Sun 13th June - Zine-Making & Creative Session
Express yourself in a creative way!
Come along to our next online meeting which will be a creative session where you can learn about making zines and try your hand at creating your own!
Zines are short creative booklets usually made by individuals or small independent groups and are hugely popular within the LGBTQ+ community. The content of a zine is largely up to you – you can put whatever you want in it!
Our zine-making demonstration will be headed by Abe and will run from 7PM – 8PM on Sunday 13th June. Then from 8PM – 9PM we’ll round off the evening with a more casual social session where you can chat about and work on any other creative projects you have going on in the company of fellow trans men and transmasculine people.
To sign up for this session, click the button below. After registering via Eventbrite you’ll be sent a confirmation email with the details you can use to join the meeting – these will be at the bottom of the email so keep an eye out! If you have any trouble with registration or receiving the meeting link, drop us an email at f2mlondon@hotmail.com and we'll help you out.
Sat 26th June - Pride Month Park Social
Celebrate Pride with FTM London!
For Pride Month, we’re holding another fun outdoor social, so come along to celebrate with fellow trans men and transmasculine people!
We’ll be meeting in Hyde Park on Saturday 26th June from 1PM – 4PM. Whether you plan to participate in London Trans Pride and want to come say hello before the march, or whether you just want to hang out with FTM London, you’ll be very welcome.
We’ll have drinks and snacks available (individually portioned for safety) – you can also bring your own food as well, if you prefer.
Activity-wise, there’ll be games like Frisbee, and Pride-themed sticker decorating. Feel free to just sit around and chat as well – we’re sure there’ll be plenty to talk about!
Places for this event are limited to 20 people, so if you want to come, sign up ASAP via Eventbrite using the button below!
Registration will close on the evening of Wednesday 23rd June; we’ll be emailing all attendees on Thursday with information about where we’ll be meeting and who to contact in case you’re delayed, lost or in an emergency.
Accessibility, toilets and safety information
We’ll be meeting on grass near a well-maintained main path. There are toilets 300m from where we will be meeting, with accessible toilets requiring a RADAR key, but unfortunately no gender neutral toilets. Please email us at f2mlondon@hotmail.com if you have any other accessibility needs.
As with all our recent in-person meet-ups, we have implemented measures to make the event as COVID-safe as possible, but we need you to play your part in this, so please read the below guidelines before reserving a place:
- This event is open only to those over the age of 18.
- If you have symptoms of COVID-19, or you have been in an environment that is likely to have been exposed to COVID-19 (for example, a workplace or a high-risk country), within 14 days of the event, please do not attend. Prominent symptoms include a new and continuous cough, high temperature and a loss or change of smell and/or taste. For more information, visit the NHS website.
- If you can, please wear a face covering while travelling to and from the event.
- If you can, please bring your own picnic rugs with you.
- Upon arriving and leaving the event, please sanitise your hands with the sanitiser we'll provide for you. External equipment will also be sanitised before and after the event.
- Please maintain a safe distance from people not in your household - 2 metres ideally, 1 metre minimum.
- Please do not share food with people not in your household.
- Please do not bring alcoholic drinks to the event.
- Dispose of any rubbish afterwards and take everything you brought home with you.
Please also adhere to the Royal Parks policies, which can be found here.
This event is subject to weather conditions and COVID restrictions.
Saturday 29th May - Hyde Park Picnic
Our picnic in Hyde Park returns this year, and hopefully with a bit of good weather and with Covid restrictions finally beginning to ease, we can make it a success!
Join us on Saturday 29th May from 3PM - 5PM for a couple of hours of outdoor socialising - something that I'm sure a lot of us have missed! We'll also provide individually-portioned drinks and snacks, but feel free to bring your own as well.
Our selection of trans and LGBTQ+ Library books will also be available to browse and borrow!
How do I join?
Click the button below to be taken to Eventbrite where you can register for the event.
Sign ups close at 8PM on Thursday 27th May. We'll be emailing all attendees on Friday with information about where we'll be meeting and a phone number you can use to contact us if you're delayed or lost. You can also email us at f2mlondon@hotmail.com with any questions you may have about the event.
Places for this event are limited to 20 people so we can keep in line with Covid guidelines - sign up ASAP to reserve your place!
Guidelines
We've implemented measures to make the event as safe as possible, but we need you to play your part in this, so please read the below guidelines before reserving a place:
- This event is open only to those over the age of 18.
- If you have symptoms of coronavirus within 14 days of the event, please do not attend. Prominent symptoms include a new and continuous cough, high temperature and a loss or change of smell and/or taste. For more information, visit the NHS website.
- If you can, please wear a face covering to the event.
- If you can, please bring your own picnic rugs with you.
- Upon arriving and leaving the event, please sanitise your hands with the sanitiser we'll provide for you. External equipment will also be sanitised before and after the event.
- Please maintain a safe distance from people not in your household - 2 metres ideally, 1 metre minimum.
- Please do not share food with people not in your household.
- Please do not bring alcoholic drinks to the event.
- Dispose of any rubbish afterwards and take everything you brought home with you.
Please also adhere to the Royal Parks policies, which can be found here.
Sat 15th May - Transmasc at Work
Careers Panel #2: Health and Social Care
In the midst of the pandemic, the jobs our health and social care workers do has never been more important. Treating us when we’re ill or injured, accommodating and caring for elderly and disabled members of the community, or working towards the development of better care and medicine are all hugely vital to our society.
On Saturday 15th May, we’ll be holding our second Careers Panel which will focus on this exceptional area of employment - talking to the transmasculine people who’ve made it their job to look after our health. We’ll be discussing why they chose to go into this line of work and how they got there, what it’s been like to work in this field as a trans person, what they like and don't like about their job, and what the future of health and social care, especially for trans people, could look like. You’ll get the chance to ask your own questions as well!
Our three Panelists leading the discussion are:
- Ethan, a phlebotomist, medical student at Glasgow University of Medicine, representative for the University at the British Medical Association’s Student Committee, and the founder of the Gender Identity Medicine Project
- Ramses, a businessman, founder and Director of Alternative Care Services, an agency which provides social care to retired and older LGBTQ+ people in London
- Alex, a volunteer and trainee social care worker
The Panel will kick off at 7PM and run until 8PM – then there will be a more general social/peer support section afterwards until 9PM.
How do I join?
Simply click the button below to visit the Eventbrite page and register to attend.
You’ll be sent a confirmation email which will contain the details you can use to join the event – they will be at the bottom of this email. You can also create an account at Eventbrite using the email address you used to register for the event, and view the event details by logging into this account.
SAT 1st May - TransActual UK GP Workshop
Help your GP work for you!
FTM London have partnered with TransActual UK to deliver an information workshop on Saturday 1st May from 7PM – 8PM.
The workshop is centred around accessing support from your GP as a trans person; we’ll be discussing how to communicate with your GP, what barriers you might encounter and how to overcome them, as well as what the typical process is for GIC referrals, what help is available to you while you wait for your GIC appointments, the right tools for you and your GP to support your transition and non-transition healthcare needs, and changing details on your medical records – to name a few topics!
If you’ve struggled with your GP, don’t quite know what to do or say in order to start the ball rolling on medical transition, or have non-transition related health concerns as a trans person, we hope that this workshop will give you the knowledge to confidently access whatever GP support you need to keep yourself safe and well.
Sign up for the workshop using the button below!
And if you’re interested in coming along, TransActual would also appreciate if you could fill in a short pre-session survey – this will help them demonstrate the impact of their work and what groups benefit from it to potential funders, as well as helping them to improve their workshops.
Wed 14th April - Q&A With Jamie Raines, AKA Jammidodger
You don't want to miss this!
We’ve got a super exciting event coming up on Wednesday 14th April at 12:30PM!
We’re hosting a short lunchtime Q&A with Jamie Raines, who will be answering your questions about himself and his work!
The event will be online via Google Meet, and free to attend - sign up via our new Eventbrite page! If you encounter any issues using Eventbrite, please drop us an email and we'll try and sort it out for you.
If you want to submit your questions in advance, just fill in the form below - you can submit more than one question! Please also let us know if you’d like your questions to be anonymous.
Who is Jamie Raines?
If you spend much time on YouTube, particularly the trans side, then you’re more likely to know Jamie as ‘Jammidodger’! Jamie is a leading online voice for trans men and transmasculine people in the UK, providing education and advice, and tackling a variety of subjects with nuance, humour and plenty of research on his YouTube channel, which has more than 500,000 subscribers worldwide!
In 2018, he and his fiancée Shaaba appeared in the Channel 4 documentary ‘Bride & Prejudice’, which followed several couples as they navigated family issues surrounding race, sexuality, gender, religion and age in the lead up to their wedding day.
Jamie also completed a PhD in Psychology last year, with a focus on research that highlights and benefits trans people.
Sat 10th April - Peer Support With Galop
Our next meeting will be a peer support session, happening on Saturday 10th April from 7PM – 9PM. This will be a space where you can come to chat, ask questions and offer or receive advice from your fellow trans men and transmasculine people. Whether you’re just starting your transition or are post-transition – everyone potentially has something to contribute!
We will also be joined by Drew from Galop, the LGBT+ anti-violence charity, who will be talking about their work and giving advice on hate crime and how to deal with and report it, and where to access support if you’ve been a victim.
The peer support section of the session will be general topics, so you can talk about things that aren't related to Galop's work if you like.
The meeting is hosted on Google Meet - you can sign up below. If you encounter any issues using Eventbrite, please drop us an email and we'll try and sort it out for you!
Who are Galop?
Galop are a national charity combating violence against the LGBT+ community. They specialise in helping LGBT+ people who have been a victim on domestic abuse, sexual violence, or hate crime. They've been providing this support for over 30 years and counting, actively campaigning for crime against the LGBT+ community to be better recognised and liasing with services to better protect and help victims. They also run telephone helplines and a public forum for victims to find support.
27th March - Working While Trans
A New Series of Meetings at FTM London
Figuring out your career is hard for anyone, but being trans adds another layer of complexity. Especially when the statistics are against us, we believe it's important to destigmatize trans people at work. One of the ways we can do this is encourage and empower trans people in employment or currently looking for a job, by showcasing trans people working a diverse array of jobs to the best of their abilities.
Over the next few months we're running a series of Q&A sessions, made up of a panel of trans men and transmasculine people who will be talking about what their work is like, their experiences, and offering tips on navigating work life as a trans person.
Whether you've yet to come out at work, are thinking about transitioning while at your current job, or looking for new employment at the beginning or end of your transition - we're sure there will be something for everyone to take away!
Careers Panel #1: Tech & Finance
The first panel is due to take place on Saturday 27th March from 7PM - 9PM, and focuses on three people who work in the Tech & Finance industries - James, a software engineer for the Financial Times, Emry who is another software engineer, and Jai who works as an actuary.
The meeting will be online via Google Meet, so if you're interested in coming along, subscribe to our newsletter, where we'll be sending out the meeting link and phone numbers on the morning of 27th March. Look out for our email, which will be titled 'TODAY - Working While Trans: Career Panel #1!"
Alternatively, you can email us as always at f2mlondon@hotmail.com and we'll be happy to send the link your way!
Want to Participate?
We're still looking for people who may be interested in taking part in a future Working While Trans panel. If you'd like a chance to talk about your work to other trans people, contact us below with the header 'Careers Panel' and tell us a bit about what you do for a living, and we'll get back to you to discuss potential dates you can fit into.
We welcome any type of job under the sun - from education to catering, counselling to council work. We'd love to hear from you!
19th March - Circuit Workout Session
Trans Can Sport!
If you're looking for a way to exercise that is judgement-free, read on below!
We're hosting a small taster session on Friday 19th March from 6PM - 7PM with Liz Ridgway, who regularly collaborates with Trans Can Sport on trans-inclusive fitness, to showcase her work to the community. This will be a relaxed session, so you needn't feel intimidated.
She'll be running a 45-minute circuit session where you’ll be guided through 20+ exercises focusing on your core and abs, with some gentle stretching to complete the workout. Bring something to lay on like a yoga mat or towel, a hand weight like a dumbbell or gym-type weight, wear some comfortable workout clothes, and don't forget hydration!
Afterwards, Liz will answer some of your questions for a short time.
All abilities will be welcome, so we hope you come along and join us!
Where do I sign up?
The meeting will be hosted on Google Meet; if you're interested in joining, please fill in the quick sign-up form below by the end of Thursday 18th March.
We'll then email you a Physical Activity Readiness questionnaire so Liz can check the workout is safe for you. Please complete this before attending on Friday 19th March otherwise you won't be able to participate.
We'll be emailing all participants an hour before the session is due to start with the meeting link.
6th March - Q&A With Chiyo Gomes
Trans man, drag artist and Mr Gay England finalist
On Saturday 6th March we'll be hosting Chiyo Gomes, the acclaimed drag artist and 'Prinx of Provocation' who last year made headlines as the first trans man to compete in the finals of Mr Gay England, happening in April 2021.
From 7PM - 7:30PM, Chiyo will be giving a talk about his life as a mixed-race trans man, his trailblazing career and what it's been like to challenge the rigid cis-masculinity of mainstream gay culture.
Then from 7:30PM - 8PM, he'll be taking part in a Q&A where you'll get the chance to put your own questions to him. We'll be taking questions on the day as well, but if you'd like to submit questions in advance, you can here. Your questions will be anonymous if you want, and you can submit more than one.
8PM - 9PM will be a general social/peer support period where you can chat as you like!
How to join
We're hosting via Google Meet as usual. If you haven't already, make sure that you subscribe to our newsletter before Saturday 6th March, as this is where and when we'll be sending out the meeting links you can use to join the meeting. Watch out for our newsletter titled 'Happening TODAY - Q&A With Chiyo Gomes!' on 6th March before the meeting!
If you've missed the newsletter but still want to join us, drop us an email at f2mlondon@hotmail.com and we'll be happy to send you the meeting links!
20th February - Poetry Workshop with Andreena Leeanne!
Creative session on self-care
On Saturday 20th February from 7PM – 8:30PM, acclaimed poet Andreena Leeanne will be running a poetry workshop for FTM London on the theme of self-care. It'll be a chance to reflect and share your thoughts on what self-care means to you, write a short piece on the theme in a supportive environment, and hear from Andreena's debut poetry collection, CHARRED.
Andreena Leeanne is an out and proud Black working-class Lesbian Inspirational Speaker & Poet. She writes and performs poetry to come to terms with and speak out about her personal experiences with homelessness, mental health, childhood sexual abuse & the many other challenges she has faced in her life. By speaking her truth, she hopes to inspire and empower others.
If you’d like to take part, you can find the link and phone numbers for the meeting in our monthly newsletter, or alternatively email us at f2mlondon@hotmail.com to request them. We hope to see you there!
23rd January - Mission and Values Brainstorming
What you want out of the group
On Saturday 23rd January from 7PM, we're running an optional session focused on member and attendee feedback. As you may know, we're planning to relaunch the group under the name TransM London later on this year; we'll be brainstorming the group's focus, mission and values for the future, and we want to know what you'd like us to focus on in the coming year.
This could be new projects, meetings and events, informational publications, and what topics you want to see included. It will also guide what we apply for funding for, and we'd appreciate your input so that we can continue benefiting the trans men and transmasculine people we serve.
How do I join?
As usual, we'll be hosting the meeting online vis Google Meet; look out for our newsletter in your email inbox for the links to the meeting!
And if you aren't subscribed to our newsletter (which you can do here for reference), then drop us an email at f2mlondon@hotmail.com and we'll be happy to send the links over to you.
Image by freepik
7th November 2020 - Spouti™ demonstration + Giveaway
For the next month, we’re collaborating with the makers of the Spouti™ on a prize draw exclusively for FTM London!
At our next meeting on Saturday November 7th starting at 7PM, we’ll be hosting Kellen Berry, the founder of Spouti™, who will be giving a presentation on the Spouti™ STP device, how it works, and the story behind its invention.
As usual, we’ll be hosting the meeting online via Google Meet. Be on the lookout for our newsletter titled ‘FTM London – November Meeting + Exclusive Giveaway!’, which will contain all the details of how you can join the meeting. And if you aren’t subscribed to our newsletter then email us at f2mlondon@hotmail.com to get the meeting links.
But wait – keep reading to find out how you can win a Spouti™ for FREE!
How do I get a free Spouti™?
We’ve got two Spouti™ STP devices to give away free* to two lucky people!
To be in with a chance to win, you simply need to click this link and fill the form at the bottom of the page. You'll then receive a confirmation email entering you into the draw.
Sharing the unique link in this email with at least 5 people will also give you another entry into the draw – so the more people you share it with, the more chances you’ll have to win!
Entries close on 3rd December, and we’ll be announcing the winners at our December meeting, which will be taking place on 5th December (details will come closer to this date).
And as a little bonus, everyone who entered the giveaway draw will receive a discount code afterwards!
Who are Spouti™?
Spouti™ are a US-based, community-led company. After 4 years spent researching the old, inefficient funnel-shaped STP design and how they could improve it, they finally came up with a product, and a successful Kickstarter campaign made it happen.
For more information, visit Spouti™’s website!
*FTM London will cover the cost of shipping + customs to giveaway winners in the UK and US. If you live outside these countries, you may be liable for extra shipping and customs charges or restrictions. See Spouti’s Shipping Policy for your country for more information.
5th July 2020 - Funny Kinda Guy Screening & Q&A
About the event
Lockdown has inspired many different online mass watchalongs of people's favourite films and TV series, and now FTM London is proud to be hosting a similar event of our own!
On Sunday 5th July (please note: not a Saturday as usual), join FTM London for an online screening of Funny Kinda Guy, a documentary featuring trans male singer/songwriter Simon de Voil - who will also be joining us himself for a special Q&A session after the screening.
The screening will begin at 7:00PM, with the Q&A taking place at 8:30PM.
How do I join in?
The event is being held on Crowdcast. Those joining us will be able to chat amongst themselves using Crowdcast's Chat, and later on during the Q&A submit questions to Simon via the 'Ask a Question' feature. You can also ask to join the 4-person video call if you want.
To protect the privacy of our attendees and prevent unwanted visitors, the stream is invite-only and we are not publicly making the link to the stream available on our website or social media.
If you are subscribed to our FTM London newsletter, please see our latest newsletter email for details on how to join the stream (titled 'July Meeting - Funny Kinda Guy Screening, Q&A').
FTM London members, attendees and other interested transmasculine folks are also welcome to email us at f2mlondon@hotmail.com and we will provide you with the link.
Who is Simon de Voil?
Simon de Voil is an internationally-acclaimed singer/songwriter, interfaith minister, wooden boat builder, youth worker and public speaker. He is Scottish, but currently lives in rural Vermont and has played and spoken internationally in the US, Australia and Scotland.
Simon's music explores themes of the inner landscape of the soul, the enchantment of the natural world and a personal journey to follow an unexpected calling. He has played his music for rites of passage, healing, worship services, and community-building events; lately some of his favorite gigs have been played at youth centres, sickbeds, industrial workshops, homeless drop-in centres and ancient chapels.
He has been performing since 1999, but in 2002 he began taking testosterone; with his voice changing, he found himself unable to sing for 3 years. Funny Kinda Guy documents Simon's journey as he finds a new voice during his gender transition.