My Queer Diary: 17-23 March '25
Welcome to My Queer Diary, a weekly digest of LGBT+ events taking place around Edinburgh.
Thanks to the community organisers, event promoters, artists, workers and business people keeping the queer community thriving.
Monday 17 March
LGBTQ+ NA
18:30-19:45, LGBT Health & Wellbeing, 4 Duncan Place, EH6 8HW
A weekly Narcotics Anonymous group in Edinburgh for LGBTQ+ people (16+). Narcotics Anonymous (NA) is a fellowship or society of people for whom drugs had become a major problem.
Lonely Planet X Lighthouse Presents: The LGBTQ+ Travel Guide
18:30-21:00, Lighthouse Bookshop, 43 West Nicolson Street, EH8 9DB
Sold out in person but unlimited online tickets available. The Lonely Planet LGBTQ+ Travel Guide has been written by author Alicia Valenski, this vibrant and inclusive title is the ultimate resource for LGBTQ+ travellers seeking destinations which feel welcoming and authentic.
TZF: Lady Lazarus + Comfort Girl, Fistymuffs & The Sabotagers
19:00-22:00, The Banshee Labyrinth, 29-35 Niddry Street, EH1 1LG
Come on down for a RIOT GRRRL night in with special guests all the way from Australia! LADY LAZARUS!
Scottish Country Dancing Class
19:30, Greyfriars Charteris Centre, 138-140 Pleasance, EH8 9RR
Join Gay Gordons for our weekly Scottish Country dancing class. Gay Gordons is an LGBT+ Scottish Country Dance Group. Our classes are relaxed and for all skill levels, and are a great opportunity to meet people and enjoy dancing together. Beginners are always welcome - first night is free. Monday classes are drop-in.
Tuesday 18 March
Gay Men’s Yoga
10:00-11:30, The Yoga Shala, 21 Trafalgar Street, EH6 4DF
We are running a 6 week block of Gay Men's Yoga through Queer Yoga Edinburgh. We hope to create a yoga community for gay men (inclusive of Queer/Bi/Trans/Male or Masc identifying) to enjoy group practice and connect with others. Our classes will follow a gentle flow / slow vinyasa style, with a focus on finding some time for you, away from judgement or comparisons.
Rivers Solomon - Model Home
19:00-20:00, The Portobello Bookshop, 46 Portobello High Street, EH15 1DA
It's our great pleasure to be welcoming Rivers Solomon to the bookshop for an event to celebrate their latest novel, Model Home, which is an incisive and dark look at race, identity and psychosis set in the American South from a bold and original voice in fiction. Solomon will be in conversation with Rebecca Wojturska, the Managing Director of independent publisher Haunt Publishing.
LGBTQ Live and Let Live: AA
19:45-20:45, LGBT Health & Wellbeing, 4 Duncan Place, EH6 8HW
Alcoholics Anonymous is a fellowship of people who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from alcoholism.
Wednesday 19 March
Edinburgh Frontrunners
18:30, Royal Commonwealth Pool, 21 Dalkeith Road, EH16 5BB
Edinburgh’s award-winning running & walking club for LGBT+ people & allies. All abilities, ages, genders & identities welcome! If you’re thinking of coming along just sign up and meet inside the Commonwealth pool. All abilities welcome and some members prefer to walk the routes instead of running.
Thursday 20 March
Trans Drop-in Sexual Health Clinic
13:00-16:00, LGBT Health & Wellbeing, 4 Duncan Place, EH6 8HW
An inclusive, welcoming space for trans and non-binary people to get tested and discuss PrEP, contraception, or overall sexual health and wellbeing
Voices for Transgender Equality: Trans Rights Activism Under Trump
16:30-18:00, Room 2.55, Edinburgh Futures Institute, The University of Edinburgh, 1 Lauriston Place, EH3 9E
In this talk, TJ Billard offers an insider’s view into transgender activism during the first two years of the first Trump administration. Drawing on extensive on-the-ground observation at the National Center for Transgender Equality, Billard shows how these activists developed an unlikely blend of online and offline strategies to saturate a diverse ecology of national news outlets, local and community media outlets across the country, and both public and private conversations across multiple social media platforms with voices in support of their cause.
Queer Life Drawing with Maya
17:00-19:00, Kafe Kweer, 5 St. Peter's Buildings, EH3 9PG
Queer Life Drawing is a semi-tutored life drawing class which celebrates the queer body, especially the nude. Each week bears a different theme and will have Maya giving tips and advice on how to play into your artistic strengths while learning more about drawing the human body.
Edinburgh Trans Choir
18:15-20:30, LGBT Health & Wellbeing, 4 Duncan Place, EH6 8HW
Are you trans, able to get to Edinburgh, and want to sing? We are Edinburgh Trans Choir (ETC), a relaxed biweekly choir by trans people for trans people. Join us as we sing We'll Never Have Sex by Leith Ross. Whether you've sung in concert or just in the shower, everyone is welcome! No music knowledge is needed. We provide tea and biscuits during our fifteen minute break in the middle (7.30-7.45). See you there!
Grace Curtis for Idolfire
19:00, Topping & Company Booksellers of Edinburgh, 2 Blenheim Place, EH7 5JH
Grace Curtis' debut Frontier, a queer space western about climate change (really) and the follow-up Floating Hotel were bestsellers and became bookseller favourites. She joins us for Idolfire, an epic sapphic fantasy inspired by the fall of Rome...
Friday 21 March
Celebrating Edinburgh's Voices - An Edinburgh 900 Exhibition
(Also on 22 March)
13:00-18:00, The Crannie Community Hub, 9 Cranston Street, EH8 8BE
This project represents a partnership between Edinburgh Old Town Development Trust and LGBT Youth Scotland. We are working with community groups across The Old Town of Edinburgh and LGBTQ+ young people who use The Crannie as a community hub to capture diverse heritage and stories as part of Edinburgh’s 900th birthday celebrations throughout 2025.
Edinburgh Street Historians LGBTQ Free Walking Tour
18:00-19:30, The High Street Wellhead, EH11QX
This is a walking tour of Edinburgh focusing on LGBTQ history from the battle of legalisation to the modern issues faced by the community in the current day. A trip through the heart of Scotland's capital to find out how LGBT people carved out a life in an occasionally hostile climate, past many important sites in the fight for liberation. Running weekly on Fridays until 6 June (excluding 11 April).
Fern Brady in conversation with Michael Pedersen
18:00-19:00, Edinburgh Futures Institute, Level 0 Event Space, 1 Lauriston Place, EH3 9EN
A conversation between comedian Fern Brady and poet, University of Edinburgh writer-in-residence, and Edinburgh Makar Michael Pedersen. Fern and Michael will discuss comedy, creativity and books, including Fern’s hilarious and heart-breaking memoir Strong Female Character. Covering the years from realising she had autism in her teens to her diagnosis at 34, Fern tells the story of how being female can get in the way of being autistic and how being autistic gets in the way of being the ‘right kind’ of woman’.
Femmergy
21:00-01:00, The Biscuit Factory, 4-6 Anderson Place, EH6 5NP
FEMMERGY is an intersectional, open space to celebrate femme art and music and have a boogie EVERYONE is welcome
Headset’s Gay Garage
23:00-03:00, Sneaky Pete’s, 73 Cowgate, EH1 1JW
Headset's Gay Garage returns home for the first time since September! Hosted by the wonderful Mystika Glamoor With residents Skillis & LCT in tow. Garage / Edits / Jersey / Techno / Ballroom / House
Saturday 22 March
Queer Gardening Group
10:00-14:00, Walled Garden, Gracemount Community Garden, Gracemount House Drive, EH16 6FD
A safe space for anyone in the LGBTQ+ community. Check out their instagram for specifics of what will be taking place on the day - they usually update midweek.
Learn to Grow in Your Community
10:30-15:30, Saughton Park and Gardens, Saughton Park and Gardens, Balgreen Road, EH11 3BQ
A community-led workshop for LGBTQ+ people (aged 16+) to come together to connect, learn skills and build confidence around learning to grow. We will be looking at how to grow lots of things in small spaces, which simplifies what we want to eat and we can grow. Moving away from mass agriculture, the event aims to focus on small-scale community growing.
T Time Edinburgh
12:00-15:00, LGBT Health & Wellbeing, 4 Duncan Place, EH6 8HW
An informal monthly social meetup open to trans and non-binary people (16+) in Edinburgh. Oliver from Waverley Care will join us to chat about the new community sexual health clinic for trans and non-binary people.
Sunday 23 March
Queer Gothic Words
12:15-14:00, Lavender Menace Queer Books Archive at the Edinburgh Palette, 151 London Road, EH7 6AE
A monthly book club focusing on queer gothic writing. Every month we choose a book (or selection of shorter texts) by LGBTQ+ authors, or featuring queer characters/themes to read and discuss together. We alternate between classic and contemporary texts. In March, we're reading Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by RL Stevenson.
Tales at the Lighthouse - Open Mic Storytelling
16:00-18:00, Lighthouse Bookshop, 43-45 West Nicolson St, EH8 9DB
We are here for stories: new stories, old stories, folk stories, myths, legends, made-up stories and stories true to life - bring them, bring them, bring them! It’s a safe space to tell new work, or try storytelling for the first time; it’s also for everyone but as a bpoc queer-run night know, our sweet bpoc and queers humans, you are so welcome. Sign ups happen in advance, so please email Niall.moorjani@gmail.com if you would like a slot.
Hot Comedy
18:45-21:30, Bar Fifty, 50 Blackfriars Street, EH1 1NE
‘Hot Comedy’ is a new inclusive comedy night in Edinburgh at Bar 50, featuring Pro, Semi-pro, and up-and-coming acts from Scotland and the rest of the UK. Hosted by Nicholas Elliott, featuring Amelia Bayler, Eva Peroni, Kashvi Mehra, Cobin Millage, Rory M. Spence, Iain Anderson, Pete Carson, Robin Hague and Deirdre Robertson.
Planning ahead…
Things coming up further ahead than one week that might sell out and volunteering opportunities for LGBTQ+ groups who run events.
Thank you for calling the lesbian line: queer history & lesbian culture with Elizabeth Lovatt
Wednesday 26 March, 19:00-20:00, Augustine United Church, 41 George IV Bridge, EH1 1EL
Already sold out once, moved to a bigger venue. In Thank You for Calling the Lesbian Line, Lovatt uncovers the lesbian history hidden in the pages of the Lesbian Line logbook, which captured calls from 1993 to 1998. With warmth and humour, she reimagines the voices of those who called and volunteered for the Lesbian Line, where a few stolen moments at a pay phone could turn into the courage to come out, find support, and imagine a happier future.