April 2023 Newsletter

Welcome to the second edition of the International Queer Meetup Munich Newsletter. With this newsletter, we want to improve communication between organizers and members and to update everyone about news and events in our close-knit community.

1. We have a new website!

We are excited to present our brand new website https://queer-meetup-munich.de/ . You might be reading this newsletter already on our new website! Please, check out our website, if you haven’t already done so.

This website was possible thanks to Andrea di S. and Michelle. They indeed put in a lot of time and effort to get it off the ground. We are always looking for more ideas and content. If you have suggestions and comments, please send us a message or an email to queermuenchen@protonmail.com

2. Celebrating 1000+ members

In the past couple of years, our group has grown, both in terms of people who come to events, as well as the total number of members on meetup. On meetup, we are now a community of >1000 queers! While size is not everything (as I keep telling my Grindr dates), 1000 members is a huge milestone!

In order to celebrate it, Arijit, Mikayla and Megan hosted a Potluck at Sub on Sunday, 2^nd April. ~25 people from our group attended the event and brought along some delicious food. In addition, many people in Sub spontaneously joined the potluck!

We want to take this opportunity to thank all our 1k+ members, and especially the members who actively join our events. If you have joined our meetup group but have not been to our events yet, feel free to do so whenever you feel comfortable. We would love to meet you. Finally, we want to welcome the 39 new members who joined our group in March!

3. Save the date: Friday, May 12^th. Our fifth birthday celebrations!

Our group was founded on 8^th April 2018. We had our first event on 8^th May 2018. That was five years ago! Thanks to members and organizers, we have met many queer people from all over the world and have attended events ranging from Karaoke to marching in the CSD parade together!

We should all celebrate our birthday together on Friday, 12th of May (most likely at Lez). You will get an event notification soon! For now, just save the date.

4. Other news from the Organizing team

Thanks to Megan’s efforts, we will soon (probably from July) have a monthly bartending spot at Lez. This will coincide with one of our Lez Stammtische.

In other news, Srihari stepped down as a co-organizer in March, as he is busy with other commitments. We want to thank him for all his contributions towards keeping our group running.

5. CSD events

We have been marching together as a group on CSD Munich almost every year since our foundation. Last year, we even had our own spot in the parade. Since it is becoming a tradition, this year, we are going to do it again! Not only are we going to the Munich CSD this year, but also to Augsburg and Nurnberg CSDs.

CSD Munich is on 24^th June this year. Please check out the event details for further information and do not forget to join the Whatsapp group (link in event description) https://www.meetup.com/queer-muenchen/events/292381337/.

Also check out our Augsburg https://www.meetup.com/queer-muenchen/events/292596586/ and Nurnberg https://www.meetup.com/queer-muenchen/events/292596594/ CSD meetups. We will include more details about CSDs in our next two newsletters.

We are raising money to print banners and flyers to distribute at CSDs and throughout the year. If you would like to contribute, please use this link: https://gofund.me/6fdd54b5 Please note that all contributions are voluntary and not an event or membership fee. Furthermore, Andrea di S. will provide a detailed accounting of all proceeds after the CSD events.

6. Adopt an event: touring the world in Munich

In 2021, a former co-organizer- Ryan organized an event-series called “Touring the world in Munich”. It involved going to restaurants featuring different cuisines every Sunday (eg. Turkish, Bulgarian, Georgian, Vietnamese, etc). We would love to restart this event-series. However, since it is quite a big commitment for one organizer, we thought we could ask whether any members would be interested in organizing one or more events in the series.

This is how it could work: Person X selects a particular date and says that they will organize dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant. Person Y selects another date and says they will organize dinner at a Japanese place on that date. A current co-organizer (probably me) will help you if you have questions or need help. Although organization should be quite straightforward: it basically involves keeping yourself free on that evening and reserving a table (and keeping the restaurant updated about any changes to the reservation). If you are interested, please email us at queermuenchen@protonmail.com, or write us a message/ tell us in person, or use the comments section of the survey (link below) to let us know. If this ‘adopt an event’ proves successful, we can do many more ‘adopt an event’ series e.g. Hiking/Discover Bavaria/ bar hopping in Munich/parties in Munich, etc.

7. Upcoming events

Here is a list of upcoming events in April (as of 09^th April 2023). Please rely on our Meetup page for up-to-date information as events are often added or modified after our newsletter goes online, and the newsletter is not updated once uploaded.

Recurring events:

Lez Stammtisch: Friday 14th https://www.meetup.com/queer-muenchen/events/292512745/ and 28th https://www.meetup.com/queer-muenchen/events/292582875/ April

Sub Stammtisch: Wednesday 19th April https://www.meetup.com/queer-muenchen/events/vrdvctyfcgbzb/

Book Club: Tuesday, 11^th April https://www.meetup.com/queer-muenchen/events/292240787/

Non-recurring events:

Museum Sunday – Glyptothek: Sunday, 16^th April https://www.meetup.com/queer-muenchen/events/292487199/

Improv workshop with Anki: Sunday, 16^th April https://www.meetup.com/queer-muenchen/events/292643363/

8. Feedback

If you are still reading, please let us know what you thought of the newsletter by clicking this link. It takes only a minute and lets us know how we could do better. https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/BXFWNSY

Hiranmay, on behalf of the organizing team. Thanks to Aizan for edits. Aizan and Rüfət are now on the newsletter team and the next newsletters will feature more content from them.