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?

lgbtnorthscotland online community

Dear all,

Are you Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and living in a remote area or a town in the North of Scotland? Do you find it difficult to get into contact with other LGBT people?

Then join the online group for the LGBT Community in the North of Scotland.

It offers LGBT people, in however a remote area they are living, the opportunity to get into contact with other LGBT people.

This group is there for you: use it as a forum for discussion, to get to know other people, to make friends, to ask questions, to plan things, to announce LGBT events, etc.

Go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lgbtnorthscotland, join the group, participate, and make it bubble.


Agnes Boes

letter

29 January 2008



Dear Friends,

It feels as if the New Year has just started and February is already making its presence known.

We have some exciting things to announce.

Several people living in quite remote or far away places in the North of Scotland have rung me at regular intervals asking me how they could get in contact with other LGBT people. I thought about this, made a few enquiries and I am happy to announce two initiatives.

Join the lgbtnorthscotland online community
I have created an online lgbt group for the north of Scotland. Lgbtnorthscotland is the online community for Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transgender people in the North of Scotland. It offers lgbt people, in however a remote area they are living, the opportunity to get into contact with other lgbt people. This group is there for you: use it as a forum for discussion, to get to know other people, to make friends, to ask questions, to plan things, to announce LGBT events, etc. Go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lgbtnorthscotland, join the group, participate, and make it bubble.

Start of an LGBT group in Lochaber
On the 19th of March 2008, the first LgbtLochaber evening will take place at the Fusion Space, The Nevis Centre, An-Aird, Fort William, PH33 6AN. The evening will run from 6.30-9pm. So, LGBT people in Lochaber, what are you waiting for? We are looking forward to meeting you. LgbtLochaber will meet bi-monthly.


Apart from these new initiatives there are of course the monthly LGBT social gatherings and sexual health activities. Included you find the programme.

I hope that you are all well and look forward to seeing you or hearing from you: on the phone, via e-mail, letter or…via the lgbtnorthscotland online group. Nowadays, there is so much choice!

Best wishes


Agnes Boes
Health Promotion Specialist - Highland

Programme February 2008

Terrence Higgins Trust Scotland
Highland Programme February 2008

Social gatherings

Wednesday 13 7-9pm at THT T group
For those who identify as Transgender – in all its variety. Donna Barnett, MGPBT will give information on different hair removal methods.

Tuesday 19 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

Tuesday 26 5-7pm at THT Lesbian Movie ‘High Art’
Come and watch it together with your friends and meet new friends

Wednesday 27 6-9pm at THT HIV Support group
A group for HIV+ people, their partners and people who care for them

New! The online community for the LGBT Community in the North of Scotland. Join the group at

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lgbtnorthscotland. Every day of the month it offers the opportunity to
get in contact with other lgbt people, whether you live in a town or in a very remote area.

You can also find this info. and more on our blog http://thtscotland-highlandservices.blogspot.com

Sexual Health
Monday 04 12-2pm at THT Drop-in for sex workers (1)
Tuesday 05 5-7pm at THT Needle exchange (2)
5-7pm at THT Test clinic (3)
Thursday 07 9.30-11.30am at THT Needle exchange
Tuesday 12 5-7pm at THT Needle exchange
5-7pm at THT Test clinic
Thursday 14 9.30-11.30am at THT Needle exchange
Monday 18 12-2pm at THT Drop-in for sex workers
Tuesday 19 5-7pm at THT Needle exchange
5-7pm at THT Test clinic
Thursday 21 9.30-11.30am at THT Needle exchange
Tuesday 26 5-7pm at THT Needle exchange
5-7pm at THT Test clinic
Thursday 28 9.30-11.30am at THT Needle exchange

(1) Drop-in for sex workers: Off or on street sex workers can come to THT for a chat, to relax and talk with other sex workers, to have a cup of tea, to get information concerning sexual health (including testing and needle exchange)
(2) Needle exchange: Intravenous drug users can come in and exchange needles, find information about sexual health and be tested
(3) Test clinic: free and confidential testing, HIV, HepatitisB, HepatitisC and Chlamydia

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

film - book February 2008

Film Tuesday 26 February 2008 7pm


High Art

101 minutes, United States (1998), 18
Ambition, sacrifice, seduction and other career moves... a nuanced exploration of junk addiction, work trials and sapphic desire
When an ambitious magazine gofer (Mitchell) bumps into a junkie photographer (Sheedy), she detects a gilt-edged career development opportunity and persuades her editors to commission a piece from the artist. But while shepherding the sapphic snapper through her first commercial shoot in 10 years, the editor develops a strong desire for her new friend.

Reading Group March

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides.

As it is quite a big read, I thought it useful to announce it already now. It gives you plenty of time to read a great book. I look forward to hearing your views in March.