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HIGHLAND LGBT FORUM

Gay Nessie
HIGHLAND LGBT FORUM & SOCIAL GROUP

Making the LGBT community more visible in the Highlands

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LGBT News

CHARITABLE STATUS
In April 2008, The Highland LGBT Forum was awarded charitable status by the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator. The Highland LGBT Forum is a charity registered in Scotland No. SC039528.

INVERNESS CITIZENS ADVICE BUREAU
The Inverness Citizens Advice Bureau now offers discrimination advice thanks to the appointment of John Gourlay. Inverness CAB can provide free, impartial, independent and confidential advice on issues of discrimination. Dependant upon the circumstances, discrimination can happen in respect of race, gender/marital status, sexual orientation, disability, age or religion and may apply in employment or access to goods and services.
John is normally available Tues/Wed/Thursday. Their office can be found at 103 Academy Street, Inverness IV1 1LX. Telephone: 01463 237664 for appointments. Email: (please allow up to 5 days for an email response).
You can also phone the CAB general advice line on 08444 994111 or access factsheets online about Discrimination because of sexuality.

Highlands R Us 2008
The Highlands and Islands Equality Forum is organising another diversity day. It will take place on 8th July in Falcon Square and the Eastgate centre in Inverness.

AGM
The AGM of the Highland LGBT Forum and Social Group took place on Tuesday 12th February 2008 at the Netley Centre, Inverness.
Annabel Mowat (former manager at REACHOUT Highland) stood down as chair while Maria Henderson (chair until 2006) took on the role once again. Rachel Koktava was re-elected as Secretary, and Rory Stewart was elected to be the new Treasurer. An additional 4 committee members including Annabel Mowat were also elected. Further members may be co-opted to the committee in future.

Highland LGBT Social Group
The social group nights out are held in Pivo on the third Tuesday of the month. There is a mixture of men and women, and everyone is welcome.
Check the events page for all the dates for your diary.

Faith group in Inverness
The Metropolitan Community Church (based in Edinburgh) is now holding monthly services in Inverness.

Highland Pride Ball:
This was a great success at the Loch Ness House Hotel in Inverness on Saturday 15th December with a buffet and entertainment including 'Two Red Shoes & The Cherry Seeds', plus MFR DJ Ken Kelman.
Watch this space for details of the Valentine's Pride Ball in Inverness in February 2009.

Gay Nessie
T-shirts are now available to buy with the Gay-Ness.org.uk logo!

Highland LGBT
Newsletters (PDFs):

April 2008

February 2007
March 2007
April 2007
May 2007
June 2007
July 2007
August 2007
October 2007

February 2008

Check out the Latest News from:

Equality Network

Stonewall Scotland

LGBT Youth Scotland

For more UK LGBT news visit
Rainbownetwork.com

Raise money while shopping & searching online
You can now raise money for the LGBT social group simply by shopping on the Internet at your favourite online stores. First of all just go to www.easyfundraising.org.uk/highlandlgbtsg and sign up for free using your name, email address and a password of your choice.
After that simply click on the logos on the easyfundraising.org.uk web site to access Amazon, NEXT, M&S, HMV, Debenhams, and many more. Each time you make a purchase with these retailers, they will donate a percentage to the social group (at no cost to you). Just remember each time you are going on a shopping spree, please visit www.easyfundraising.org.uk/highlandlgbtsg to log in to your account and click on the shop logos provided (that's how they know where to send their donations).
Search the Net and raise money for us with EasySearch.org.uk - just visit our search homepage: highlandlgbtsg.easysearch.org.uk
and use the search engine.

Other news from around Scotland:

Stonewall Scotland Survey
The Good Practice Project has been commissioned by the Scottish Executive to look at the way that local services, such as the police, fire services and councils, provide for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in their area. Such services are not luxuries; they're basic rights and should be equally accessible to everyone.
Click here for more info: www.stonewallscotland.org.uk. You can take part in an anonymous online survey if you wish.

News Archive

Connected Scotland
A new resource developed by Healthy Gay Scotland and other Scottish HIV voluntary service organisations was launched in Glasgow in July 2007. The resource includes a paper-based pack for gay and bisexual men newly diagnosed with HIV, and an online Internet resource for all gay and bisexual men living with HIV. Visit: connectedscotland.co.uk

REACH OUT HIGHLAND
In 2006, REACH OUT Highland was obliged to submit a tender in order to carry on with the range of health services it has been providing for years. Unfortunately they faced competition from 2 national organisations and were unsuccessful in their bid. The Terrence Higgins Trust was awarded the tender on 1st October 2006 (after announcing in August a surprise merger with PHACE Scotland, the sexual health charity which is based in Glasgow and Aberdeen). The REACH OUT Highland office in Inverness has now merged with THT.

CIVIL PARTNERSHIPS ACT
The Act has implications on all same-sex couples who live together whether they opt for a Civil Partnership or not. Basically under the new legislation, same-sex cohabiting couples who don't opt for a civil partnership will have the rights and obligations of a mixed-sex cohabiting couple.
For information specifically about the situation in Scotland, visit:
www.civilpartners.org by the Equality Network or The General Register Office for Scotland.

HOMOPHOBIC BULLYING
Useful resources and background info from the Department of Health on challenging homophobia. Click here to access the documents including an interesting PDF file called Stand Up For Us (1 MB).

GENDER RECOGNITION ACT
Contact the Gender Recognition Panel (GRP) for application packs for fast track and overseas gender recognition processes. Fast track applications are for people who have transitioned at least 6 years ago.
To help people understand the process, Press For Change has created a guidance site at www.gra-info.org.uk

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© 2003-2008 Highland Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Forum
Charity registered in Scotland No. SC039528
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