March letter

Dear Friends,



Here is our latest newsletter with lots of activities - March is a busy month.

Recent developments here include:

Works have started on the ground floor and from Mid March onwards we will occupy all three floors at Waterloo Place. This will provide us with more opportunities to deliver services that accommodate your needs. We will be organising a grand opening and you will be invited!!

Lisa Ross, our new clinical nurse has started working at THT, offering testing every Tuesday from 5-7pm. Free, anonymous and confidential testing of HIV, HepB, HepC and HepB vaccination are provided. With Lisa Ross we are also looking into broadening our clinical services. We will keep you posted.

We are delighted to announce the start of an LGBT social group in Lochaber. The first meeting will be on 19th March – see the programme and poster for full details.

Last but not least, THT in collaboration with the liver disease department at Raigmore hospital are starting a new support group for people who are HepC+, whether or not they have already started treatment. We like to offer people the opportunity to meet other people with the same long term health condition so that ideas can be exchanged, peer support becomes available, information can be given and new friends can be made. The first meeting is taking place on Wednesday 18 March from 6.30-8pm at 34 Waterloo Place, Inverness

I hope you enjoy the newsletter and I look forward to welcoming you at one of our activities.

Best wishes



Agnes Boes
Health Promotion Specialist - Highland

programme March 2008

Terrence Higgins Trust Scotland
Highland Programme March 2008

Social gatherings
Tuesday 11 12-2pm at THT LGBT lunch drop-in
Come and have your lunch at THT with your friends or meet some new ones. Browse through the brochures, ask us questions. Tea, coffee and soup provided by THT

Wednesday 12 7-9pm at THT T group
For those who identify as Transgender – in all its variety.

Tuesday 18 6-7.30pm at THT HepC+ Support Group
A group to meet other people who are HepC+, whether on treatment or not.

Wednesday 19 6.30-9pm Lochaber LGBT social group.
Come along and tell us what we can do for you. Fusion Space, The Nevis Centre, An-Aird, Fort William

Tuesday 25 6-8pm at THT Gay Men Movie ‘Billy’s Hollywood Screen Kiss’ Come and watch it together with your friends and meet new friends

Wednesday 26 1-2pm at THT Discuss/report homophoboc/transphobic incidents with the police in a safe environment. Pop round, phone, write or e-mail.

Wednesday 26 6-8pm at THT HIV+ support group

Saturday 29 11-1pm at THT Book discussion group
This month’s book ‘Middlesex’ by Jeffrey Eugenides

Go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lgbtnorthscotland and join the online community for LGBT people in the North of Scotland
You can also find this info. and more on our blog http://thtscotland-highlandservices.blogspot.com

Sexual Health
Monday 03 12-2pm at THT Drop-in for sex workers
Tuesday 04 5-7pm at THT Needle exchange
5-7pm at THT Test clinic
Thursday 06 9.30-11.30am at THT Needle exchange
Tuesday 11 5-7pm at THT Needle exchange
5-7pm at THT Test clinic
Thursday 13 9.30-11.30am at THT Needle exchange
Monday 17 12-2pm at THT Drop-in for sex workers
Tuesday 18 5-7pm at THT Needle exchange
5-7pm at THT Test clinic
Thursday 20 9.30-11.30am at THT Needle exchange
Tuesday 25 5-7pm at THT Needle exchange
5-7pm at THT Test clinic
Thursday 27 9.30-11.30am at THT Needle exchange
Monday 31 12-2pm at THT Drop-in for sex workers


THT: Terrence Higgins Trust Scotland, 34 Waterloo Place, Inverness IV1 1NB Tel: 01463 711 585

Film and book March 2008

Reading Group Saturday 29 March 11-1pm
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides.
Ambitious and brilliantly conceived, Middlesex traces a rampant gene through generations of the Stephenides family, which caused narrator Cal Stephenides to be “reborn” as a boy when he’d previously been raised as a girl. Not a “him” in the strictest sense then, but a hermaphrodite.
Moving fluidly between time frames, Cal’s story is rich with history and culture – tracing his/her Greek roots through the Depression, WWII and the Detroit race riots, up to the present - as well as Eugenides’ trademark mix of dark plotting with well observed humour.
Middlesex is a modern fairy tale with a very beguiling narrator, delving so richly into the inner lives of its characters it’s hard to let them go.


Film Tuesday 25 March 6-8pm
Billy Hollywood’s Screen Kiss

First time writer/director O'Haver sets the tone by giving his presumed alter ego, aspiring photographer Billy (Hayes), a straight to camera speech. Half confessional, half mock lecture illustrated with Polaroids, it lays down Billy's sexual-political and cinematic aesthetics and the film's modest intentions and survivalist agenda. The plot is old fashioned boy loves boy. Dissatisfied with his less romantic lover Fernando (Valdes-Kennedy), Billy notices square-jawed Gabriel (Rowe) at an art gallery, seeing in him a potential model for his Hollywood Screen Kiss photo project and, perhaps, a lover. Gabriel quickly accepts the former role but dead bats the latter, and shows signs of venality by accepting an invitation to the yacht party of a mutual gay acquaintance, big shot artist Rex (Bartel). Will it be kiss or kiss-off for Billy?