Transgender Workshop
Meem was delighted this month to host Sinan Goknur, a transgender activist from Lambda Istanbul and WWHR-New Ways in Turkey, who spoke about his experience as a feminist trans-guy. Sinan presented a paper about transphobia, gender identity, and the role of transgenders in the LGBT struggle. He also met several times with small groups of Meem members to talk more about transgender and queer theory. You can read his full paper entitled "What Happened to the T in LGBT?" here.
 

Our Diversity Commercials on YouTube!
The first two in our series of diversity commercials are now online! You can check out the "Ni7na Meem" (We Are Meem) and Religious Diversity commercials on YouTube.
 

Meem Goes on Its First Retreat
Meem's 16 coordinators of committees went on a 3-day retreat in July to the beautiful Bekaa Valley, where they had a full program of evaluation and strategizing for 2008-2009. The product of the retreat, which also included team-building and communication exercises, was a 17-page strategy document outlining the mission of the coming year, in addition to over one hundred goals and projects. The theme of this year's retreat was "From Community-Building to Movement-Building." On the left is a picture of our retreat mascot, Shakeebi, a dyke in traditional Lebanese men's clothing.
 

Book Club Kicks Off
Our weekly book club kicked off this month with a reading from Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own followed by poetry from Cherrie Moraga and readings from the anthology This is What Lesbian Looks Like. Many interesting discussions are coming out of these inspiring texts! Join us every Monday at 5.30pm in the Meem Library for a weekly discussion and reading of a feminist or queer text.
 

Egypt Trip
In a continued effort to support lesbians in Arab cities, Meem made a trip to Cairo, Egypt to meet with a number of lesbian women who shared their own stories and experiences on living in a homophobic society. Meem also held some brainstorming sessions to strategize the plan for the creation of a permanent and safe support group for non-heterosexual women in Cairo.
 

Activist Development Workshops
Wednesday evenings are now dedicated to Activist Development workshops. In July we organized a grant-writing workshop that presented the tools for successful grant applications and a security and risk assessment workshop that discussed strategies for minimizing risks and threats faced by individuals and organizations.
 

Meem in Marseille, France
A Meem member traveled to Marseille in July and participated in the UEEH conference that takes place every year with LGBT participants from Europe and the Mediterranean. The Meem member gave a presentation on feminist and lesbian organizing in the Arab world and networked with various organizations at the conference. We'd like to thank Helem Paris for their amazing and warm hospitality!
 

إقرئي هذه النشرة باللغة العربية
 

It's Meem's One-Year Anniversary!

On August 4, 2007, thirty-nine women met in Hamra, Beirut and voted unanimously on the bylaws of a new support group for LBTQ women. One year later, we can't even believe what has been accomplished and we can't wait to do so much more in the year to come. Happy Birthday, Meem :)

News Bits

► Meem welcomes her new (and first ever) intern aboard the team! Marta Bogdanska from Poland has joined us in Beirut to support our various projects. Marta will also be conducting her own research on LGBT in Lebanon.

► Our Art Committee held its first activity this month with a crafts workshop on making (voodoo?) dolls.

► Our supportive friends and family members are very important to us, so we organized a Bring-A-Straight-Friend Meeting in July, after which attendees were invited to visit the Womyn House and discuss their own perspectives on the coming out process.

► Our favorite Sexual Health Guy, Raja Farah, gave a second lesbian sexual health workshop in July to a big audience at the Womyn House. Attendees learned more about safer sex for lesbians, bisexuals, and transgenders as well as sexually transmitted diseases.
 

New on the Meem Blog
(aka Invasion of the Frenchies)

► La Dernière Nuit
► Ce Que
► Beirut Cab
 

Website Statistics for July 08
www.meemgroup.org

Total Unique Visits in May: 3,915
Growth from last month: 25.11%