Launch of Awareness Raising Campaign

Ireland is in contravention of the European Convention on Human Rights by not recognising the legal status and rights of transgender people. The government is appealing the first ever Declaration of Incompatibility in Irish law issued by the High Court in the Dr. Lydia Foy case. Ireland is directly violating its obligations, under European law, to ensure and protect our human rights. So TENI has started a campaign to bring the subject to the attention of each and every TD in the Oireachtas. Join the campaign NOW - email us at info@teni.ie for more details!

sOUTh in Waterford Wednesday October 15

The information evening, entitled "Transgender Information for All", held at Drop-In, Cheshire Homes, Waterford was held to be a great success. Hosted by Vanessa (TENI & sOUTh) the audience participated in a lively workshop led by Christine dealing with Trans issues. This resulted in some positive and interesting discussion which could have continued for some considerable time.

At the end of the evening the documentary film "Body Bound", featuring three of our members together with James Kelly & Dr Donal O'Shea, was shown. The reaction of the audience to the evening was extremely positive

sOUTh is a committee of volunteers based in Waterford, set up to support the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community of the South-East.

Officer positions of TENI

The Officer positions of TENI for the coming year were decided at the first meeting of the new committee on Saturday the 11th October and are:

• Chairperson - Cat McIlroy

• Secretary - Alanna K
• Treasurer - Christine Martin
• Acting Vice-Chairperson - Philippa James

TENI Annual General Meeting 2008

The AGM of Transgender Equality Network Ireland was held on 20th September 2008 in Outhouse, Dublin. A record number of attendees heard Chairperson Philippa James describe the successes of the past year and outline the future plans of the organisation. She praised the invaluable work of the Equality Authority and the Health Services Executive, amongst many others who have supported TENI in the recent past. Special mention was made of Outhouse, Dublin's LGBT centre, without which she said "TENI could not be as active or as successful as it is has been to date". Membership of the organisation, which is open to trans people as well as supporters, family and friends, has increased notably in the past year. She also told the membership of future projects for which TENI has received funding, including a major campaign to do with the prevention of violence against trans people, funded by COSC, and a related ILGA Europe funded project dealing with the Documentation of Human Rights Violations. Six of the existing committee stood for re-election and these were joined by three new faces. The entire speech will be available as a PDF here shortly.

22nd September 2008 - Presentation to Psychology Students at NUI Galway

Christine Martin and Hannah Reid gave a very successful 2 hour presentation and workshop to second year psychology students at NUI Galway last night. The session was attended by some 300 students and the workshop session was so successful that it had to be curtailed due to lack of time. The audience was then treated to the public premier of the DCU student produced DVD, featuring three of TENI's members and entitled Body Bound. It is hoped that this workshop will become an established part of the psychology course in future years.

Dungarvan Health Seminar Weekend January 2008

The group photograph was never published but as they say 'better late than never' :).