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Transmission on 4zzz, amplifying the trans and gender diverse community of Mean, Brisbane and beyond.

My name is Ray. I use they them pronouns. And you're listening to Transmission on 4zzZ 102.1 FM. But today I'm very excited to be back after I reckon about a month now and I've got a fantastic show lined up for you. I'm. I had a chat a week or so ago with the Fantastic crew from Scratch that magazine. We've got Ollie and Tori who I spoke with about Scratch that, which is QUT's resident student led arts magazine. And also later on in the show I'm going to be chatting with Kat from Shelf Lovers about the store's new location which is in Holland park west and also all things Trans Books. So it'll be fantastic. And I've also got another segment of Transverse where we hear from poets and some great poetry readings from Eleanor Saramgaard coming up as well. But first off, I'm going to play the first half of my interview with Ollie he him and Tori Sheher from Scratch that magazine, which as I said, is QUT's resident student arts magazine for emerging creatives. They publish original works of writing and art and for many of their contributors, Scratch that is actually the first publication in their portfolio. Scratch that's mission is to give space to underrepresented voices and brand new talent with a special focus on the successes of those within the local cultural scene here in Meanjin. And they also have a launch that's coming up which they'll be chatting about with the theme timestamp. And that launch is on Friday. So this Friday 29th May. Alrighty, I'm going to play you the first part of my interview with Ollie and Tori.

Hi, I'm Ollie. I go by he him. I am a third year at qut, currently studying the Bachelor of Fine Arts and I am one of the social media representatives at Scratch that.

I'm Tori. Just call me Tori. My pronouns are she her and I'm like Ollie studying at QT in my third year, fourth year. Crap. Yeah. And I'm on the editorial board for Scratch that.

Amazing. And what is Scratch that? Tell me more.

Well, Scratch that kind of came back from the dead this semester so It's. It's been our capstone unit for like, seven years, since Rowan Wilson first started it. And it's been basically like a collective of QT creatives assembling a magazine and other events. So the bank scene is kind of the core of the project and it's very important, obviously, to us. And QT wanted to axe it, but after a lot of campaigning and a lot of petitioning and Rowan's support, we were able to get it back. So it's the same project scope, but like half the budget and time. So we've been working really hard to keep up the quality.

That's incredible. I actually didn't know that there was so much like, you know, people power behind it and the campaigning. That's fantastic.

Yeah. I was almost dead and then we got it back and that was really good. Yeah. Still trying to fight for other creative writing capstones at the moment, but we'll see.

So when did. When did Scratch that sort of first start and what's kind of the, I guess the history behind it?

I don't know the exact. But definitely our lecturer, Ron Wilson, was one of, kind of the pioneers and it has been like always a multidisciplinary creative project. So we have artists, we have musicians, we have writers and poets, like, we have everyone, which is really good across the creative, more fine arts degrees.

Do you want to tell me a bit more about both your own, like your writing and sort of why, you know, why you're. Why you're studying writing and what you're kind of doing broadly or specifically? Feel free to info dump at me.

Well, I kind of jumped into writing on a whim because I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do at university and I came to QUT's open day, went to their creative writing event and I was like, this actually sounds awesome, because I love storytelling and I don't really care what format that happens in. I just want to be able to get my storeys out into the world and just have fun with things. And I ended up finding myself really enjoying Psychological thriller. So I have been doing a lot of writing in that sphere, which is a little different to the writing I've been doing in Scratch that, but it's been really, really fun.

Yeah. What have you been doing for Scratch that?

So I'm on the social media team, so I've been helping behind the scenes make content, organise collaborations that are coming on the way with a couple different projects that we'll be working with. But I'm also. I've written a few pieces that have been and will go up on scratch. That's website. I've got a. An ecstic poem, a short work which had been really, really fun. But my third job because I'm kind of all over the place. I'm also a copy editor. So all of the content that comes through, I help edit, make sure that it's professional and ready for publication.

Look relatable content I do about, I don't know, somewhere between five and 10 jobs.

So yeah, yeah, when we started this it was like, okay, choose your team. And I was like, I want to be in these two teams. And then social media came around and I was like, I'm gonna do that as well.

It's a bisexual dilemma. Like, it's like I'm queer. What if I have a million jobs?

Yeah. Like I know I'm not gonna choose one identity.

Right. Thank you very much. You can't make me. And what about you, Tori? What's your. What's your writing storey?

My darker backstory is I read Albert Camus at a young age and I really got into philosophy in high school and so I wanted to study philosophy and then I was like, you can't get a job like that. And then I decided to pursue a career in the arts. Well, mainly because philosophy and the arts just go hand in hand. Like the way we convey philosophies and thought is through art and always has been. Like the fact that I was reading great written works of philosophy and that had me thinking about how to live and all that stuff. So yeah, I started in film and then was like, I only really like the written part of film, the before screen. And so I was like, oh, I'll just go into writing. And I always loved writing storeys growing up and literature and English is always my favourite class. And yeah, it just feels like I. It was something that I like took a while to get to and then once I got in I was like, why didn't I do this earlier?

And I love that. Going from, I can't get a job in philosophy. I'm gonna do. I'm gonna work in the arts. A similar.

Yeah, that would give me a job.

Well, I think I stopped worrying about job. I just was like, you know what? I want to be like happy.

Yeah, it's collapsing. Anyway, I figured that out a while ago. I was like, man, I could do a sciency thing. That would be sick. No, I can't. I want to sit in my house

and write my storey. I know someone who studied it thinking it would mean he'd be employable forever. And now no one's hiring him because of AI like, his jobs become, like his degrees become meaningless.

Yeah, too bad. We have something to actually fight for, that our writing is worth something. And AI kind of stinks.

Yeah, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Great thing to tie back to the magazine. We have had a absolutely no AI revolt. And so I'm just going to start talking about. The theme was timestamp. And so basically we're delving back into past eras and like looking at them not only through a nostalgic lens, but just through a bare bones. This is kind of like this. It's very memoir based and it's been really great. And then part of that as well is that all of the pages of our zine have been handmade, scanned, and then they'll be printed. And so it's like this massive kind of scrapbook project. We'll have some handwritten parts and then it's just. Yeah, it's completely AI free and. And fosters that community and that gentle touch that we've been looking for lately. So I think that's very important.

Oh, I love that. And I think is, are you asking all, like, contributors to. To do their, like, collage and do their own page or is it like a teamwork?

It is the team. So our art team and production team, that's been their thing. And even one of the members of the editorial board. So I'm one of three editorial members. Me, Sailor Rose and Zaina Robbins. And Zaina is a visual artist. And Ozana. Oh, beloved. I think I'm saying your name wrong. Zaina or Zana. I will correct it later and ask pray for forgiveness from her.

BLEEP over.

Oh, it's not like it's going on radio or anything. Yeah, but she's a visual artist and she has been really like, shepherding the whole process and just doing a great job. So they're wonderful.

Yeah, that's fantastic. And tell me more about timestamp as a theme and like, what kind of contributions you got? Because I think that, I mean, like without. Without spoiling anything, because we want to talk about the launch a bit later, but. Yeah. What kind of work did you. Did you get submitted?

I think sometimes when we talk about nostalgia, we think it's saccharine and we think that it's a denial of past wrongs or a want to run away from current wrongs. But really I think timestamp is just delving into our shared memory and our shared experience and also the Moments like growing up that were most impactful to us. Probably one of my favourite submissions was from within the team and they wrote a really stunning piece about kind of delving into our firsts and lasts and how we never really register that something's our last until it's over. Like the last time you talk to a family member or like, it was just gorgeous. And then there was another piece that was just completely like, burn it all down. Like, I'm. I want to move on and I want to be free and I'm just sick of everything. And it's just great. You get a lot of different submissions, but they all have that. This, like, shared, like hazy memoir and just capturing how like graspable memory can be.

And I think that's what I like about themed issues of journals is that it kind of. It builds that community and cohesion.

Yeah. Along with the whole. Because it is very memoir heavy, at least with the works that I've had the pleasure of editing. They all seem to have a very consistent theme of place. And it's been really interesting being able to read about people's understandings and connections to these specific places in these times of their lives and how that influenced who they were and who they are.

If people are listening and they. They're like interested in submitting to future issues, is that a thing that they can do as non, non qut students?

Yeah. So it's open to everyone. So we. We had a poet from the Blue Mountains who's going to be in this issue, so that's going to be great. And just follow us on Instagram and every team takes that over and they'll post it. But I think the best way to get involved in future is to come to our launch event, which is 29 May, 6:00 clock to 9:00pm It'll be on QUT campus and you can find out all the info on our Instagram. It's cratchthat Mag and there's a link in the bio to buy tickets and it's like $10 for a ticket and then $20 for ticket and magazine and a bunch of goodies. That's like. You're going to get really good value there because we wanted to just try and like cost a living, man. It's rough. So hopefully we wanted to keep our

prices down and make it work.

We wanted to keep it down. Yeah. So keep an eye on that.

I like that. It's like a little goodie bag. Like when you get at the end of a party. Yeah, yeah.

Stickers and bookmarks and potentially a raffle. So you might get more than you bargained for. But that is just.

Our team has been working very hard on making super fun little things for everyone to have. And it's been awesome. And it's going to be awesome.

It's really going to give school dance.

Oh, yes. That is so. That is very nostalgic. I love that, like, blue light disco kind of vibes. But acab.

Yeah, yeah, yes, of course. Blue light. Everything that's great about disco, except the state sponsorship, you know. Yeah, it's great.

Incredible. Exactly that. And tell me a bit more about what will be happening at the launch. I mean, I know what will be happening, I suppose, because I will be there.

Yeah. We're so excited to have you as our guest speaker. That'll be great. And then there's also free food, free drink. Oh, not free drink. Ha. Sorry, you gotta pay for drinks. I take that back. But free food, guys. Free food for $20. You get free pizza and snacks. And there's a bar so you can get drunk on your own dimensions. And yeah, we'll have some readings by some of the people in our magazine. We'll have fun trivia towards the end of the night. That's being planned. I am hosting and I'm planning to dress up as a iconic 2000s look, so. Okay.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who's gonna go full out.

Are we gonna make sure we're not clashing? We'll see. We'll see.

I have a feeling you're not going

for what I'm going for, but I'm so.

I was gonna say, is there a dress code? Because I can. I can match this.

I think it's kind of. They're leaning more towards 2000s.

Yeah, it is general. Because a lot of we're all young people. A lot of the time that we're pulling from is 2000s, 2010s in our nostalgia. And so, yeah, that's the main focus, but it's the broad scheme.

I want somebody to come up with, like, steampunk, like, Victorian steamboat. But yes, this is the nostalgia I feel.

Oh, my God, yes. I feel as a. As an 80s kid. I'm like, maybe I should like, like growing up in like, the 90s and stuff, I'm like, what if I just had like a. A bum bag just full of Tamagotchis?

We have a Tamagotchi belt.

We're all nostalgic for any time but now. And it's like, I don't I don't blame us. I really don't blame us. People would be like, it was bad, now isn't great. But now isn't great.

It's.

It's certainly not ideal. And I think we're going through tumultuous times and to kind of have a celebration like the Scratch that launch is really beautiful. Like I think that that's going to be. It's going to bring together, together community. It'll be amazing. If you want to give us the, the date and the info again for our listeners.

Yeah. 29 May, 6 to 9pm at QT Kelvin Grove campus. It'll be Z9 block, room 1 30. If you can remember all that, you're really cool.

Incredible. And if people want to book their tickets, where should they go?

Our Instagram. Scratch that mag and there'll be a link in the bio. Yes. Cheque out.

Our social media.

We have been

along with the theme. We've been trying to make some videos that are reminiscent of the horrors of 2010 social media. If you're interested in that kind of stuff, please do cheque us out. And for launch information we are posting and we have some collaborations on the way all of the things, every single thing ever is on the social media. Cheque us out. You might see a couple of ninjas around who may or may not be pranking as a patrol.

Amazing. And I'm so excited to be the guest reader as well. I'll think up some. I've got some, some poems about like Sailor Moon and like some real like nostalgic kind of stuff.

So we'll, we'll be dressing up as Sailor Moon for.

So I used to have a Sailor Jupiter outfit, so maybe I could have a go.

That looks sick.

I don't think I'd fit into it anymore. I was a child. But I do sew, so maybe I could whip something up in a week. We'll see how we go.

Even just like a Sailor Moon vibe. Like we all. We get it.

Very vibe space. Yes. Yes. Oh my God. What if I was like a gender messy like Sailor Moon tuxedo mask hybrid? Oh, that's way too ambitious. I'm just gonna wear clothes.

Yeah.

And you're gonna say that that's the intention and people are gonna go, yeah,

it's just Sailor Moon. But then you have the ass hat and the rose.

Yes.

It's what the people want. That's, that's the gender that I, you know, I want to see in the world.

That's what the people Need Chibi.

You.

Oh, my goodness. Thank you so, so much for joining us.

Thank you for having us.

It's been a pleasure.

It was so, so good to chat to you. Thank you.

Thank you.

My name is Ray. I use they, them, pronouns. And you're listening to Transmission on full. And now I have even more awesome writing arty stuff for you. The wonderful poet Eleanor Saramgaard recorded three poems for me to play on air today, which I'm very excited about, which is part of our Transverse segment, a very sporadic segment. Basically, whenever I'm on air, I like to showcase poems spoken word by trans and gender diverse artists. So this is Transverse with Eleanor Trans Verse, featuring the poetry of trans and gender diverse people from Meganjan and beyond. Our voices are vivid, valid and vital. And we're not going away.

My name is Eleanor Sarengaard and my pronouns are they, them. I acknowledge that I'm on the indigenous land of Coast Salish peoples, specifically the Snoqualmie tribe. And I thank these caretakers of this land who have lived and continued to live here since time immemorial. I'd like to read three of my poems. The first poem is called Backscattering. I look at myself in the mirror and fall in love again. And then other times I look at myself in the mirror and I don't know how we're the same person then watching shadows off the glass balcony. Who is that? They could be anyone. The hydrangea blooms are sour blue, not the sweet milk china teacups I grew up reading about. I dream of floating each blossom on the surface of a lake still blue squared petals hang and sway with the promise of nothing at the end, just the sun. My mouth cracked. Reflections move on. Next, I'd like to read my poem Guavama. Guavama ripened, pinked, your silk slipped over me. My eyes full of the seconds ahead of us. The relaxation doesn't always come easy, so I hold my bets up to the score sheet. I tremble into your sweet summer. In my mouth rays pour in window left open to the world. And my last poem is. We know happiness, feminine husbands and masculine wives. The world is ending, but that's not why. Thank you very much for listening.

Peter Stirling, 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 Ray. I use they, them pronouns. And you're listening to Transmission on 4 Triple Z 102.1 FM. I am super pumped to have in studio with me, Kat from Shelf Lovers.

Hello.

Hello. Do you want to introduce yourself and your pronouns and what. What is Shelf Lovers for those who don't know.

Okay, so as Rae said, my name is Kat, my pronouns are she. Her. Shelf Lovers is technically a bookstore, but we like to think of ourselves as much more than just a bookstore. We specialise in queer books of all kinds as well as like gifty and what we call geeky geekery type items. We've been around for round about three years. We used to have a beautiful store in Wolloom, which we unfortunately had to close last year in April. Yeah. Much to our horror and, and the community's horror as well.

I feel like it was a very. Yeah, the community was very sad but, you know, new beginnings now, which is very exciting.

Yeah. So we were quite heartbroken for a while and, and I kind of went to bed for a few months after we closed. And then towards the end of last year we started talking with some people and got a marvellous opportunity to open a new little what we're calling a pocket sized store which happens to be part of the new Gender Health Australia clinic in Holland Park. It's a gorgeous little cottage building that's been completely renovated and we have been given a little space in that so that we can, yeah, continue doing what Shelf Lovers loves doing best.

And honestly, it's the loveliest space. Like, I think when I first walked into Gender Health Australia, I was immediately like, felt at ease because it was very, it felt, you know, very like at home. Like it was, it was definitely like a. Well, as you said, like, it's a renovated house, so there's that kind of atmosphere, lots of, you know, queer and trans stuff everywhere. I was like, oh my gosh, I'm. This is great. And then you kind of go through the clinic and into this little alcove that is. I honestly, I think it's, it's kind of tardis like, because.

Yes, definitely.

Right. Because you go. I was like, oh. I expected it to be not as expansive and not have as much like what you've done with the stuff. Space is incredible. It's amazing.

Yeah.

So we sat down with the floor. Like they gave us the floor plan of the, the place and it, it underwent a couple of iterations before they finally had the renovations complete. But we knew that we were working with a space of about 2 metres by 3 metres. And so I sat down with my butcher's paper and my ruler and I measured it to within a millimetre of its life. And, yeah, we have been amazed by how much we've fit in, but we. Because we weren't sure how much we were going to fit in, it meant that when we reopened on the 1st of April, I hadn't gone overboard with the ordering. And it means that now we're like, oh, we can actually get lots more stuff in here. So, yes, let's do that.

Oh, my goodness. Yeah. I was like, you can get more. More books and more, like. Yeah, geeky.

Yeah, well, we haven't. We haven't reordered the geeky stuff. So we're basically operating on. Because we've continued doing pride parades and things like that, we're basically operating on all of the stock that we've had for that. So, yes, I've already started reaching out to all of our favourite local queer artists and things to restock the things that everybody loved in the old store, like Handy Andy Ceramics. They're amazing mugs.

Yes.

And all of the cards and badges and things from. Greetings From Hell. Yeah. So where we're looking forward to having a lot of that arrive back in.

Amazing. And like, if I was like. If there are any local, I don't know, like, artists or like writers with books and stuff and they're, you know, queer and queer and. Or trans or like, within the lgbtqia. Beautiful rainbow. Yeah. Should they get in touch with you to, like, kind of. Yeah. Chat about.

Definitely chat about their wares. We've got. I'm slowly redoing our website site, so I ask people to be patient because I think sometimes links don't work, but I am. I'm working on getting it up and running as soon as I can. But we do have a form on there for authors where they can fill it out with details of their book. I've already had a few new ones drop in. I've obviously tried to get in touch with all of our favourites, such as yourself and. Yeah, just to re. Establish and say, hey, we're back. We obviously being such a small space, we can't commit to having everybody's books on the shelf all the time. But we still have our full collection online. And basically we're saying to people that, yeah, like, jump online to see the full collection. If you know that you're coming in and there's something in particular, just get in contact with us beforehand so that we can make sure we've got it at the time. With artists, we're really. We really want to celebrate local queer or like, artists if they're around, obviously, shelf lovers. Has a particular vibe that we go for. So sometimes things don't always, like, fit, but that doesn't mean that we won't still promote them through channels that we think would suit them better. Yeah, totally. And with that one, we do still have a contact form on the website. Not specifically for artists, but we do just say, yeah, reach out to us and just ask the question.

I love that. That's. I feel like that's so organised because I was like, oh, how do they contact you? That's beautiful. Yeah, just. Yeah, well, it's on the website.

Community. Community really is what Shelf Lovers is all about. So ever since we opened, we have tried to work with as many different organisations, groups and individuals as we can to get to celebrate. Queer Voices, Queer storeys. Yeah, anything that we can to help that.

And I think that's. I think that is so incredibly important. I think that's what a lot of people, you know, have, have missed in the. The interim period. But I mean, you know, you're. You're back and better than ever. And I'm so excited because you. You're saying that there's like a bunch of different events coming up and stuff as well, including one this evening, I think.

Yes, yes. So while we weren't operating as a store last year, we did try to keep a few of our general book like book groups and things going. But now that we've re established our store, we have a beautiful area where we can now hold events and things. So our Book Circle is back on. It's the last Monday of the month. Amazing. At the clinic in Holland Park. All the details are on our website and our socials. But basically with Book Circle, it's not. It's a bit different from other book clubs in that we all get together and rather than reading the same book, I'll do up a heap of questions and like, the pot goes around, everybody draws a question. It might be things like, what's a book that made you cry in the last month? Tell us about a fictional character you fell in love with in the last month or something like that. And we find by the end of the evening that we have a list of around 30 to 40 books that everybody has discussed that I know myself. There's books that I haven't even thought about picking up. But because people have talked about it at Book Circle, I'm like, oh, actually, that sounds all right. I'll. I'll give it a go. So, yeah, so we've got our May one tonight. Everybody's welcome to come along we also have a book launch on Thursday night for one of our lovely romance authors, Jordan Clayton La Lewis. So his latest romance is a. An office romance set in Brisbane between two lovely gentlemen who initially don't get along. But yeah, we're, we're really looking forward to having that. Um, there'll be a Q and A with Jordan and um, a signing. Um, so again, details are on our website, but everybody can come along and, and support him.

It's like. Sounds like if you. Yeah. If you like gay enemies to lovers.

Yes, that's. Yeah.

And Jordan's. He's really sweet, so his writing is really sweet, so. But there's a bit of spice too in his books. Like if you, if you like that in your. In your romance. And we have Jordan's got. I think this is his third release. So we also did the launches for. And signings for his other books in the old store. So we were so excited that this book was coming out just after we reopened the new one so that we didn't miss out on this one. We've also reinstated our Drag Storytime, which we're so excited about. So Drag Storytime will be taking place on the first Saturday of the month. So we've already had one in our new home and it again just feels really lovely. As you said, the clinic has been. They really, when they set it up, they really wanted to make it feel like not a clinic. It is actually a place where people can just come in, take a bit of a breath and it's all like polished wooden floors and there's rugs and there's flowers and so, yeah, doing drag storey time again back in an environment like that. It's, it's. It was lovely. So our next one is on Saturday, June 6, I think, and we've just had a lineup change due to a clash in calendars. So we've actually got Clara Cupcakes.

Amazing.

Doing our storey time for us on 6th of June.

That's incredible. And I think, yeah, as you said, like, there, there is this like the way that the space has been set up. It is, it's perfect to like. I know you go in. I felt immediately calm and then I can absolutely see how it transforms into a space where you can have book events and drag storey time and stuff and like, oh, that's beautiful.

If we could have picked a new home after our last one, I think this setup is perfect. There's a fireplace and like the big long waiting room, which basically we take over for our events. So.

Yeah. And there's like the. What I was saying when I visited, which was like a chaise longe or something, but it's like the fainting couch.

The fainting couch. I like to pretend I'm a Regency era woman and just.

Yeah.

Oh, my God.

I'm all overcome from all the gay stuff and books in here.

I must lay down. Yeah. So there is a lounging couch which I like to put like velveteen and ruffles on for our storey time just to make it more fabulous.

Yeah.

So it's. I mean, our old Shelf Lovers. One of the things that everybody commented on the minute they walked in the door was how it made them feel and we've tried to mimic that in the new store. So in the old store we had this massive wall decal above the books that said read, love, repeat. And I've actually embroidered that on these little. In these little mini frames for the little mini space. So now they're only like. I think it's five centimetres by five centimetres above a window. But it was important to us to have some of the same things carry through because for us, a big part of the Shelf Lovers magic isn't what we sell, it's what we do. The people that we like welcome into the space and just. We particularly wanted everybody to feel welcome

and to feel safe and I think that's so incredibly important, like, especially in this era of interesting times. We were chatting before about events that Shelf Lovers have coming up and their awesome new digs. The Pocket Bookshop in Holland park as part of the Gender Health Australia. What would you call it? Amazing.

I've actually been calling it the Cottage just because obviously with heated rivalry. The Cottage is very current right now.

Bad gay. I haven't seen.

Oh, my goodness.

I know nothing about. Well, I know a bit about heated rivalry. Yeah.

I was one of those sad people, which I usually am, who read the book series when it first came out in 2021 or 2022 and then had the original Harlequin covers.

Oh my goodness.

In the bookshop for two years, telling people they needed to read this amazing series. But obviously because the covers were just naked men with no heads and no heads, they did look. I mean it was a classic Mills and Boons cover, really. So it. People didn't always believe me when I said that it was a brilliant series and then they bought out the like, the illustrated covers and then the TV series came out and then all of a sudden we couldn't keep them on the shelves. Everybody wanted them and I'm like, yes,

people are finally justified.

It is justified. It's amazing. I have no qualms in saying that I am a massive geek for all things heated rivalry. It's just my latest in a long line of other hyper fixation which I

was like, it is something that I was like, it is something I should, I should watch slash, listen to slash, you know, whatever.

I've been telling people to do it just because of the impact it has had worldwide. So a friend of mine does a romance podcast called pages and PJs and IT. They have invited me on to do a special series special specifically on heated rivalry because like the world went insane where even the ATO were using heated rivalry.

Oh my God.

Like in their marketing and whatever and like stats businesses all over the world and stuff. Like it's, it's crazy.

What a wild world we live in. That's incredible.

I mean it's amazing that a show that is very, very gay.

Yeah.

It was like it's could have such an impact. And on the surface people, some people just jumped on the gravy train to look like they were inclusive. But even by doing that they've put it in the mainstream which is incredible.

It's what we want anyway. Instead of like pink washing, it's kind of like. Or rainbow washing, it's like heated rivalry washing.

Well, it's almost been like stealth where they've thought, oh, we're going to use this for our own benefit. But everybody's kind of gone. Hahaha. You fell for the trick because by doing that you're actually promoting it, which is wonderful.

Which. Yeah, it's like you're, you're inadvertently supporting queer rights.

Yeah, I love it.

Yeah.

You see I was like if on your radar of like books that you have read recently. You know, you've got, you've got, you've got great taste.

Thank you, thank you.

And a bookshop. But yeah, do you have any, any recommendations for, for any cool like trans or gender diverse kind of books that have come out recently?

I have so many that it's always hard for me to pull them out. Off the top of my head, the couple that I've noted down. The big thing that has happened in the last couple of weeks is the Stella prize was announced and for the first time ever it was won by a non binary author and it's a graphic novel. So it's the first graphic novel to ever win the Stella prize which is pretty amazing. So we obviously have those in the store and are promoting those. It's a gorgeous hardcover because it's. Yeah, being a graphic novel, it's. It's well worth a read. The other two are ones that tend to have a bit of a cult like following the authors to do so. Andrew Joseph White has written a number of other trans horror. Like Hell Followed with us, the Spirit Bears Its Teeth and we've actually got his latest one, you Weren't Meant to Be Human in Store, which again is another horror, interestingly about a worm cult which may appeal to Beautiful.

I mean, honestly. Yeah, brilliant. It's only a trans writer would think of that.

Only a trans writer would think about a worm cult. And the other one is Gretchen Falcon Martin who is also. Yeah, has cult like status, wrote Manhunt and Cuckoo and we have their. Gretchen's latest one called Black Flame which,

which is so good.

Interestingly, I couldn't get it from my Australian publisher for the moment, so I got it through my American supplier and the COVID is different and the, the American cover is amazing. So I can thoroughly recommend that people either come in store or jump on our website and have a look because

it's, it's very cool and I do feel like that's. There's a lot of. Yeah, there's a lot of kind of trans horror happening at the moment, which I'm. Look, I'm into it. I do love me some horror. When you mentioned Lee's book before the Stella Prize, I had this moment where I was like, I haven't done our news segment for today, so I'm gonna, I'm gonna do that before we wrap up the show. I was like, should have done that earlier. That's okay. We can end on that because we'll be. Yeah, we'll be mentioning stuff to do with the Stella Prize, but is there anything else that you want to mention about Shelf Lovers, about books, about cool.

Probably just to let people know that. We're back.

You're back, we're back.

We will be a lot more vocal about that fact when we reopened on the 1st of April. I've kind of done a soft, a soft launch again. So yeah, we will be singing it from the hilltops very soon. But something very exciting that we'll be launching in June with a first meeting in July is actually an online book club that will be available Australia wide called the Queerly Beloved Book Club. And like I said before, some people love the Book Circle because there's no pressure around reading the same book and things like that. Some people do find it a bit chaotic because they would prefer the instructions of okay, this is the book we're going to read and things like that. So. And we also have a number of customers who are all over. We've got people, I've had somebody from Broken Hill, we've had people from Canberra, Winton and we thought that this could be a good way to provide them an opportunity to engage in case they have nobody else they can geek out with over books. And also with the bookshop in Sydney closing unfortunately we just wanted to provide some form of engagement for people that isn't just Brisbane based. And I've gathered a lovely bunch of friends who are equally as obsessed with books as me. And yeah, we'll be running an online book club that again we don't want it to be too onerous or stressful for people but we'll also in typical Shelf Lovers fashion be focusing on maybe a bit of the lighter and quirkier side of the queer space. There are a number of other amazing book clubs already like Queer Readers that runs out of New Farm and things like that. We as with Shelf Lovers we often geek out over the like the cosy fantasies and the romance, maybe even the monster romance and things like that. So every month we'll have a different theme. People that join will be able to vote and nominate.

I love that. Yes.

And yeah, we'll have a bunch of other opportunities for people to talk about books, particularly queer books and. Yeah. And find their crew which I think is the.

That is something that is incredibly important. And like the. Honestly the stats show that like our episodes where we chatted to transjoe Mianjin about community and finding Trans community is like one of our more popular like podcast episodes. So I think it is really key. So yeah, if you wanna, yeah if you wanna read some books and meet some like minded people, get along to online book club. The book circle, any of the events at Shelf Lovers.

Yeah, particularly like with the Book circle we know it. It started with just my sister and I and one other customer having a cup of tea and talking.

Oh my God, I love it.

And at one point before we closed the store we had to actually cap the numbers because we had people like on cushions on the floor like in the corner and things like that. But we have stitched a cross stitch on the wall that says we don't yuck other people's yums.

Yeah.

So the only thing we kind of put a stipulation on you is that everything has to be consensual. So we don't read any books that have like non consent in it. But other than that everybody is free to talk about whatever they want. We're obviously mindful of people. If they have triggers around certain subjects, we let them know. But yeah, we have a broad range of people that come along. Some people are only horror readers, other people only like cosy and we find a way to talk about that and, and yeah, let everybody have their voice and in a safe space. So the people that come along to Book Circle, we know have then gone on to. They did the global book crawl together a couple of weeks ago. They do craft alongs and we often have like kind of side events too. We had a book bedazzling event last week where people could come along and bedazzle the front of their books, which was fabulous. So yeah, so it's, it's just a nice place to, to meet your. As you said, the like minded people.

Yeah, I love that so much. And look, thank you so much for, for coming in and having a chance for having me. Oh my goodness. Yeah. Please get along to Shelf Lovers. Grab some books, go to, go to some events and yeah, we're gonna go to the. The news that I almost forgot was happening that our beautiful heirs recorded who

I now work with.

Yeah.

And I'm very good.

Yes.

This is it. It'll. Everything connects. It's all, it's. Everything intersects. And I think, yeah, if you're, if you don't have your community yet, you will find it. And maybe your community is at Shelf Lovers.

Maybe it is.

Alrighty. This is the news that our amazing as recorded. You're listening to Transmission on 4zzz this

week in community news and events for May 25th. In world news, Texas Hospital to open US first gender detransition clinic. A Texas children's hospital has agreed to open what's been described as the first detransition clinic for transgender youth in the United States as part of a legal settlement with Texas state authorities and the U.S. justice Department. Texas Children's Home Hospital will also pay a $10 million settlement and stop providing gender affirming care for minors, including puberty blockers and hormone therapy. Texas Children's Hospital in Houston has had been subjected to a three year investigation by the state of Texas and the federal Department of Justice over unproven claims that the hospital had been intentionally misdiagnosing patients to obtain Medicaid payments for transgender care. The hospital says all reviews and investigations. Investigations into the claims had found that it had been compliant with the law, but it had decided to capitulate to avoid the financial burden of ongoing litigation. The move to open a detransition clinic has been criticised by LGBTQIA advocates and major medical organisations which continue to support gender affirming healthcare for trans young people. The decision reflects growing political pressure on trans healthcare in the United States, where more than 25 states have introduced restrictions or bans on gender affirming care for minors. In national news, trans advocates criticise Chris Minns over biological sex comments following last week's landmark Giggle vs. Tickle appeal decision, trans rights advocates have criticised comments from New South Wales Premier Chris Minns who said biological sex differences should be reflected in Australian law. The federal court refused recently upheld a ruling that the Women Only App giggle for girls unlawfully discriminated against transgender woman Roxanne Tickle. The decision has been welcomed by LGBTQIA advocates as an important affirmation of protections under the Sex Discrimination Act. However, conservative politicians including Pauline Hanson and opposition leader leader Angus Taylor have criticised the ruling, with Taylor pledging to amend the act to define sex strictly as biological sex assigned at birth. New South Wales Greens MP Amanda Khan accused Premier Mins of adopting harmful culture war rhetoric and said the comments undermine recognition of trans and gender diverse people. In a substack post on May 7, Jo Ball, Victorian Commissioner for LGBTQA communities, wrote, there is no single biological template that all women share. Chromosomes, hormones, reproductive capacity. These vary. We already know this from the lived realities of women, including intersex women and women with diverse bodies and life experiences. No one is born a woman. We are all born babies. Womanhood, like manhood, is something that is lived, shaped and understood over time. Li Lei becomes first non binary winner of the Stellar Prize Author Li Le has been been awarded the Stella Prize, one of Australia's most prestigious literary awards, for their novel canon, marking the first time either a non binary writer or graphic novelist has won. Open to women and non binary authors, the Stella Prize was created in 2012 after the continuous absence of women acknowledged by the Miles Franklin Literary Award and was extended to include non binary authors in 2021. The prize awards $60,000 dollars to the winning author. Le had previously been nominated for the stella with their 2023 debut Stone Fruit. Accepting the award on Thursday night, Lei said it was a complicated but great honour to be the first trans person accepting this award in a moment when anti trans rhetoric has become such a major fascist playing card. In local news, Brisbane's Ida Hobbit March stands against anti LGBTQIA description discrimination Meanjin's Ida Hobbit March took place last weekend as part of International Day Against LGBTQ discrimination, with participants gathering to show support for equality and pushback against discrimination facing queer communities. The event is part of a global day marked each year on May 17, aimed at raising awareness of homophobia, biphobia, intersexism and transphobia, and promoting inclusion and safety from for LGBTQA people organisers, Trans Justice Meanjid and speakers highlighted the ongoing impacts of discrimination, particularly for trans and gender diverse people, and emphasised the importance of visibility and community solidarity. The march also comes amid broader national and international debate about LGBTQIA rights, with advocates saying public events like Ida Hobbit are a reminder that equality and protection from discrimination remain ongoing issues. This week in Community events Trans Joy Meanjin have crafts games afternoon coming up at New Farm Library meeting room on 28th of June and 26th of July, plus board game nights and meeple and mug on 12th of June and 10th of July. For more info go to transjoymeengine on Facebook or Instagram ensjoymeengine. M E A N J I N My name is Ezra and that's all this week in community news and events.

My name is Ray. I use they them pronouns and you are listening to Transmission on 4 Triple Z. Thank you so much to my guests today. We had Kat just now from Shelf Lovers and before that I had a chat to Ollie and to Tori from Scratch that magazine. It's been an amazing show. Thank you so much for joining me. And yeah, I'm pretty much out of here. You're listening to Transmission on 4zzz.

Thanks for listening to Transmission. Catch us Every Monday live on 4zzz from 10am or listen to our podcast on the Community Radio plus app.