At 4zzz, 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 Jagera people. We acknowledge that their sovereignty over this land was never ceded.

And we stand in solidarity with.

You're listening to transmission on 4zzz, amplifying the trans and gender non conforming voices of Brisbane and beyond.

Yo, yo, yo. You're listening to transmission on 4Z. Z, that's right. It's not a Tuesday morning at 9, it's a Monday at 10. And with. Yes, I'm just gonna give a special nod to Billy from Monday. Sparks, thank you so much for your contribution to the four Triple Z soundscape and thank you so much for continuing to do so. If you still love listening to Billy, you can head over to Zed Digital. They've got their show Ozone. You can listen to them there. Mad respect. However, if you are interested in just this time slot, well, it is now Trans Power. My name is ez, I use he, him pronouns. And Transmission is all about amplifying the voices of the trans and gender diverse community around, locally here in my engine, but also around the country. And I am absolutely thrilled to be here. It has been a dream of mine since Transmission started to be able to have two hours on the broadcast. So I want to just give a special thanks to not only just Billy, but also Ian Pown from Bright in the Corners, the programming coordinator of the station, as well as other management as well, so such as Jack, station adult apparently. And yeah, just thrilled to be in this spot. We've been running the show for about three and a half, almost four years. And we're here, we've got two hours of Transpower. We're finally on equal footing with the dykes on mics and queer Radio. And yeah, I'm just so excited about it. It's also December 1st, which is two notable things today happening. One, it's the first day of summer. Yo, it's hot. It's getting hotter and probably stormier and probably put on a seatbelt for the climate crisis this summer season. So, yeah, happy first day of summer. I hope you are drinking lots of water and wearing sunscreen because we have the highest rates of skin cancer in the world in Queensland. Did you know? And that's probably because a lot of people are very lax about sunscreen. So please make sure you slip, slap, slap this summer. Also, it is world, World AIDS Day today, which is a very significant day to stand in solidarity and remembrance and remembrance dedicated to raising awareness about HIV aids. And I'll talk a bit more about that in this episode. Also, although I'm flying solo for this first hour at 11 o' clock I'll be joined by bet Noir, co host and extraordinaire. We both went down to Nupa Luna recently down in Hobart underneath the beautiful Love of Kunanyi, which is Mount Wellington, also known as and we went to the Auspath Conference, which is essentially a conference run by the Australian Professional association for Trans Health and we talked. They're basically the Australia's peak body for professionals involved with health rights and well being of trans people. And we'll be chatting about our time there. We had it was a three day conference. It was really big. It was absolutely, absolutely packed. It was very full on and we'll be going through and updating you on some things that we learned learned recently, including the results of many, many studies that have been conducted around the country and internationally. So stick around for 11 o' clock for when BET's in studio with me for that one. But yeah, but for those of you who are not familiar with transmission and maybe you're a regular 4Z listener on a Monday and if you're a podcast listener then I guess this doesn't affect you too much. But you can always cheque out the Transmission podcast as well. Transradio with a Z for our Instagram head there you can listen to us like on YouTube. You can listen to us on other streaming services as well as the Community Radio plus app, which I highly recommend because you not just get transmission, you also get a bunch of other awesome shows including no Idea for example. But yeah, so we're available to listen back on demand as well on the 4zzz website 4zzz.org au if you're not familiar with the show and you're a regular Monday listener, I'm going to tell you, I'm going to read to you the transmission statement which is like our mission statement. We wrote this, me and the founder, Kai of Transmission, we wrote this before we started our very first show like years ago now. This was on the 13th of June in 2022 when we started. And yeah, I was going to update the mission statement but as I was reading through and reflecting I thought, you know what, it's still super relevant today. So that this is our transmission mission. We are transmission amplifying the trans and gender non conforming voices of Meanjin, Brisbane and beyond. We will each week endeavour to share storeys, news, interviews and discussions that directly impact our community Shedding light on local and global issues. We understand that the issues that affect trans people are sensitive and nuanced and the members of our community have unique voices and perspectives. The trans community is not monolithic or we understand that there are many different voices that make up the chorus of trans people everywhere. We will do our best to transmit those storeys authentically. Here at 4zzz, we strive to address each topic with care and compassion and to highlight diversity. We hope to create content which is accessible and informative to allies while still centering trans and queer experiences. We acknowledge that binary genders, binary sexes and heteropatriarchy are colonist imports which have been violently enforced across the globe for millennia. Understandings of gender vary between cultures and we seek to recognise them here. To our trans and gender non conforming listeners, you are not alone. We are here to tell your storeys. Most importantly, we are here for you. Transmission, that's what we're about. My name is Ed as not Ed as the executive producer and I have a team of extraordinary people with a much lived experience in a variety of different gender ways and we all share our storeys here and and seek to inform you on what's happening. So we will endeavour to do that in our time slot, our new time slot of 10 to 12 every Monday. We're so excited to be here and thank you to the lovely messages in for the first show on a Monday. Two hours of Transpower and joy. Heck, yeah, thanks Jody. So keen, so keen. Yeah, just thrilled to be here, genuinely.

Yeah. So it is December 1st as of time of recording and liveness in fact, and which means it's World AIDS Day, which is a pretty significant day. So every year on December 1st is a global day of solidarity and remembrance dedicated to raising awareness about HIV aids, supporting those living with the virus and commemorating lives lost to AIDS related illnesses. The day is to highlight the ongoing global effort to end HIV transmission, reduce stigma and discrimination, as well as promote equitable access to testing, treatment and prevention. So this day serves as a reminder that although medical advances have transformed HIV into a manageable condition for many millions around the world still lack the resources, healthcare and social support they need. So World AIDS Day really is about encouraging governments to communities and individuals to recommit to education, compassion and action towards achieving a world free from HIV related prejudice and totally preventable deaths. So yeah, that's really what World Idea's day is. And in particular from a transmissions perspective, transmission as in the broadcast, but also the trans community. Trans people are at elevated risk of HIV So worldwide, trans people, and especially trans women face a significantly higher burden of HIV than general population. There was one analysis which found trans women had roughly 49 times the odds of having HIV compared to the general population. And that's extremely high. The elevated risk is not just like a biological thing. Much of it arises from social and structural factors. So like discrimination, stigma, transphobia, combined with unstable housing, unemployment, lack of access to healthcare and experiences of violence or incarceration all contribute to increased vulnerability around hiv. And these social pressures can lead to higher rates of risky behaviour, for example, condomless sex, unsafe sex, work practises and sometimes sharing injectable equipment, which can further increase the risk of contracting hiv. And importantly, the barriers to accessing HIV in terms of the trans community include just a general mistrust of medical services, a lack of trans competent providers and fear of discrimination, which many trans people just don't get the support that they need as a result of this. So trans people are more likely to ignore a health issue because they are afraid of accessing a gp. Or maybe they, you know, it's already challenging enough to discuss your sexual health, let alone having the element of anticipated stigma, anticipating that you are likely to be harassed or unnecessarily asked probing questions. All these kinds of things have a significant impact on why trans folk are at a higher risk of hiv. So how can trans people reduce their risk of hiv? I hear people asking out on the four ZZZ waves. Firstly.

HIV is preventable and there are ways that we can help that you can lessen your risk. So condoms plus lubricant, please use condoms, do that. It's great for not just hiv but also prevention against a myriad of other things. Consistent use of condoms or other barrier methods during sex reduces risk of preventing exchange of bodily fluids. Using water based or silicon based lubricant can also reduce friction and tearing which lowers transmission risk. So that's more one big thing. Pre exposure prophylaxis, if you haven't heard that before, it's also known as prep PR capital P, little R capital EP prep, a medication taken before exposure, so is one of the most effective preventative tools that we have. So for people who are high risk, like some trans folk, including.

Gay and queer members of the community as well, PREP dramatically lowers the chance of acquiring hiv and that is there are studies on that from the World Health Organisation as well, including a study recently on in New South Wales. So there's lots of evidence for that, regular testing and healthcare access. So this is, this is probably like your best one of your best chances as well. So aside from condoms and prep, you've also got regular testing and access to healthcare there. So three months if you're a sexually active person. I tend to every three months a sexual health test. It is really reassuring, not just for me, but the people that I'm sharing a bed with. So make sure that you're getting regular tests and accessing to gender affirming and respectful healthcare can be hard. And there are support services out there. There are, particularly here in the engine. I'm going to make a recommendation about a service for HIV testing which is Rapid Rapid Health, which is a peer led HIV and STI testing clinic and is staffed by trained peers, not doctors or nurses, who provide free confidential testing for hiv, syphilis, chlamydia and gonorrhoea. You can actually head to Rapid here. It's based in Fortitude Valley, Level 1725 and street in Fortitude Valley. You can even give them a call if you ahead of time. They also do walk ins as well. I'll tell you a bit more about that. But yeah, so that's one way testing, regular testing and another. Another thing you can do as well to help look after your health and reduce risk of HIV is harm reduction practises. So for people who use injectable hormones or drugs, use sterile injecting equipment and avoid sharing needles as that can increase the chance of bloodborne pathways and transmitting it to each other. So please make sure that you just sterilise your equipment and don't share them. There are some places where you can actually get clean, clean needles and things like that as well. I'll share some more information about that also. So, yeah, overall, trans people, particularly trans women, often face much higher risk. But combining safe sex practises, access to preventative meds and regular testing will all significantly reduce that risk. And rapid, which I just mentioned, they have, yeah, peer trained peers, community peers to like actually help you do that. And it's all confidential as well. And a holistic sexual health care. Essentially. Rapid is a safe and inclusive space for everyone. Our services are designed to be simple and stress free. Free. They're free of charge, don't require a Medicare card, open six days a week, including after hours and offer both booked and walk in appointments. Sex is a normal thing and we don't care about who you're having it with just as long as you're getting tested. Rapid encourages autonomy over your own decision making and will never withdraw or refuse testing based on behaviours or lifestyle choices. So walk in times are Tuesday to Friday 2.30pm till 5.30pm and then 6pm till 8pm and as well as Saturdays 11.30am till 2.30pm and and then from 3pm till 5pm it does say to call ahead on a Tuesday because Tuesdays are their busiest days for walk ins. But yeah, just keep that in mind. You can also head to the Rapid website if you'd like a bit more information as well, which is rapid.org au for their locations. They are in more than one location, so cheque that all out. Also, as part of World's Aid World AIDS Day, I wanted to mention that there are some events around town and things that you can do across the state of Queensland. So if you head to worldaidsday.org I will chuck a link on the transmission socials Transradio with a Z. I put up on my storeys there today. You can click a link that will take you to that website and there's just a list of all the different events coming up for World AIDS Day across the country. You can select Queensland and take a look. There are seven events in Queensland this year including Sunshine Coast World AIDS Day Morning Tea, Townsville have a vigil. Brisbane have a vigil. Cairns have a vigil. And then there's also a brown sugar event to celebrate and there's also a morning tea up at Toowoomba. So cheque all that out on the transmission socials and thank you for listening to my community update on how to look after yourself when it comes to HIV prevention. Look after yourself. Also, there's been some other developments around in communities. So if you haven't been following what's been going on around puberty blockers in Queensland, but more broadly around the country and also internationally, there's been a lot going on. There seems to be, well, there very much is an attack on trans people, in particular trans youth and them accessing health care. And I was just reading an article this morning which came out from the ABC titled Queensland Report on Puberty Blockers Might not see the light of day. So I'm going to pop that link to this article on the transmission socials at Transradio with a Z. So you can have a read of it yourself, but I'm going to give you a bit of a synopsis. So the article basically reports that the government commissioned review on puberty blockers, gender affirming hormone therapies for adolescents in Queensland, which is was led by Ruth vine, was due to be delivered on the 30th of November, which was yesterday.

Also Known as the Vine Review, some people are calling it. However, as the end of November has just happened, the state's Health Minister, Tim Nichols, has indicated that the report will not automatically be made public, but instead will be in quotations considered by Cabinet. He and David Premier David Christoph stopped short of promising its release, raising uncertainty about the transparency and eventual actual impact of the findings. That means to me that they don't. They're not that happy with the review, which is a good thing because I think these people are idiots, but that's my opinion. The review was commissioned after the government instituted a snap freeze earlier in the year on prescribing puberty blockers and hormones to new new under 18 patients through the public system, specifically which was a decision taken in response to concerns around governance and clinical practises at a regional clinic. Advocates for trans youth and medical experts have warned that if the review's findings remain unpublished, it could mean youth accessing gender affirming care in Queensland will continue to face restricted access, exacerbating uncertainty and potentially harming vulnerable families and individuals. So we don't have the review. Apparently they're going to review the review and we're kind of waiting on that. So that's where things stand currently. Additionally, there's a section in the article in this ABC article that describes the increasingly divide divisive international debate over gender affirming care for young people globally right now. So following the 2024 CASS review in the UK, which is a mostly inaccurate and poorly researched report that was used to justify the National Health Service restricting puberty blockers and clinical trials in Australia, divisions have intensified. The Australian Doctors Federation has urged a nationwide ban on puberty blockers, cross sex hormones and sex and surgery for those under 18. By the way, no one under 18 is having gender reassignment surgeries. That's just outrageous and just. It's an outright lie. So if you hear that that's just simply not happening. And joined and anyway, so there's a joined letter to the Federal Health Minister, Mark Butler, calling for a Royal commission instead of a national clinical guidelines instead of the national clinical guidelines currently being developed by the National Health and Medical Research Council. So this position conflicts with groups such as the Australian Medical association of Queensland, which supports evidence based national guidelines and has called for a release of Queensland's Vine Review transparency and responsibility. So things are getting tense, tensions are high and things are moving quickly. So, so just some a heads up for a community and this is just all speculation and rumour but I am feeling increasingly more Worried that this will become law in the next few weeks? I cannot confirm this. I've only just heard rumours and just following things based off of a lot of conversations I've had with a lot of people trying to stay informed, trying to stay ahead of the ball. But I'm worried that it will become unlawful to prescribe gender affirming medical care, puberty blockers, hormones to anyone under the age of 18 in Queensland, potentially nationally, who knows. But this is something that I'm hearing and concerned about and I just wanted to give a caution to community to take care of yourself and make sure to touch grass during this. We're going to have probably a really rough holiday period with lack of access for social media for young people, including a potential unlawful. Yeah. Making it unlawful to access gender affirming care. So I'm. Yeah, I'm a. I'm nervous, I'm nervous, but I'm also feeling quite hopeful as well. We have such an extraordinary team of people out there fighting for rights and we're going to continue that fight for as long as we have to. Additionally, in light of a lot of these, you know, attacks on young people and accessing gender affirming care, there's also just what is it with this government and targeting youth broadly, like young people, essentially, I find this really upsetting. Not only do we want to put them in prison and lock them up all the time, but we also want them to not have any access to social media. We don't like them hanging out outside for some reason and if any of them, God forbid, are queer or like, you know, to gender bend, we want to prevent that from happening too. There's also like more stricter things coming through with the education system that I'm a bit concerned about. There's a whole bunch of things. There's a huge attack on young people at the moment and yeah, it's really upsetting. So, I don't know. Food for thought. Things I've been thinking about as is ponderings. When we come back, we are going to be chatting hopefully to Bet when she comes into the studio. Talk a bit about ozpath, which I had mentioned earlier, which is the. The Australian Professional association for Trans Health conference that Bet and I attended in Nipa Luna, Hobart, Tasmania for the last two days. We flew back yesterday and still feeling a bit groggy from our trip. We were back to back talking to so many different people. And so we're going to update you on some research on some things on where things are at globally in terms of trans Rights and healthcare. Very much looking forward to it. How many genders are there? I don't know, I just got here. You're listening to transmission on 4ZZZ. My name is EZ, I use HE, him pronouns.

My name is Bet, I use she, they pronouns.

And we are now about to dive into some chats around Ozpath. I've been mentioning it and leading up to this part of the show for the whole last hour. If you are unfamiliar and just tuning in. Ozpath, first of all, as an institution, is the Australian Professional association for Trans Healthcare. And Ozpath conference is where we just were and I were down in Nipa Luna Hobart.

From the 27th to the 29th of November. Just basically getting across a whole bunch of things relating to trans health. So not just health specifically, but also rights and what's happening globally, including updates on studies and like general health. And obviously we're a very heavily researched bunch of people, us trans folk, so there was a lot of data to. To absorb as well.

And the. The kind of centrepiece of the whole thing was Cal Horton's presentation about what's going on in the uk.

Wow. That was something which, in a word.

Coined by Cal Horton, could be described as CIS supremacy. Now, I've been talking about California since the cast review came out. Yeah, I think. I think that's when I first sighted them. How did that strike you as that presentation?

Well, we were sitting next to each other and it was. It was actually probably the hardest thing I've ever sat in front of in my entire life.

Yeah, it was so heavy, wasn't it?

Yeah. Just actually with that in mind, content warning comes with this show generally, but definitely over this next hour or so, while Bet and I chat a little bit about what's happened. Yeah. Please look after yourself and you can always call Q Life. If you need support, there are people there to chat to you and support you as we get through all this together. Yeah. So that particular. That was like a keynote speaker, really.

I was so impressed that they prioritised Cal like that in the conference because it was really taking seriously the threat that exists, which we've just seen in Aotearoa. Right. Where in fact, puberty blockers are not only now unavailable through the public system and unavailable through the private system either for new prescriptions. So. And Aotearoa being so isolated, you can just imagine this. I mean, what are the options for those young people? So we saw Jennifer Shields from Patha, the New Zealand version of Ospath, looking very stressed and I don't know, we both engaged during conversation. I don't know how far you got with that, but I felt like, oh, I don't want to hassle her, you know.

Oh, yes. For an update on what's happened down in Aotearoa, New Zealand, there was a snap ban for gender affirming for young people under 18 accessing gender affirming care, puberty blockers, HRT through the whole country. And that's for new prescriptions. But that also includes anyone new, not just under 18. It is. Any new. Any person who is trans, who is seeking to access.

Hang on, gender feminine over 18.

That's my understanding, yeah.

Oh, my God. I have to double cheque that. Where did you hear that?

I heard that at the conference, but I will verify that. However it was. It was a snap decision. A bit like here in Queensland, my.

Understanding was it's focused on new prescriptions for under 18s.

But the.

But what makes it so terrible is that it's both the public and the private system. Whereas here, at least, we can still get it through the private system and we can go interstate to do that if we have to. Whereas if you were from Auckland or somewhere like that, you would have to travel, you would presumably have to move to Australia or else go diy.

Yes. Which is particularly challenging, but not impossible.

But I do want to say that even despite all of the darkness, it.

Is just for young people. Right, let me clarify.

God, you are making me panic.

Yes.

Despite all the darkness that was there, I did go away with a feeling of hope. And it was mainly because I think we both made so many connections there and people were so open to connecting and it felt like we were kind of building a network that was actually international because we were also doing it with Jennifer Shields. And yes, you know, like, I've made. I made plenty of connections. I'm going to follow up on. I now know where to go for information about what's happening in Aotearoa.

And. And Jennifer talked on trans care under attack and moving forward through international collaboration, which is essentially what a lot of Ozpath felt. Very internationally collaborative. The whole. The whole thing felt very collaborative and I felt like the conference was both. I mean, Bet and I were just like zooming around. Yeah, constantly. But there was quite a lot of. There was a sense of solidarity and a sense of strength, but there was also this really heavy overtone of it felt things feel grim and things. Things feel hard and sombre at times.

So I. I appreciated it that they focused on the Queensland events. Yes, on the Queensland situation and that they gave us, they gave some Queensland voices a place to speak. Were you there for that one when Open Doors were speaking?

Oh yes, briefly. Yeah.

Okay, so, so I really appreciated that they prioritised that and I guess my feeling was that, well, Cal Horton especially was saying, look, don't be complacent, don't, don't focus on just defending what you have. You have to improve what you have. Like before all this started we were all focused on improving access to health care for all trans people and now we're focused on getting back what we had before. But I thought it was so crucial that message and I hope, because I guess I did get a little bit of a feeling like us Queensland people and Jennifer Shields were on a different, slightly different page to the rest of the, the people in the conference. And then Cal Horton was somewhere else again where Cal Horton was coming from a complete state of emergency. And then we in Queensland and El Turo were the next stage down, like the Blue Alert or something.

Yes.

And then there was the rest of Australia, so called Australia, who were all watching this happen but it hadn't yet reached them.

Yes.

And so I thought it was great that we got to. I mean I certainly felt a sense of urgency all through the conference, as you would have seen in my behaviour.

Right, yes. For those who don't get that joke, BET was running around grabbing the mic and asking questions of panels.

I was bringing up panels on their mistakes too and they were owning.

Was great. It was great actually to see a lot of people go, yeah, no, I'm here with you. Like let's, let's figure this out.

Well, what was awesome was that a couple of times I would say, and I'm not going to say they were all mistakes, I would just have criticisms. Right. But then the people from those panels who I had criticised would reach out to me afterwards. And so one of them actually who I did want to mention was this person Peter, now I've forgotten their last name at the moment. They're doing research, they're from Belgium actually and they're doing research into so called gender exploratory therapy.

Interesting.

And in that panel I took the mic because I really felt like the people on the panel weren't making it clear enough to the audience how this kind of therapy works. And Pieter came up to me afterwards and actually was wondering if I knew anyone who'd been through that kind of therapy or through any kind of conversion therapy. And so I wanted to say on the radio today, if you have been through any kind of conversion practise. Anyone out there? Well, let's say conversion therapy. I think we're focused on therapy. If you could reach out to me, then Pieta may have a role for you. I imagine it's a paid role in the steering committee for the study that they are doing. They'll be looking for advice from older trans people mostly who've been through conversion therapy in the past. And they're also looking for people to be involved in the actual study. And they would be, I would imagine, younger trans people who may have been through so called gender exploratory therapy. But I'm going to broaden that and say I would imagine it's not always named gender exploratory therapy, but if you've been to a therapist who did not affirm your gender, refused to use your name, refused to use your pronouns and grilled you incessantly about your sexuality and other things that weren't really directly related to your trans identity, get in touch. Give us, give us a text.

Yeah, please do.

And if you. And you know, I can put you onto Peter and you can discuss it. You don't. It's. You're not committing to anything. But it would be good to have some more research around that.

If you head to. At Transradio with a Z, either Instagram, Facebook, anything like that, you can message us and I can put you in touch with BET and we can get going from there if you are interested. So, yeah, please reach out to us via, via those channels. Also with ozpath, I did have a chat with another person from the us, Arsa Radix. Radix, who's a community health centre, who works at a community health centre, who had to actually travel through the US from Reykjavik, Iceland to get to the conference in Hobart, which is such a distance to travel to be there. And they also talked a bit about the state of the States and how increasingly hostile and dangerous that is becoming. So hopefully in future episodes, Bet and I made quite a few connections while we were down there and we're looking forward to having some interviews with lots of people to chat and get more in depth about all the specifics of what's going on internationally, how that's informing us here and where can we go? What can we do? How can we protect each other and protect our young people?

Totally.

Peter Sterling, the only man in the world who's given birth to a child. Someone might say.

You'Re a bit of a queer.

Then they'd be, Brian, you're listening to transmission on 4zzz my name is ez, I use he him pronouns.

My name is Bet, I use she.

They pronouns and we're chatting all things Ozpath, which is for those of you who don't know, the Australian Professional association for Trans Health and Bet and I were down in Nupa Luna doing a conference for the last three days with over 500 attendees, all either working in community, working in health care, working in direct action and a myriad of other areas, all relating to trans health and young people, including, yeah, like medical professionals, surgeons, all that and it was fantastic. Oz Path itself, its principal purpose is to promote the health and well being of all trans people, binary and non binary. This is achieved through the organisation's aim, so their main aim, so you know who this body is, to provide education on the health rights and well being of all trans people, develop best practises and supportive policies, share information and promote communication and collaboration amongst health professionals. Encourage, promote and disseminate relevant research, maintain a network of over 400 supportive and informed professional service providers. So it's a big deal.

Yeah. I just wanted to say too, as well as talking about healthcare, as you said, there were bioethicists there, now they are talking about healthcare but they're not talking about it in quite the same way. They're taking a bit of a step back, looking at the, the morality of it, I guess, and the philosophy of this kind of healthcare. I had a fascinating conversation with someone called Daniel Wright who is doing a PhD and we talked about puberty blockers and access to puberty blockers and it was such a good conversation. I really felt like he was listening to me and taking it in. It was that, you know, and he. And I really liked what he was saying and it was that chance to just have those conversations with all these different types of researchers in all these different fields that was so great, you know. And there was this fantastic thing that ended the conference for me. It was the last thing that I saw. It was by Arctic Arc tyc, the Australian Research Consortium for Trans Youth and Children. And this was so good because basically it had, I'm going to say, eight trans young people between about 18 and 25.

Yep.

And they were leading the panel and it was the only time, aside from when Cal Horton spoke, that I just shut up and didn't have any criticisms, didn't have anything to say. Everything they said was so spot on and completely awesome. It was about co design for young people when accessing services and when being involved in research. It was about how to make that research not only more accessible but more equitable, I guess, for young people. How young people should be, how they should be being paid, where they can go after being involved in that kind of research. Because some of these young people do this for years. They kind of keep being involved in research projects and they learn a lot along the way, which was evident from listening to them talk. They were so on point. And one thing I loved was the subtitle of the, of the. Of the panel they did was called we're not here to make your research look better.

Nice. Oh, that's a great quote.

So they gave me so much hope. I went away just thinking, yes, this is the future, so long as we can help protect it for them. You know, let them do their thing. They had a bit of guidance from some slightly older trans people. Still seemed very young to me and everything was awesome.

One of the on a slightly more sad or less fun note, okay. Was Sav Zwickel from the University of Melbourne did a talk on exposure to anti trans rhetoric policies and violence associations with mental health in Australian, in Australians, trans and gender diverse communities communities. And Sav talked a bit about. There was the study that they did called the exposure to anti trans rhetoric in this country and there was 807 participants with average age of about 33 years of age. Almost 3 in 4 reported exposure multiple times weekly in anti trans rhetoric online and other including international anti trans legislation, violence, all these things and went through quite a lot of the stats on this exposure and then also talked about the harm that causes community and the higher risks of multiple adverse mental health outcomes as a result. Including an urgent multi pronged collaborative response is required by governments, community organisations, news media outlets and social media platforms to combat anti trans mis slash disinformation on.

That multi pronged response. So I saw Rodney Croom, the famous gay activist and politician who actually was very involved in finally legalising gay sex and so called cross dressing in Tasmania in 1997 and I think it was 2001 and went on to be very involved in the marriage equality plebiscite and he's doing great stuff down there advocating for trans people. And he did another kind of keynote speech on I think the next day after Cal Horton which was really inspiring. And he ended by making the point that this change cannot come from above, it has to come from below and it has to come from the grassroots.

Yes, absolutely.

And I am feeling lately that kind of lack, that disconnect between the NGO level and the grassroots. And I'm not calling out NGOs right now, I don't agree with some activists who are just anti NGO across the board. I think NGOs do great work. But I do think that perhaps because they're so busy, I don't know, they don't always listen that closely to community. And I really would like to make that connection stronger. And I understand that I do have a tendency, which is probably common to a lot of us activists, us working at this level, to get a bit on my high horse about it and to get a bit aggressive every now and then. And I'm trying not to do that so much because I finally have their attention. But, yeah, we have to work on that. We have to work on that. Shouldn't be anything that happens without consulting community if it's a big thing that's happening.

Yes, completely. And.

There. There are some. I can. I can completely understand some of the frustration from grassroots activists and community around NGOs, particularly NGOs that are run by cis people for LGBTQA community. And something that I've been saying a lot the last few days is maybe these people aren't as proactive about giving an F because they don't have skin in the game. Yeah. And that's this whole argument of, like, nothing about us without us.

Yeah.

And if you're going to be leading an organisation, it would be really important and I think imperative to the entire point of your organisation if you consult the community that things are affecting.

Well, look, the one time I've really got quite annoyed lately was in a discussion with someone in one of these NGOs about. About just that, about cis people making decisions on our behalf, supposedly for our good. And that happens quite a lot.

Right? It does.

Without consulting with us. I mean, it's great that CIS people want to help us, but you can't help us if you don't listen to us.

Yes. I mean, you're not actually helping because you're not hearing the thing that the community needs.

Yeah. And now I think of it, it wasn't just that one experience. It's been building up for a while. I've had this experience a few times lately and, yeah, I'm over it. But, yeah, I'm trying to be nice about it.

I like how you say, I try to be nice about it with your hands pointedly on hips. Like.

I mean, don't fuck with me. Right?

Yeah. Don't. Don't mess with Bet Noir.

I want to do another shout out if. I don't know. Hopefully someone down in Nam is listening because there's a Freaking fantastic trans man therapist working down there. His name is Ari Hart. He warmed my heart every time I interacted with him at the conference. And I'm pretty sure we're going to be friends and we can collaborate with each other.

Did you hear that, Ari?

Hey, Ari, if you're out there and we're going to talk via Zoom this week anyway, so I'll tell him then how great he is. But he is the only other person I've ever met, actually who cares as much as I do in exactly the same way as I do about bringing parents of trans kids into the movement and doing that with compassion, because it's a hard journey for those parents sometimes.

Yeah.

So totally love that guy, Ari Hart.

Also something that I want to just kind of like point at. This is like a. This Oz Path conference is huge. Like, this is like a massive. There's workshops, there's talks, there's updates on the latest research. There's both national international discussions that happen and then there's also networking and mixing sort of events that happen around that. Outside of that, there's trends, only spaces for connection. And there was. It's a conference, so the food was pretty good, but mostly community and all this coming together. And this is the body, this is the national body to go to for literal advice, the advice body. And I did not see a single politician from Queensland there. Definitely didn't see anyone who is directly doing harm to our community.

Who even bothered to show up to hear what the. What research has actually been done. So that. That really bothered me. The. The absence of the people that are actually making these legislative changes to our healthcare, have no interest in showing up to learn a single thing about it.

I don't see them showing up either. I was impressed, I'm going to say a two pronged thing. I was impressed that I was allowed to hog the microphone and speak, at least in my mind, on behalf of community so many times and that no one ever got angry at me about that. In my mind, it was always like, if the audience was with me, I was going to do it whether the panel was with me or not. And I was impressed that the panels were actually open to it and that, as I said, they reached out afterwards. But I am going to say that there's an accessibility problem, really because it like was an expensive event and, you know, it's hard to get down to Nipiluna and for many of us, and you know, there couldn't have been that many grassroots trans activists from Queensland that made it down there. Right.

Just a few.

Now, I don't know how that can be solved. I guess I felt a slight sense, a slight, I'm gonna say slight sense of disconnection from community there in some ways. And that's why seeing these young people who were all Qaf.

Was so good and seeing them on the stage was so fantastic. And I guess I would love to see a kind of a free fringe festival of Osparth, where it's all panels like that, where you can go and just see more grassroots stuff and see young people talking. And I guess the last thing I want to say on that note is I'm starting to realise that there's a kind of a. Not going to call it a war, but a friction between the generations in the trans community, sometimes the queer community, the queer community versus the old school LGB kind of community. I'm starting to see it more as not an LGB versus T kind of thing. It's more of a generational thing to me, I think.

What do you. What do you think this stems from? Do you think this is to do with just like completely different cultural upbringings because of generational gaps, or do you.

Yeah, I think so. As an older person, I know what older people went through and you know how ignorant we were about a lot of things.

Even you were when you were telling me, when we were at the airport, you were telling me about how last time you were down there in like the 90s or something, how scared you were about certain things and just going.

To the bar, I'm like, well, it was 1997. That was the year that gay sex was finally legalised. Tasmania was the last constituency in the Western world to legalise gay sex. Right. So I was there in 97. I just happened to go there that year. And yeah, yeah, I mean, like, it was a different world. And so if you grew up in that world and you haven't consciously made an effort to get in touch with young queer people and to educate yourself and to read about this stuff. I understand why there's a generation gap, you know, but honestly, I'm so with the young people. Like, I. I just think their conception of queerness is so inclusive. Their conception of transness is so inclusive. Their idea of affirming care. I mean, like, in this arctic presentation, they use the term, oh, where is it? I know we're running out of time.

Oh, no, we got time, you're right.

What was it called? Oh, my God, where is it? In this notebook.

That notebook has been well worn.

They referred to whole of self affirming care. Think about that whole of self affirming care. It's not just gender affirming care. I just think that's so awesome.

Like, let's not.

Gender is one part of the care that you need. Like as a trans person.

Yeah.

You need your gender affirmed. You need care that relates to that. But very frequently, not always, you're going to need other care too. And that care should be integrated. Yeah, yeah.

So holistic and intersectional care.

Yeah. So I guess what I'm saying is if, if there's a generational war, young people, just let me on your side.

Hey, pick me.

This is a pick me situation. Just want to give a little shout out to all the people who've been texting in loving the show saying how great it is and that. Yeah. That you're happy we're here. Yay. Me too. I am also happy. Yeah.

Hey.

Yeah.

I think things are coming to a head, people. So if you're not involved in local activism, I think this is the time to start getting involved and it's not daunting. Just come along to a protest, meet people, join a group online. Join meganjan People's Pride. Join Trans Justice Project. Join and protect trans Trans Kids Queensland.

Yeah, yeah. Stay. Keep your fingers on the pulse. It's really important. This is about everyone's health care and if you, if you have capacity and are able to and you are a trans person and. Or an ally, now's the time to stand up, make your voice heard, be visible, be seen and have conversations, have conversations with people. Yeah. If you feel brave enough to out yourself in certain situations where you feel that it would actually empower others and protect others, please, please do so as and for CIS allies and allies of trans people, please never out anyone without their consent either. That is also a danger.

And I will say some note, I think this point was made at the conference. Visibility without protection, you don't want that. I can't remember how they put it. So again, don't just be visible, be part of community so that we can help protect you. Being visible is a bit of a minefield and there's different ways to do it and it's always worth thinking strategically about it.

Yes, yes. There are loads of resources out there for you. Transhub.com I think that's a really great website. There's many resources there. Yeah. If you need your trans 101 basic stuff can recommend that you can also follow transmission on our social media. Transradio with a Z. And Yeah. Support for ZZZ. Keep keep us going4 Triple Z.org support. You can subscribe it's annual subscriptions. Subscribe your pet. Subscribe your plant. Subscribe yourself? I don't know. Subscribe. Keep us on air. See you next Monday. Bye.

Thank you so much for listening to transmission. See you next Tuesday, 9 to 10am on 4ZZZ.