At Fort Zzzzz, we acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we broadcast. We pay our respects to the elders past, present and emerging of the turbul and jagger people. We acknowledge that their sovereignty over this land was never ceded and we stand.

In solidarity with them.

You're listening to transmission mission on four Z, amplifying the trans and gender non conforming voices of Brisbane and beyond your list, transition on four triple Z. I'd like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land in which we broadcast, the turbo yagra and Jaggara people. Sovereignty was never ceded and always was, always will be aboriginal land. I'd also like to extend acknowledgement to any First nations people that may be listening, whether you are from this country or another. Yeah, welcomes you with open arms and we do our part to pay the rent. As part of being on this country, it's important that we pay that rent. So yeah, part of the way you can do that is also to subscribe to the station and support our First nations broadcast as well. So you can subscribe on four zzz.org dot au dot. Yeah, cheque, all that out, subscribe, support community radio. My name is Ez. I use he him pronouns.

Greetings, it's bet here and you're listening to four triple Z. Oh yeah, I forgot. I use she they pronouns.

A. Oh yeah, I forgot my pronouns and my pronouns are forgotten right now. I don't have pronouns don't refer to me. So yeah, today on transmission, we've got a whole heap of stuff coming up. So it's Brisbane Pride event this weekend, the 21 September. So it's a Saturday from 10:00 a.m. till 05:00 p.m. that'll be at Musgrave park in West End. If you are familiar with this day, you'll also know that it starts with a march which meets in Queen's Garden at 09:30 a.m. there'll be some speeches and then marching from Queen's Garden to Musgrave park, over the bridge and into West End. So make sure to bring your protest sign and don your loudest and proudest attire. Once you get to Musgrave park, there will be the gates to the Brisbane Pride Fair day. So the price is kids at twelve and under are completely free. Ages 13 to 17 are $10 on the door. If you want to buy your tickets online, you can as well. There will be an extra $1.40 so it'll be $11.40 online. Concession is $15 at the door and $16.57 online and general admission is $20 at the door or $21.73 online. You can cheque them out from the Brisbane Pride Fair Day Facebook group. There's a Facebook event. It's pretty easy to search, but yeah, you can get your tickets online there or you can alternatively just buy them at the gate.

Are you going to mention Pride outside too? Have you got that on?

I am, yeah. Then there's Megungeon's people's Pride.

Yes.

Which is also at Musgrave park, which is outside of featured outside of the Brisbane Pride official event, the corporate pride, as I call it, with the community free pride, which is. There'll be a barbecue, there'll be picnic markets and also heaps of activities. So you can pick your flavour, you can buy a ticket, go to both, or you can just attend one. Mostly it's just making sure that pride is accessible to everyone, so I'm really grateful for that. Yeah. So thank you, Megungeon people's pride, for putting this on. Very much looking forward to it. Also, in the evening I will be going to the Cave Inn in Woolloongabba from 06:00 p.m. is Gloria's Hole, which is part of a dyke bar experience. I'm going to read out their little bio because it's great. I have a feeling I know who wrote it because of the humour. A dyke bar to watch out for. Did you love that hot leather bar from bound? Or that hot old butchy bar from if these walls could talk? Or any of the other trashy bars in drive away dolls? Well, we have a party for you. Welcome to Gloria's Hole, a dive bar experience for the dyke at heart, featuring horny dyke comic books, academic history books, shitty queer punk music, shitty queer pop music, all of your exes, prospective new exes, the mystery chest, elaborate conversations about consent, gendered spaces and alternative relationships, friends with sensory issues, homebrew, every lesbian dvd made before 1998. Slow dancing, transmasc boy bands and your high school math teacher. So bring your favourite flanno, nuanced political commentary, sourdough starter and strap in for a good time. And please don't steal our carabiners toaster ovens for anyone who has reached their monthly recruitment quota. This is part of Megungeon's Dyke Bar project, which is a three part series of theme bars around Brisbane and they are using the term dyke expansively to encompass the infinite nature of gender and identities. These dike bars are open to anyone who identifies with or is an accomplice of dikes and dike culture, whether that's past, present or future. So yeah, head on to the Cave Inn from 06:00 p.m. this Saturday, the 21 September. And yeah, apparently fetch yourself a prospective new ex if you'd like and cheque it all out. Also cave in. Just have sensational pizzas. So worst case scenario, get yourself a pizza. So, yeah, and there's also. There's another event that's coming up that we wanted to chat about. Less fun, more serious activists movements.

Yeah. So a few of us are starting a local chapter of the transjustice project. We'll be at New Farm library one week from today, Tuesday evening at 630. Probably go for 2 hours. I imagine it's just going to be like a welcome and discussing how we can proceed with some public education. We have the feeling that, well, as we all have had the feeling recently that there's like a wave of disinformation around trans folks coming from overseas and we want try and educate the public to fight that. It's a very broad brief at this.

Time, at this stage. Yeah, cool. Transjustice project also have an organising fellowship, so I'll read a little bit of what I received from them. Are you part of the next generation of transjustice organisers? Our transjustice organising fellowship will cover the topics of leadership, strategy, tactics, movement building and building power. We invite applications from any trans or gender diverse people who are interested in deepening their organisation skills, helping to start or join local teams, or be a part of campaigns that will build our power. As a movement experience is less important to us than a hunger to learn and a desire to take action. This programme is open to people who are trans and or gender diverse. We will give special consideration to applicants from First nations people, people of colour, people who live outside of major cities and people who are involved in communities of faith. By deepening our skills and leadership strategies and power building, we can help to build the movement to defeat the anti trans lobby. Together, we can help to win freedom and equality for all trans and gender diverse people. There will be a link on the transjustice project social media pages which is transjustice project. The applications close on September 24, so you've got about a week or so to pop an application there and cheque all that out. So, yeah, there you go. That's all we've got for.

I noticed just briefly there's a little Shandy pride event going on at Echo and bounce and I just mentioned that because Blair DeMilo, I think that's their name cool dj is playing.

Oh, dear.

They play Charlie, XCX and Sophie and stuff. I like that stuff.

So, you know, you can go from the dyke bar, you can go over to echo and bounce. Cheque out, Shandy. Yeah. It's going to be a big day on Saturday. Usually September is the official pride month in Australia. I'm still pretty much going to cling to that forever. But that's why we have pride in September, is because it's a more appropriate weather to celebrate in the middle of June. It's appropriate for the US because it's warm over there, but it's not here. And I don't particularly like celebrating pride when I'm cold. So I'm excited to get down to West End and celebrate with the community.

So yay.

Yeah.

What do you have for us? Oh, sure. Should we play a song?

Yeah, we should. How many genders are there? I don't know. I just got here. Like that spot?

Yeah, I always enjoy it. My God, I'm stuffing up today on the desk. I accidentally played an r and b song after those two punk songs.

Look, you can go from punk to funk. It's okay.

Yeah, if it was funk, but it wasn't very funky. It was really just smooth in the bedroom vibe.

I like it. I like it. So. Morning, Dexie.

Morning, Dexy, that's right.

Yeah. Great. Great songs, actually. And I didn't realise that the old bar was actually in Fitzroy in Melbourne.

I'm pretty sure I'm remembering that right. It must be in Fitzroy.

Yeah. Well, I just feel like that's accurate. Someone from Fitzroy can message it and correct me otherwise. If you're listening live, you're listening to transmission on four triple z. You can say hi, you can text in live on 0420-6267 double three. I always have to turn around and look at the number because the first four numbers are the same in my own personal phone number.

Oh, right.

And every time I think I'm gonna read out my own number.

Oh, Jesus, that would suck.

It happens and it has happened. That's all right. Not that many people text it. Yeah, no thanks. No, thanks. The terfs are always listening. Bet they're always listening, my terfs. If you're listening and you're a terf, you can tune out. Now if you don't think you like anything on four z, to be completely honest.

Well, actually, I think it'd be good for them to listen because you're gonna talk about Magnus Hirschdev. Hirschfeld at some point.

I will. I will not. Not in this segment.

Right.

But we are going to talk about something that is interesting, and I want to hear your thoughts on this bet because you haven't read the whole thing.

But I don't know anything about it. I'm going into it cold.

I know, I know. I'm throwing you in the deep end here. So are you familiar with jackass?

Yes, vaguely.

I'm very familiar with jackass. It was one of those.

You're a fan?

No, no. I had a high school boyfriend once when I was in high school, so. And he really loved jackass, and I tolerated the films for him. By tolerate, I mean, I watched about five minutes and then I left and hung out in the food court. Oh, that's really tolerant. Yeah, no, I cannot stand them. I think they're terrible. I think it's a waste of time. But Steve O, who is from jackass, is quite a well known quote unquote comedian. I use that loosely because I don't find him funny. But Steve O apparently was going to get some breast implants as part of a prank because he's a serial prankster where he was going to revealed he has changed his. So he's basically going to get double D cup breast implants, which he planned to use as part of pranks where he planned to trick people into believing he was a woman. And so he discussed his plans on a podcast, X five podcast, where he was very proud of his plans at the time. So, yeah, obviously, I think I know where this is going. Obviously very unhappy about hearing about that. However, Steve O changes implant plans after a profound conversation with a trans person. So I'm going to read a little bit of this article from Star observer, talking a bit about what happened for Stevo and why he changed his mind. So serial prankster Steveo has revealed he has changed his controversial plans to get breast implants following conversation with a trans person over the decision. Earlier this year, Jack, our star, revealed his plans to get breast implants ahead of his latest round of stunts. So he says, quote, I came up with the idea a few years ago to get a boob job and just film a bunch of legitimately funny hidden camera pranks with me in disguise, in various disguises, and then revealing who I actually am and just funny endurance stunts and whatever he told the hosts. I've been so particularly in love with that idea because the comedy, the opportunity for comedy, I believe, is absolutely there. And it's like the quintessential Stevo, that level of commitment. However, just two months later, Stevo has had a change of heart. The conversation that changed his mind following the announcement, Stevo has revealed in a new interview with consequence the reasons behind his change of mind for that controversial operation. So the reality tv star revealed in the interview that he had spoken with a trans person about his plans for the operation and the implant. The conversation went as follows. I asked a transgender person if I could run something by them. I had a conversation with this person that had a profound impact on me. He recalled. When discussing his idea, they had expressed concerns that he was going to, quote unquote, trick people into thinking that I was a woman and then fooling them and then kind of celebrating the idea of hate towards trans people. That was a thing. It was a perspective he hadn't considered before the conversation. He revealed that they had discussed further about their lived experiences as a trans person and the struggles they had been through. They described how. They described how they weren't allowed to use the bathrooms at their place of work, and they were like, maybe 28 states in the country that would arrest them for having an id that said female on it. He detailed. They went on to discuss that there were politicians making concerted efforts to lock them up in internment camps. It was really bad and really heartbreaking, the level of oppression that was being described. It was these comments that led him to change his decisions, his decision after considering what he had heard. So, yeah, there you go.

The level of ignorance prior to that conversation with the trans person is quite astonishing.

But have you seen jackass?

Not really.

Yeah.

But, you know, I'm glad he had a change of heart.

Well, it's better than doubling down.

Yeah, it's much better than doubling down.

Yeah. I don't know. I thought this was particularly interesting just because as someone who watched jackass begrudgingly and socially, I felt like. I felt like when co producer Charlie talked about this, or have you heard about Steve o from jackass? I was like, oh, no, where are we going with this? But I'm really glad to hear that he's decided to change his mind. I think it's important to remember that you can just generally change your mind about decisions and things, and if Steve O can do it, surely anyone else can. And that's kind of more. That's the moral I'm taking out of this story.

We're not knowing Steve O. I don't know how. Just how low the bar is there.

Pretty low.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's pretty low. But that's his brand, so that's. Yeah, this is. I'm getting that yeah. His brand is to do stupidity. Complete, almost life threateningly stupid, like, darwinism, level of ridiculous in terms of pranks. And, you know, that flies really well with ages between, like, twelve and maybe like, 17 year old boys, which is really the demographic that it takes off with.

The bit that I find hilarious is that he seriously thinks if he gets breast implants, he's going to pass as a woman and people are going to be confused and he's going to then do the big reveal. It's like. It's a little bit more elaborate than that, what you need to go through. Right.

It's also deeply offensive in the sense of, of course, I mean, aside from the obvious, but also to think that you can just get breasts and somehow, miraculously, seamlessly appear as a woman. I know. And also not be hate crimed. I mean, this is based in the US, Steve. I was in the US. Things. Tension is heightened. What's to say that he doesn't get this breast implant and then experience a hate crime?

Yeah. I think it's the level of naivety about trans people that's quite astonishing. It's almost like he didn't. I mean, it's kind of like he had a scheme that he was going to appear in blackface and then he's surprised that it's offensive. Like, in this case, he's, oh, I'm going to appear as a trans woman. But it's all a joke. But it's not offensive. Like, what the fuck?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, sorry.

Language warning.

Yeah, no, you're right.

Retrospective language warning.

But, yeah, it's a bit like that, because it's, you know, impersonating anyone is dangerous, really. You've got to really consider, what is your intention, you know?

And it seems clear that the joke was going to be, oh, he's like a trans woman.

Yeah.

That was the whole crux of the punchline that he was probably going to do over and over again. But he doesn't see that that's offensive.

That was also the punchline in Matilda, the play, because Miss Trunchbull was always played by men and was almost always exclusively meant to be a trans woman.

Right.

And so there was always a. The joke there was that she was played by a Mandev. Yeah. Really so funny. And Matilda does really, really, really well in the UK.

Oh, of course, yeah, yeah. Turf island.

Yeah. Yay.

Anyway, time for another song.

Yeah, let's do it. And then we'll dive into some history, shall we?

Yes, please.

Amplifying the voices of the trans and gender non conforming community of Myanjin, Brisbane and beyond. Transmission on four triple Z brings you the latest in Transdev community news, music and events every Tuesday from 09:00 a.m. till 10:00 a.m. join our team of hosts for an hour of celebrating the unique perspectives of the trans community. Transmission Tuesday mornings from 09:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. on four triple Z. You're listening to transmission four triple Z. My name is es. I use he, him, pronouns, she, they for me, please. And now we're gonna have a little bit of a chat or, well, I'm gonna read an article, actually, from the Scientific American. This was published back in May 2021 by Abradi Schilles, and this is a free article. I quite enjoy some of the stuff that comes out of Scientific American. And this. Normally it's a paid subscription, but because it's dated now, it's free. So you can read this as well. This is about the forgotten history of the world's first trans clinic. Since a lot of people talk about how transness doesn't exist until recently, I just like to go back in time and explain or read a story about how that's not entirely true. So the Institute for Sexual Research in Berlin would be a century old if it hadn't fallen victim to nazi ideology. So we're gonna have a read of this. Late one night, on the cusp of the 20th century, Magnus Hirschfeld, a young doctor, found a soldier on the doorstep of his practise in Germany. Distraught and agitated, the man had come to confess himself, an urning, a word used to refer to homosexual Mendez. It explained the COVID of darkness. To speak of such things was dangerous business. The infamous paragraph 175 in the german criminal code made homosexuality illegal. A man so accused could be stripped of his ranks and titles and thrown in jail. Hirschfeld understood the soldier's plight. He was himself both homosexual and jewish and did his best to comfort his patient. But the soldier had already made up his mind. It was the eve of his wedding, an event he could not face. Shortly after he took his own life, the soldier bequeathed his private papers to Hirschfeld, along with a letter. The thought that you could contribute to a future when the german fatherland will think of us in more just terms, he wrote, sweetens the hour of death. Hirschfeld would be forever haunted by this needless loss. The soldier, he called himself a curse fit only to die because the expectations of heterosexual norms, reinforced by marriage and law, made no more room for his kind these heartbreaking stories, Hirschfeld wrote in the sexual history of the world War, bring before us the whole, largely in Germany. What Fatherland did, what Fatherland did they have? And for what freedom were they fighting? In the aftermath of this lonely death, Hirschfeld left his medical practise and began a crusade for justice that would alter the course of queer history. Hirschfeld sought to specialise in sexual health, an area of growing interest. Many of his predecessors and colleagues believed that homosexuality was pathological, using new theories from psychology to suggest it was a sign of mental ill health. Hirschfeld, in contrast, argued that a person may be born with characteristics that did not fit into heterosexual or binary categories and supported the idea that a third sex, or gauschlicht, existed. Naturally, Helschfeld proposed the term sexual intermediaries for non conforming individuals. Included under this umbrella were what he considered situational and constitutional homosexuals, a recognition that there is often a spectrum of bisexual practise, as well as what he termed transvestites. So there you go, the origin of that word. This group included those who wished to wear the clothes of the opposite sex and those who, from the point of view of their character, should be considered as the opposite sex. One soldier with whom Hirschfeld had worked described wearing women's clothes as the chance to be a human being, at least for a moment. He likewise recognised that these people could be either homosexual or heterosexual, something that is frequently misunderstood about trans people today. Perhaps even more surprising was Hirschfeld's inclusion of those with no fixed gender, akin to today's concept of gender fluid or non binary identity. He counted french novelist George sand among them. Most important for Hirschfeld, these people were acting in accordance with their nature and not against it. If this seems like extremely forward thinking, for the time it was. It was possibly even more forward than our own thinking. A hundred years later, current anti trans sentiments centre on the idea that being transgender is both new and unnatural. In the wake of the UK court decision back in 2020 limiting trans rights, an editorial in the Economist argued that other countries should follow suit, and an editorial in the observer praised the court for resisting a disturbing trend of children receiving gender affirming healthcare as part of a transition. But history bears witness to the plurality of gender and sexuality. Hirschfeld considers Socrates, Michelangelo and Shakespeare to be sexual intermediaries. He considered himself and his partner Carl Giese, to be the same. Hirschfeld's own predecessor in sexology, Richard von Krafft Ebingdeh, had claimed in the 19th century that homosexuality was natural sexual variation and congenital. Hirschfeld's study of sexual intermediaries was no trend or fad. Instead, it was a recognition that people may be born with a nature contrary to their assigned gender. And in cases where the desire to live as the opposite sex was strong, he thought science ought to provide a means of transition. He purchased a Berlin villa in early 1919 and opened the Institute for Sexual Research on July 6. And by 1930, it would perform the first modern gender affirming surgeries in the world. That's almost a century ago. People a place of safety, a corner building with wings to either side, the institute was an architectural gem that blurred the line between professional and intimate living spaces. A journalist reported it could not be a scientific institute because it was furnished, plush, and full of life everywhere. Its stated purpose was to be a place of research, teaching, healing, and refuge that could free the individual from physical ailments, psychological afflictions, and social deprivation. Hirschfeld's institute would also be a place of education. While in medical school, he had experienced the trauma of watching as a gay man was paraded naked before the class to be verbally abused and denigrated. Hirschfeld would instead provide sex education and health clinics, advice on contraception, and research on gender and sexuality, both anthropological and psychological. He worked tirelessly to try to overrun paragraph 175. Unable to do so, he got legally accepted, quote unquote transvestite identity cards for his patients, intended to prevent them from being arrested for openly dressing and living as the opposite sex. The grounds also included room for offices given over to feminist activists, as well as a printing house for sex reform journals meant to dispel myths about sexuality. Love, Hirschfeld said, is as varied as people are. The institute would ultimately house an immense library on sexuality, gathered over many years, including rare books and diagrams and protocols from male to female surgical transition. In addition to psychiatrists for therapy, he had hired Ludwig Levy Lenz, a gynaecologist. Together with surgeon Erwin Goreband, they performed male to female surgery, literally transformation of the genitals. This occurred in stages. There was castration, pinealectomy, and vaginoplasty. The institute treated only trans women at the time. Female to male phalloplasty would not be practised until the late 1940s. Patients would also be prescribed hormone therapy, allowing them to grow natural breasts and softer features. Their groundbreaking studies, meticulously documented, drew international attention. Legal rights and recognition did not immediately follow, however, after surgery, some trans women had difficulty getting work to support themselves, and as a result, five were employed at the institute itself. In this way, Hirschfeld sought to provide a safe space for those whose altered bodies differed from the gender they were assigned at birth, including, at times, protection from the law. That such an institute existed as early as 1990, recognising the plurality of gender identity and offering support, comes as a surprise to many. It should have been the bedrock on which to build a broader future. But as the institute celebrated its first decade, the nazi party was already on the rise. By 1932, it was the largest political party in Germany, growing its numbers through a nationalism that targeted immigrant, the disabled and genetically unfit. Weakened by economic crisis and without a majority, the Weimar republic collapsed. Adolf Hitler was named chancellor on January 30, 1933, and enacted policies to rid Germany of lives unworthy of living. What began as a sterilisation programme ultimately led to the extermination of millions of Jews, romanian, soviet, polish citizens, homosexual and transgender people. When the Nazis came for the institute on May 6, 1933, Hirschfeld was out of the country. Giese, his partner, fled with what little he could. Troops swarmed the building, carrying off a bronze bust of Hirschfeld and all his precious books, which they piled in the street. Soon a tower like bonfire engulfed more than 20,000 books, some of them rare copies that had helped provide histographically for non conforming people. The carnage flickered over german newsreels. It was among the first and largest of the nazi book burnings. Nazi youth, students and soldiers participated in destruction, while voiceovers of the footage declared the german state had committed the intellectual garbage of the past to the flames. The collection was irreplaceable. Levy Lenz, who, like Hirschfeld was jewish, fled Germany. But in a dark twist, his collaborator Grof Band, with whom he had performed supportive operations, joined the Luckweif as chief medical advisor and later contributed to grim experiments with the Daschau concentration camp. Hirschfeld's likeness would be reproduced on nazi propaganda as the worst kind of offender to perfect heteronormative aryan race. In the immediate aftermath of the nazi raid, Gies joined Hirschfeld and his protege, Li Xu Tong, a medical student in Paris. The three would continue living together as partners and colleagues, with hopes of rebuilding the institute until the growing threat of nazi occupation in Paris required them to flee to nice. Hirschfeld died of a sudden stroke in 1935. While still on the run, Giese died later. In 1938, Tong abandoned his hopes of opening an institute in Hong Kong for a life of obscurity abroad. Over time, their stories have resurfaced in popular culture. In 2015, for instance, the institute was a major plot point in the second season of the television show Transparent, and one of Hirschfeld's patients. Lily Elbe was the protagonist of the film the Danish Girl. Notably, the doctor's name never appears in the novel that inspired the movie. And despite these few exceptions, the history of Hirschfeld's clinic has been effectively erased. So effectively, in fact, that along the nazi newsreels still exist. The pictures of burning library are often reproduced. Few know they feature the world's first trans clinic. Even the iconic image has been decontextualized. A nameless tragedy. That largest book burning in history of 20,000 books was dedicated to the trans community and our queer family. And those books represented the history that we have lost. And not a nameless history to put a name to that nameless history. It was our community that those books had burned. The nazi ideal had been based on white cishet masculinity masquerading as genetic superiority. Any who strayed were considered as depraved, immoral, and worthy of total eradication. What began as a project of protecting german youth and raising healthy families had become, under Hitler, a mechanism for genocide. So in all in all now, as we come to our Brisbane pride this weekend, Saturday the 21st, I'd like to keep that in mind as we march, as we ask for trans rights, as we ask for what we should ask for. We do have a history, and we've always been here, and we've always been documented. And we will continue to raise our voices, and we'll continue to be loud because we are here. And it doesn't matter what happens. It doesn't matter how many generations of humans that exist and exist and exist and exist in the future, we will continue to rise up, and we will continue to rise from the flames and from the ashes, and we will continue to announce our existence. We are here. We are real. We deserve just as much as anyone else. And we deserve our history to be acknowledged. So on this Saturday, when you march in our pride and you, dear ally, listening, please come and support us. We deserve to have rights. We deserve to have clinics. We deserve to have medical support, and we deserve to have healthy and happy, long lives. So please come along this Saturday, march with us. Support us. We need help and we need everyone that we can. So thank you so much for allowing me to share that story. Yeah, we'll see you next week. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you so much for listening to transmission. See you next time. Next Tuesday night to 10:00 a.m. on four triple z.