at 11.11am Students are being encouraged to walk out of their lectures and congregate at the Tent outside the John Hume Building for a rally. MSU is asking for your support. Remember, this is your money which the university has stolen. With your support and the support of the whole student body we will find out where that money went and we will see the university commit to a new student centre. So tell your friends, tell your classmates. We're not outnumbered, we're out organised!

That conclude's this weekly update! It's a pretty jam packed one so I hope it's not too overwhelming. I hope to see some of out out at the events this week,

Le bród/With Pride,

Steph Collins (They/Them)
President.

Dia dhaoibh go Léir a chairde/Hello all,

Welcome all to Pride Soc! This is our first email! just want to say hi and outline some key dates for the next week, namely the AGM.

So, firstly today the 28th and tomorrow the 29th we will be at the clubs and socs fair which will be taking place in the sports halls in the phoenix building from 10 until 4. So, if you haven't yet met any of us and would like to, feel free to drop by our table and say hi :) (there will be various goodies!)

Secondly, we're planning to host our AGM next Tuesday October 4th at 6.30pm in order to elect our remaining committee positions. Currently we're in need of a treasurer, secretary and vice president so if you're interested in being on the committee do please come along.

Finally, next Wednesday October 5th at 7pm, as part of SHAG week and in partnership with the SU, there will be a screening of of a queer movie in the SU Venue. Which movie we're going to watch is to still to be decided so keep an eye on the Maynooth Pride and the Maynooth SU insta.

That's all for the first email! You can expect a weekly email update from pride about what events are happening when. Look forward to meeting you all soon!

Le bród/With Pride,

Steph Collins (They/Them) President

Hey Everyone,

On the Friday the 13th November, Pride and Anthropology Soc. set up a screening of Paris is Burning via teams and it was such a pleasant success. While only 12 people attended overall, the screening went off without a hitch, gracing us with an insight in the life of 1987 New York's most iconic ballroom queens. From the caring, reigning Pepper Lebeija of House of Lebeija, hardworking dreamer Angie Xtravaganza of House of Xtravaganza, dance icon Willie Ninja of House of Ninja, to tea-spilling queen Dorian Corey, we saw the lives of these house mothers and their children as they fought to survive cut-throat New York and made a name for themselves in a world who wanted to ignore them. From reading and shading, voguing and realness, to house mothers and chosen families, the stories shared to us left everyone feeling inspired. Following the movie, discussions of the movie led to a few participants trying to give realness in categories like "Tipperary Farmer," "80s Style" and "Anthropology Student." With the night coming to a close, members eagerly suggested vogue dancing lessons and even a Maynooth ballroom scene (if COVID lets up). Lets us know what you think! Should we have a ballroom and, like Paris Durpee, should it be called Antoinette is Burning or Ahlam is Burning? Hope ye have an amazing weekend and hope to see on our Monday Coffee Mornings (10am-12pm) and our Thursday Hangouts (6-9:30pm).

Stay Safe <3!!

Jonathan O'Carroll

Campaign and Events Officer