Queerstories

Samuel shares a countdown of the key moments from Australian 90s and 00s popculture wthat helped shape the person he would become. Samuel Leighton-Dore is a multidisciplinary artist and writer based on the Gold Coast. With a keen interest in mental health and masculinity, Leighton-Dore writes for SBS Voices and produces work spanning ceramics, LED neon, illustration, animation and painting. His bo...

Sometimes the inspiration to change your life can come from unlikely places. Sarah shares the story of meeting the person who inspired her to apply for MasterChef Australia. Best known as one of MasterChef Australia’s favourite contestants from 2017 and 2020, Sarah Tiong ’s passion for and love of sharing food is a joy to watch and be a part of. Sarah is the successful author of the sensational co...

Queerstories 2020 is a special series of the Queerstories podcast recorded during the lockdown months of 2020, featuring LGBTQI+ storytellers reflecting on the events of the year. To conclude Queerstories 2020, this episode features stories about community, or rather, about the impact on so many of us when we lost access to community in 2020. Miss Katalyna is a proud Samoan Fa’afafine/Transwoman....

Queerstories 2020 is a special series of the Queerstories podcast recorded during the lockdown months of 2020, featuring LGBTQI+ storytellers reflecting on the events of the year. This week’s episodes are about belonging, and on that feeling of home you get when you're with the people you love. Valerie Berry is a Filipino Australian actor, performance maker, theatre educator and emerging director....

Queerstories 2020 is a special series of the Queerstories podcast recorded during the lockdown months of 2020, featuring LGBTQI+ storytellers reflecting on the events of the year. Stories about the experiences queers have that can equip us to deal with the challenges thrown at us, our strength and resilience, how we navigate communication and manage our relationships in different ways. Zoya Gill g...

Queerstories 2020 is a special series of the Queerstories podcast recorded during the lockdown months of 2020, featuring LGBTQI+ storytellers reflecting on the events of the year. In a year where it was often risky to simply go outside, Maeve and Trent reflect on risks they've taken in their own lives, with either positive or disastrous consequences. Maeve Marsden is a writer, director, producer a...

Queerstories 2020 is a special series of the Queerstories podcast recorded during the lockdown months of 2020, featuring LGBTQI+ storytellers reflecting on the events of the year. These stories are about connection to culture and community, how that was impacted by the pandemic and lockdowns, and about the very specific connection that comes through desire.  Atul Joshi is first up. A former c...

Queerstories 2020 is a special series of the Queerstories podcast recorded during the lockdown months of 2020, featuring LGBTQI+ storytellers reflecting on the events of the year. This week’s stories pertain to a haunting of sorts, from the paranormal to the pathological. Queenie Bon Bon is a writer, performance artist and sex worker living and working in Narrm/melbourne. Their work focuses o...

Queerstories 2020 is a special series of the Queerstories podcast recorded during the lockdown months of 2020, featuring LGBTQI+ storytellers reflecting on the events of the year. These stories are about the things that can give you purpose and meaning in the face of destabilising change. Bronte Noakes has worked with children and young people since they were a child, wiping tears, noses and bums...

Queerstories 2020 is a special series of the Queerstories podcast recorded during the lockdown months of 2020, featuring LGBTQI+ storytellers reflecting on the events of the year. As if the internet wasn’t already awash with enough flat earthers and people who think they’re aliens, 2020 brought us a whole new onslaught of religious fervour. These next two writers were inspired, this year, to delve...

Queerstories 2020 is a special series of the Queerstories podcast recorded during the lockdown months of 2020, featuring LGBTQI+ storytellers reflecting on the events of the year. Stories about grief, about the way the pandemic impacted our rituals of loss, and the impact of lockdowns on grieving, connection and memory. Patrick Lenton is the Editor of Junkee. He is the author of the short story co...

Queerstories 2020 is a special series of the Queerstories podcast recorded during the lockdown months of 2020, featuring LGBTQI+ storytellers reflecting on the events of the year. The stories of this series were recorded in sharehouse bedrooms and bathrooms, on outback properties and in suburban homes, rather than at the big celebratory Queerstories events of the past five years. These stories are...

Queerstories 2020 is a special series of the Queerstories podcast recorded during the lockdown months of 2020, featuring LGBTQI+ storytellers reflecting on the events of the year. This episode's stories both speak to medical intervention, to fear and to hope, and they’re both about pandemics, in their own way. Holly is a queer solo parent by choice who lives in a little log cabin in the bush with...

Having moved to the Netherlands to meet his gay donor father, a young hetero-ish male - raised by lesbian parents - explores his sexuality and queer identity.  Michael Kruger is a published author, screenwriter and probably the most overly-sensitive new-age boy working full-time in sports media. He was raised by his two mums in Melbourne, but as gay luck would have it, he looks almost exactly...

Brenna remembers her desperate campaign to convince her mothers to give her a sibling. Brenna Harding is an actor, board member of Wear it Purple, founder of Moonlight Feminist and LGBT rights advocate. She's performed in productions for Melbourne Theatre Company, Sydney Theatre Company, The Old Fitz Theatre, Belvoir St, Malthouse and Griffin Theatre Company. She is best known for her role in Pube...

An everyday story about the perils of dating while trans while face-blind with Dissociative Identity Disorder. Tea Uglow is a founder member of Google's Creative Lab where she works on a range of projects with cultural organisations and practitioners using digital tools to amplify or augment their artistic practice. She has published 4 books including the recent Loud and Proud anthology of LGBTQ+...

Marlee pens a love letter of sorts to her nail technician, the queerest of queer babes who's excellence and creativity makes her feel powerful. Marlee Jane Ward is a writer living on Wurundjeri Land. She is the author of the award-winning Orphancorp trilogy and is currently living her dream of being someone's fabulous goth aunt. Queerstories is an LGBTQI+ storytelling night programmed by Maeve Mar...

Ana Maria has a panic attack on the 19, and reflects on how dressing up can be a coping mechanism for neurodiverse queers. Ana Maria Gomides is a 28-year-old, 167cm tall, Brown babe living in Narrm; usually a top but will switch for qts who ask nicely; not gay as in happy, but queer as in doesn't give a shit about the junk you're packing; non-monogs, currently in an open relationship with herself;...

Dennis goes on a walk down memory lane, all the way to the Adelaide Festival 1988. Dennis Altman first came to attention with the publication of his book Homosexual: Oppression & Liberation in 1972. His most recent book Unrequited Love: Diary of an Accidental Activist was published last year. Dennis is Emeritus Professor and Professorial Fellow in the Institute for Human Security at LaTrobe Un...

Tenille shares the story of their Granny Pam, a fierce woman who was one of the very first air hostesses working for South African Airways and who was instrumental in making Tenille the person they are today. Born in Namibia to a South African and a Brit, Tenille Rogers inherited a love for singing and performing from their musical parents. They have performed around the world in bands, in theatre...

Jenna delivers an open apology to everyone she's ever dated, and in the process of writing it learns a little more about why those relationships ended. Jenna Suffern is a Sydney based comedian, writer and actor. She has written for Pedestrian. TV and produces a monthly queer comedy room, ‘Two Queers Walk Into A Bar' at Giant Dwarf, first Friday of the month, now with a live stream. Despite a...

On a short but terrifying flight, Iz makes an unexpected connection. Iz Connell is an activist, writer and social worker. She's best known for being "that really tall girl at leather/bear parties", or the first woman to be elected to the committee of the Harbour City Bears. Iz is a ferocious femme lesbian with a long herstory of supporting LGBTI organizations, and has been described, hopefully jok...

It seemed an impossible task, but with much persistence and a lot of hilarity, Ally finally managed to seduce the internet's favourite lesbian, brocklesnitch aka Rebecca Shaw. Rebecca Shaw (aka @brocklesnitch) is a writer and creator of the parody Twitter account @notofeminism, which was developed into an illustrated book with Affirm Press. She wrote for Tonightly with Tom Ballard and is currently...

Stevie and Ally remember their relationship and reflect on why they're each other's favourite ex. Ally Garrett has been writing and speaking on body politics and fat activism for the past decade. She also has a corporate day job, working as a CX Director in the media intelligence industry. Her activism comes in many forms; most notably posting horny selfies on the internet.  Stevie Jack Wilde...

After Laura and Ernest consciously uncouple, they discover that the road to smug queer family is paved in grief. Laura Mitchell is originally from Perth and now lives in the Macedon Ranges on Woiwurrung Country, just outside Melbourne. They're a librarian and a textile artist with the firm and tender hands of a goat-herd. They hope that one day their chronic anxiety will let up enough for them to...