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 them. You're listening to transm transmission on 4zzz, amplifying the trans and gender non conforming voices of Brisbane and beyond. Hello, Hello. Good morning, Meanchin. You're listening to Transmission on 4zzz. My name is EZ and I use he him pronouns.

And I'm Heidi and I use she her pronouns.

For this next hour of Trans Power on 4zzz, we play exclusively music by trans and gender diverse artists. So if you do send in a song request unless that artist has identified in that category when they have submitted music to the station, I tend to not play it. However, don't worry, there'll be other shows that catch up and will give your track a spin. But yeah, that's what Transmission is all about. I'm trying to think of a segue into getting you to talk. Heidi, how you doing? How you doing?

I'm doing great.

Yeah?

Yep.

You've been up so much lately. How's life?

Ah, yeah, good. Busy. Busy as hell. Running a business. Being in community.

Yep. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Taking all of our stimulant medication to get us to get here by 9:00am or that. Or that. Just to be alert. Present. Yeah. Today's episode of Transmission will be talking about a few random things. Nothing too heavy really. We're kind of. We're going to have a fun time trying to lighten the load of doom scrolling equivalent. Radio equivalent. I don't know. Trying to break up your. Your activism a little bit this morning with some light trance fun. Yeah, I want to. I've got a few things that I want to talk about. But before we get into all that, there are some community events that are happening this week that you should absolutely go to. So this Friday 28th March at 6:30 at the Cave Inn in Willangabba is Loud, Heavy and Angry, a metal fundraiser for trans healthcare. This is in response to the banning of gender affirming care for trans youth in Queensland by the LNP member Tim Nichols for four of Mean's heaviest and transgenderest metal bands have come together to raise funds for Project 9491. So come along to the Cave in and to see Aidan Knight and the Revenants, Apollo, where DJ and Fox and Hell's Horizon. They will all be together to blow your mind and play angry music for a good cause. So yeah, the tickets will be all donated to Project 491, which is a project run by Ozpath, which is the Australian Board of Healthcare Professionals specialised in trans healthcare. Yeah. To help the 491 children stuck in limbo by Tim Nichols and the LNP. Oz Path will use funds raised in collaboration with care providers in Queensland and across Australia to establish multidisciplinary pathways to ensure affected young people receive timely and evidence based care. You can also support the project, Project 491 directly. If you can't make it to the event at the Cave in this Friday by heading to ozpath.org project491. It should be on their main page of the website as well, so you can click there or alternatively you can just pay a $15 ticket at the door. $10 tickets at the door. $10 tickets for low wage income if you need. So yeah, loud, heavy and angry at the Cave in this Friday, 6:30pm as well as other community events that are happening this week on Sunday the 30 30th. 30th, yes, the 30th of March, which is at the Sportsman Hotel is the Trans Community Awards. So yeah, take a moment to recognise all the amazing work occurring within our trans gender diverse and non binary communities across Queensland. This is an opportunity for you to celebrate and witness the incredible work of support workers, influences, personalities, community activists, all of that. There'll be a whole bunch of us there and quite a few really wonderful people who've been nominated. Transmission has been nominated. Yours truly has been nominated. Really, the only things that Matt knocked up, there's quite a few of us and I went to look at the list of who the nominees are but I could not find it. So my apologies. But yeah, check it out. Sportsman hotel this Sunday, 3pm will be the Trans Community Awards. Yeah, I believe tickets are only about like 20 bucks. So yeah, go into a good cause and then in the future, not too far into the future, but in May, Friday 9th from 6pm if you are a Goldie living on the Goldie or if you want to go for a bit of a drive, which I'll be doing a carpool with a bunch of friends down at Vinny's dive for 491Fest which is punk rock laughter and making a difference again, raising money for Project 491 is A. Yeah, 491fest which this charity gig is all about. Raising funds for a vital initiative helping trans kids and teens access life Saving treatment such as puberty blockers and hrt. And all the money raised will begin going to Oz Path. There'll be permanent revolution. Queerbait Flanger panties, Lucas Chiovaski and MC'd by Comic Relief. The one, the wonderful and always hilarious Selma Soul. I'm almost so close to doing a Selma Scream then. And I didn't. No, I can't do it. It's terrible. Yeah, so may 9th. Chuck that in your calendar. Vinnie's dive. $18 tickets or $23 tickets on the door. I'll be there. So yeah, those are all the events coming up. Check it all out. Amplifying the voices of the trans and gender non conforming community of Meanjin, Brisbane and beyond. Transmission on 4ZZZ brings you the latest in trans community news, music and events. Every Tuesday from 9am till 10am Join our team of hosts for an hour of celebrating the unique perspectives of the trans community. Transmission. Tuesday mornings from 9am till 10am on 4ZZZ. You're listening to Transmission on 4ZZZ. My name is EZ. I use HE, him, her pronouns because hers, sorry, apologies. He, him, hers, because I don't believe men should own anything.

And I am Heidi, and I use she, her pronouns.

I caught you off guard. You did. I wish I executed it better. That's fine. I'll do it again. Another Tuesday morning. Listen. Yeah, yeah.

Another host. Catch him off guard. Yeah. Ye.

Yeah, that's it. You're listening to Transmission. All about amplifying the voices of the trans and gender diverse community here in my engine and beyond. Yeah, Heidi and I chilling out in the studio today. It's Trans day of Visibility coming up actually as well, which is the 31st of March, which will be Monday next week, which is an awkward time for transmission because we're like the day after, which is April Fools, you know, with a Tuesday. But we'll be visible now and every hour on Tuesday morning for as long as we can. So. Yeah, yeah. And speaking of visibility, I wanted to chat about. I had like a situation recently, Heidi. It wasn't like. It was definitely a trans experience situation. I'll describe what happened. So for trans people listening, you may relate. For non trans folk, enjoy the tale of living two lives. But I used to be part of a group of like queer women, lesbian women. We used to go out and drink and party and stuff. Long, many years ago now. I looked very different, I sounded very different. And yeah, we go clubbing and drinking and partying. I'm too old for that now. I'm tired I'm in bed. Well and truly.

I hear you.

Yeah, exactly. But I. Anyway, I lost touch with a couple of people there, continued living my life for a few years here and there, and then started my transition, went through a significant portion of my transition. And just recently I went to an event where I ran into one of those women and they did not recognise me, did not clock me, did not know who I was, anything, had conversation with them, was kind of waiting for the penny to drop, waiting for that moment of them to be like, oh, oh, you're blah, blah, blah. I'm like, yeah, I am just harrier. Check it out. But they didn't. It didn't drop, nothing, didn't sort of click. And we were kind of like a sort of a work function thing, so. And there was like a moment where people were sharing their story a bit about their life and stuff, and this person shared their story and it was totally not the story I know about them. Like, it was totally made up, I believe, or the story I knew was made up. I don't know. Either way. I was definitely like, right, cool. You're telling people different things in different spaces. So that was really weird. But I guess. Have you ever had anything like that where you're like, you know, people knew you as the way you were before and then you run into them, they're like, maybe don't recognise you, or they recognise you and they're like, what the heck? Whoa.

Well, I guess my experience is a little bit different because, you know, I grew up in the country and so. And I was, you know, I make that joke of like, oh, I was the only gay in the village sort of thing, so everybody knew me as, like, the gay.

Yeah.

Though obviously many queer people there. But not everyone was out. Not everyone was comfortable being, you know, visible and. But I. It's not that I was comfortable, but I was like, I'm gonna. Anyway, that's who I am. Yeah.

Take it or leave it.

Like, just cop it.

Yeah. Yeah.

So, like, where I'm from, people who knew me prior to my transition, when I came to this city in 2014, which is 11 years ago now, as soon as I got here. Well, not as soon as. But pretty much as soon as I got here, I was actually part of, like, a docu series on ABC called Moment of Truth.

Oh, my goodness.

And so my. My episode in this docu series was about me going back to my hometown and coming out to my family as trans and da, da, da, da, da. It was terrible. And ABC really screwed me over. But another story.

Oh, my goodness.

But so basically it's a bit different for me because I have just been so visible the whole time. Like, everybody who knew me before knew me as I transitioned and I think a lot of people from my hometown paid close attention to me when I came to the city.

Right, so they were witnessing you through.

Yeah. So there's. For me, I don't get that experience of, like, all these people knew me before and then don't recognise me now. They've seen me change this whole time.

Yeah, yeah. Wow. I mean, that's. There's definitely a lot. A large portion of people I know who've witnessed me through my transition. Pretty much everyone here at 4 Triple Z has known me through all my iterations. But it's interesting when you have, like. This is very telling of, like, all trans people have different experiences of transition and coming out. And I also spaces like that.

I also think that there's this element of, you know, like, passing culture comes into it as well. So for those who don't know what passing is and passing culture is, this kind of stems from, you know, older generations who had to basically pass as cisgender in order to maintain their safety and access to different things.

Kind of an assimilation.

Yeah, pretty much, yeah. And so if you didn't pass, there were certain disadvantages to that and da, da, da, da, da. So I am a non passing trans woman. Fine with that. I don't need to. I don't need people to think that I'm cisgender. I'm very proud of being transgender. But what that comes with is that there is no. There's no hiding. There's no. There's no, like, you know, even people who. They might have a. Take a second to double take if they see me, if they haven't seen me for years and they weren't following or whatever. But most people look at me and they go, oh, yeah, that's such and such from Warwick. You know, hey, are you from Warwick?

You just, like, out. You see someone like, staring at you and you're like, oh, no, no, no. And they come up to you like, hey, were you blah, blah, blah from work? And you're like, oh, okay, it's just this. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's me.

Yeah, well, because when I was, I wasn't exactly low profile in Warwick. Like, I was the only quote unquote male hairdresser in the whole town. And basically Warwick's economy is hairdressers and butchers. And so everybody knew me as like the Only male hairdresser. And so the two genties. I have had people since I moved to the city. I have had people who were like, oh, you cut my hair when I was like 14 and I thought you were so cool cause you like you didn't care and da da da da. Like you were so queer. And I was just like, yeah. And then I also had people walking past yelling slurs and like I was getting followed home from work. Like there's pluses and minuses.

Sounds like two extremes of like you're amazing, you're doing, you're so brave and then you're like we hate you. You know like two, like kind of. Yeah, yeah, two extremes.

It's this double edged sword because I think one, I think it helped me to develop a thick skin kind of growing up in that environment and being very unapologetically queer basically from the time I was like 12, 13. But then, yeah, it's, it's so interesting to have the very, very few times where people who have like recognised me from, from Warwick, who've also moved to Myun Jin.

I fled as well.

Yeah, yeah, it's pretty, pretty much is that. Yeah, yeah. And half the time they end up being queer and they've come out when they've moved to the city. Kind of like I did with being trans. Like I didn't feel safe enough in my hometown to come out because the only other trans person I knew from my hometown was like the town joke and you know, she was treated so horribly and, and, and I just. That really stuck with me.

Yeah.

You know, and then I had my own family being like. I talked to a psychologist on your behalf and they just said that you're gay and confused. And I was like, oh, I was 14.

Yeah. Oh my goodness.

So I did actually come out when I was 14 as a. And I very swiftly got put back in the closet.

Yeah, yeah, it's, it's wild really. You know, there's so many trans and queer people who live in rural towns and small communities outside of major cities all around the country. And you know, small towns have breed different dynamics and different cultures.

I suppose it is a completely different world. Yeah, it really is. And that's why when I came to the city it felt like I had this special insight that I think not a lot of city dwellers have when it comes to things like transphobia and bigotry because I see the earliest signs of it. And so I felt like I, when I came to the city I was like, I was clocking all of These people that were a potential threat. And everyone else around me just seemed to be so blase about it and I'm like, no, no, no. Like, look out for this one.

Yeah, yeah, pay attention, pay attention. Yeah, Y. It's interesting too, because, like, in the reverse of that, I have also, like, one of our. One of the transmission co hosts. Born and raised in Fitzroy, Melbourne in the 90s and noughties and then early 20s, moved to far North Queensland, an hour north of Cairns, and had the shock of their life. Going from what would have been like, I don't know, the pretentious class of Melbourne, Melburnian elite academic berets and coffee to. To, you know, thongs and 4x beers and you don't get anywhere without a ute. Yeah. And that was a real shock, a culture shock. Also in terms of language. Language would have been a big one. But also just that people have very different lifestyles around this country. This is a huge piece of land that we're on. Oh, yeah.

A whole ass continent.

We really are. And everyone has a array of experiences moving from different spaces into other spaces. And some spaces are more clicky and other spaces are more accepting and you have all these different aspects to culture and communities.

I even had. And I've talked about this with my partner, I was like, last time that I went back to my hometown, which is really. It's only like two and a half, three hours away, which is a short drive.

It is a short drive, really.

You go through the Great Dividing Range and that's really what kind of like separates everything. But accent.

Yeah.

Warwick accent. Very different to a meanjin accent, I'll tell you that. And I only noticed that it was such a. A big thing and how much my accent has changed since I've been here for 11 years. Compared to when I go back and I'm having conversations with my sisters, I'm like, oh, my God, I feel like I'm on an episode of Kath and Kim. Like, it's nuts. I love it. I personally, I love it.

Yeah, yeah.

And I love when that little bit of country twang comes out in me. Like the Warwick country twang.

Yeah, yeah.

I embrace it. But I have noticed it automatically has shifted over the years since I've been here.

Yeah, yeah. Well, yeah, your accent changes. My mom's from Barcalden, which is central Queensland towards Longreach, and every now and then she. She whips out a fair dinkum in it and I'm like, whoa, all right, country girl. Yeah. Like, what was it also, I've been overseas and I. I don't know, I'm one of those Australian travellers. Like, when I go overseas, I don't want to see other Aussies. I leave the country for a reason. And. And when. When I was in Canada, which is just basically a second place for Australians who like snow. There are Aussies everywhere. And I remember walking along, like, Lake Louise, which is this beautiful part of the Rocky Mountains, the drive out to Rocky Mountains. And anyway, it's beautiful and you do this kind of like boardwalk around Lake Louise, and I could see this couple walking towards us and I was like, they look Australian. And then I could hear their accent and I was like, oh, they're from Melbourne. I know that accent. And I was like, quickly, don't look, don't engage. Just. Yeah, I don't want to talk to people from Melbourne.

Giving a bit of prudent.

Yeah, yeah. People are like, all Aussies are blah. And I'm like, no, there is a big place with lots of different accents. Like, I can tell the difference between someone from Brisbane, from Sydney, from Melbourne. All just based off of the way that they talk.

Yeah.

And they're all subtle things.

Yes.

Whereas when I was in Canada, everyone was just like, you sound English. And I'm like, please don't ever do that.

But that's like, I feel like a lot of people overseas will. They often confuse, like, New Zealand accent and Aussie accent. And to us, it's so, so obvious that it's different, but to elsewhere it's like, oh. But then people who are from, you know, United States of America and Canada, often we won't notice it until there's a key word that's used. But over there, it's like, they know. They know.

They for sure know. So, like trans voices. Sometimes I'm like, is that a trans guy or a trans femme? Nobody knows.

Nobody knows.

Who cares? 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. And they'd be Brian. My name is Iris. And you're listening to transmission on 4ZZZ. Subscribe or donate to Keep Community Radio Alive. That's right. You should subscribe and donate to 4zzz. Keep community radio alive. Keep Transmission on air and listen to more Tash Sultana because that was really lovely. Yeah, yeah, yeah. My name is ez, he, him, pronouns.

And I'm Heidi, she. Her.

Heidi was just telling me that Tash Sultana actually has a not for profit foundation called the I Am Me foundation that raises money. What is it? We are a non for profit based in Australia, founded by Tash Sultana, Jimmy Sultana and Mark Rice, providing support and monetary grants for our LGBTQA trans and non binary community in their transitions to become unapologetically themselves. How cute. Yeah, yeah, you can check out. You should check that out. It's shout for good.com and you can. Yeah, you can donate directly to them. And that song that Tash Tasha's new song there was hold on, which is about. What was it about?

So I. I read somewhere that it was basically a song about her or them supporting their partner who is currently going through cancer treatment. And I heard about that through my line of work. I'm a wig stylist and I work with people who are going through treatment. Majority of my clients are going through treatment. So I heard it through, you know, that kind of space. Yeah. So, yeah, it's beautiful when you really sit and listen to it. It's like made me emotional the first time I ever heard it because obviously I've got that connection in my everyday life to going through treatment. I thought it was really special.

Oh, that's lovely. Yeah, Give that a whirl again if you want to. Tash Sultana. Hold on. Yeah, well, something that I wanted to mention before the end of the episode was that rest is resistance. It's good to have nice. You know, if you have a regular listener of transmission, you'll know that we cover off on some heavy topics. Sometimes we might talk about whether we're interviewing people or touching base on what's keeping our fingers on the pulse of what's happening in the community and what's affecting us politically, socially, globally, all those sorts of things. And it's nice to have episodes like this where we kind of just hang out in the space and have a yarn, which is really nice. And special thanks to Natasha for messaging. Sorry, Natalia for messaging in. And yeah, enjoying us just chatting about our experiences as trans people. But yeah, it's. It's tricky for us because we live trans all the time. We're trans all the time. And I guess like the circles that I. That I revolve in and I live in and I work in and I play in are all trans and queer spaces really. I don't really interact with CIS hetero people very often. CIS hetero. Neurotypical people.

Yeah, I was gonna say, I'd be like, the only person is my partner, but he's not neurotypical.

So you're like, wait, I rule that out?

No rule that out. But yeah, same. It's, it's a 247 thing.

Yeah. Yeah. And it's hard, I always find like recently. So I'm now no longer on social media. Personally, I don't have any meta on my phone. I have removed it, I still access it. It's just on my computer. Yeah. And I can like choose to log in and I can just walk away from my computer. I don't have to have the sort of bombardment of doom scrolling and just like really downward heavy, depressing like algorithm trajectories.

Yeah.

And you know when you work and live as a trans person in the trans community like Heidi and I do, working with vulnerable people as support workers in whatever way, it can be really heavy to spend your downtime just flipping open your phone and then you just hear all this stuff about Trump or about Musk or all about these terrible people doing all these terrible things. And it's. A lot of it can be sensationalised but then other parts of you that's in the fight flight freeze is like, is it sensationalised or is it true? Like is it, is it real that this is happening? And, and that can be really spooky.

There's times where, you know, you tell yourself not to, you know, overreact to something but then it follows through and it actually happens and you're like, okay, so now my ability to judge what to take seriously or not is tampered with. And so, you know, it's, it's, it can be hard.

It can be really hard. So yeah, I've taken, I'm, I'm practising rest as resistance this year. That doesn't mean that transmission slows down. Don't get me wrong there. It's just more that I, I don't have any of social media on my phone. I'm now carry, I carry a book with me everywhere, read on the train. I'm spending a lot of time with myself in very present and active conscious ways that I used to do before MySpace even like before social media was like everywhere.

God. You remember Bebop?

Oh my God.

Did you ever use Bebo?

I think so, yeah. It was Bebo.

It was, it was kind of like MySpace. So you had like a. So B, E, B, O, B, E.

B, O. Yeah, it was like old school, like 2005 to 2015. Thirteen.

Thirteen, yeah. Yeah. So I use, I used that before. Like I started using Facebook. I never was really into MySpace, but I used Bebo. And it was similar thing where you'd have like your favourite song on your. On your homepage and, like, artists and stuff.

And you, like, you know, write your own scripts for how you want your simpler times. Yeah, yeah, yeah. How you want it to be presented. Yes.

Talking about going, like, off Meta and everything. Look, I've got the same plan for myself this year. It's a little harder because, like, I run my business through Meta.

Yes.

Which is, you know.

Well, that's kind of how they get you. Right. They get you dependent on their service so that you can't leave.

Yeah. Because that's kind of of where it is at, you know, like, that's. That's how I've built up a clientele base and worked with other businesses that work alongside me and how they have built up their clientele base. And so this year is me managing how to slowly kind of step away from that. But because it's for the same reasons, like, like I said, like, when I'm at work, I'm working with people who are sometimes terminally ill or otherwise just going through a health crisis. So it's very heavy job in that role. I'm not just doing hair. Like, it's all of these transferable skills. Yeah. It's all of my transferable skills that I learned when I was counselling. That's in this job as well. And then I'm also heavily involved in the trans community outside of that. So I'm always on the go. I'm always doing something. And so, yes, I will be moving away from Meta because I do need to have time where I can decompress, where I'm not constantly being bombarded with these really stressful events. And it doesn't mean cutting myself off and completely just ignoring what's going. Going on. For those who cannot see me right now, I am wearing my keffiyeh. I am pro Palestinian. And, you know, that's another. You know, it's just one of those things. But right now we're being bombarded with so many different world crises that we have to be able to take a breath.

Yeah.

And it doesn't mean you're giving up. It means this is also another thing too. It. We have to have community because we have to have people who can take the baton in this relay, you know, So I think that's important.

And. Yeah, yeah. Picking your battles and. And choosing to. Where you apply your energy consciously and cautiously. Yeah. And protecting yourself. Because joy, our joy, trans joy, queer joy, is the purpose of why we're fighting for the things that we're fighting for. We're fighting for our joy. So take moments of joy because that's the victory. That's the victory that we work towards.

Yeah.

There will always be, there will always be a fight to be had. So, yeah, conserve yourself. Look after yourself. Yeah. Yeah. And if you are a Worm Girls fan, they will be in studio next Tuesday morning on Transmission with Sean for April 1st. So if you want to hear an interview with Wormgirls, they'll be in next week. Thank you so much and love hanging out with you, Heidi.

You too, darling.

And all the best to you out there. And we will be back next week with more sensational music and chats and fun and. Yeah. Woo. See you later. Bye. Thank you so much for listening to Transmission. See you next Tuesday, 9 to 10am on 4ZZZ.