Queering The Air

We are in a serious global pandemic health crisis. States around the world, including the Andrews state government have tackled the virus cop-heavy and with blanket responses minimising their own health failures and leaving many behind. We can imagine another approach, grounded in resourcing communities, health and harm reduction. We hear from four guests, who touch on some of the significant issues here in so called Victoria:Tiara on the distress and dangers of quarantine and isolation, and punitive barriers to support Hope on experiences of systemic failures as a frontline health worker and nursing studentPolly unpacking the assumptions of restrictions on people living solo, care and bosses forcing precarious workers to work in unsafe conditionsStarlady on the significant mental health impacts, problems with policing, and failures in the LGBTIQ services spaceAnd more. Covid-19 Prison Watch Pandemic fundraisers / mutual aid: IRL food boxes, First Nations mutual aid fund,&nb

Content warning: Please be aware that this episode contains descriptions and discussions of discrimination towards queer people, othering, Islamophobia, sex, and religion. If this is a trigger for you, please contact Lifeline (13 11 14), Switchboard Victoria (1800 184 527), or contact your state-based service. Michele Vescio speaks with Niveen Abdelatty, a queer Muslim woman of colour and a politically charged DJ and musician, about her queer history through the lens of intersectionality and disidentification; we also unpack discussions on decolonising information and education in the context of queer history within broad LGBTIQA+ identities and communities.  Tracklisting: 'Disjointed' by Candy Royalle, 'A Deeper Love' (Sixty Feet Deep remix) by Aretha Franklin Research resources:Decolonizing Queer Time: A Critique of Anachronism in Latin@ WritingsEveryday Decolonization: Living a Decolonizing Queer PoliticsAgainst State Straightism: Five Principles for I

We hear a conversation with Petra Blagojevic on violence within queer relationships (non-graphic), survivor support, politics beyond the not-for-profit industrial complex, care in the pandemic, mutual aid, reflections and more.MentionedUndercurrent's Support and Safety Planning resources during the Covid-19 pandemicThe Revolution will not be FundedHolding accountable [Instagram]Pandemic fundraisers / mutual aid: IRL food boxes, First Nations mutual aid fund, RISE Refugees, Survivors and Ex-Detainees emergency support, Scarlet Alliance support fund for sex workers. Prison Is Abuse: Understanding Prisons, Abuse of Power, and Control [youtube]Prison by another nameJulia Bak's writing on care work

Content warning: Please be aware that this episode contains descriptions and discussions of HIV stigma and discrimination. If this is a trigger for you, please contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or lifeline.org.au, Switchboard Victoria on 1800 184 527 or switchboard.org.au, or contact your state-based service. Michele Vescio speaks with activist, writer, and amateur archivist Beau Newham about his HIV health promotion work with LGBTQ NGO Yayasan Gaya Dewata, the continual ongoing HIV stigma that exists towards PLHIV, his side projects Queer Indonesia Archive and QLC, and his writing work. Beau’s writing work is available via medium.com/@beaunewham.Find details on Queer Indonesia Archive via qiarchive.org and QLC Jakarta via twitter.com/qlc_jakarta.Information on HIV support can be obtained via Thorne Harbour Health, Victoria’s peak body for LGBTIQA+ health promotion, and The Institute of Many (TIM), a peer-run movement for People Living with HIV.Support Yayasan Gaya Dewata via gayadewata.com. 

We hear from Karen d'Konyak on Victoria Police and the state turning public housing into temp prisons in the name of 'public health'. The interview with Karen was done by Mini from DIY show Satellite Skies. Later hear from Positively Positive in Seattle on Black Lives Matter to HIV, not-for-profits, asexuality, friendship, creativity and more.Music:Poison - Dark WaterWoke Blokes - Thelma PlumSong 33 - NonameGrand Ideas - Alice SkyeBetter Things - Kee'AhnTheme music - Heterosexuality (It's no good for Me) - Dosh Luckwell

Content warning: Please be aware that this episode contains descriptions or discussions of state violence, queerphobia, mental health, suicide, and the effects of structural racism. If this is a trigger for you, please contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or lifeline.org.au, Switchboard Victoria on 1800 184 527 or switchboard.org.au, or contact your state-based service. Michele presents a series of commentaries and audio in relation to the global #BLM movement, Indigenous deaths in custody, and the erasure or silencing of black, brown, indigenous, and/or POC queer voices from the mainstream media landscape, and why the BLM political and social movement is important in terms of centering black queer activism and voices. The commentaries are provided by Niveen Abelatty (HipHopHoe), an Arabic Muslim woman of colour and a politically charged DJ and musician; Diimpa (William Cooper) a mixed Kabi Kabi autistic queer man and an avant composer and soundscape weaver; and Anonymous,

We hear an excerpt from 3CR's live cross at WAR's Stop Black Deaths in Custody rally / Black lives matter rally in Melbourne, with Meriki Onus' opening speech. We then hear from Sam Elkin from the St Kilda Legal Service's LGBTIQ Legal Service on the launch of the Roberta Perkins Law Project. Next we revisit interviews from 2019 on sociologist, trans and sex worker rights activist Roberta Perkins, with Elena Jeffreys from Respect Inc. Second, we hear Cameron Cox from Sex Workers Outreach Project NSW. Finally, we hear an excerpt from Transformative Justice Podcast with Anne-Lise Ah Fat, Petra Blagojevic, and Alice McDonald, speaking on the limits of not-for-profits. Also featuredJustice for Joyce Clark fundraiserKee'Ahn's track Better ThingsIRL Infoshop mutual aid project

Queering The Air acknowledges the injustices happening in America and the protests in relation to the recent death of George Floyd. We acknowledge that since 1991 that over 420 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have died in police custody as a result of continued colonialism, capitalism, white supremacy, and neoliberalism.Stop Black Deaths in custody. Indigenous Lives Matter. Black Lives Matter. Black Trans Lives Matter. More information on this resistive movement can be found at Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance. Michele Vescio speaks with Ava Amedi - a writer, musician, and artist working across songwriting, artist interview, performance, poetry, and non-fiction writing genres. We discuss Ava’s arts practice and influences, notions on cultural criticism in his writing, his recent Testing Grounds residency, pop music in the context of accessibility and accountability, and discussions on effectual modes of conversation.Read Ava’s works discussed

We hear shout-outs to crowdraisers: First Nations Covid-19 fund, Undocumented Migrants Covid19 fund, Emergency Support Fund for Sex Workers, and RISE's Emergency Appeal. We then hear from Julia Rose Bak on care work and disability (Previously aired on GNC and women's voices show Women On The Line).Support the June 3CR Station Appeal to keep radical radio alive!Finally, we go back to September 2018 to hear an interview with Jessica Ibacache and Fox Smoulder about their work in the 'In Sickness and Stealth' collective.

We acknowledge that today’s episode is broadcast on the International Day against homophobia, biphobia, interphobia, and transphobia - a day that raises awareness of LGBTIQA+ rights violations and to stimulate interest in queer rights work worldwide. #IDAHOBIT2020 Michele Vescio speaks with Tina Dixson and Renee Dixson who have been together for a decade now, not only as a couple but partners in everything they do. They both have a lived experience as queer refugee women. Currently, they are both PhD Candidates at the Australian National University and are advocates for the rights and inclusion of LGBTIQA+ people from refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds.We discuss their continued activism and advocacy for LGBTIQA+ refugee and asylum seekers, Renee’s work on a digital archive of LGBTIQ+ forced migration, last year’s inaugural Queer Displacements conference and the creation of the Canberra statement, their current and upcomin

We hear:Shout outs to vital fundraisers, and news: Undocumented Migrants Covid19 fund, First Nations Covid-19 fund, and Emergency Support Fund for Sex Workers.From Meri Leworthy on mutual aid work with Covid-19 Queer Aid Naarm / Melbourne. (Facebook)Re-broadcast from In Ya Face, with James McKenzie speaking to Peaches from Vixen Collective on issues for sex workers during Covid19 and the Victorian Government's Sex Work Inquiry. Re-broadcasts from Thursday Breakfast, with Max Castle speaking to Jeremy King on the findings on the Hares and Hyenas raid (and a comment on Justice for Tanya Day), and Max speaking to Sam Elkin from the St Kilda Legal Service on the LGBTI+ Legal Needs Survey.

Michele Vescio speaks with Shane Thoms, a visual documenter and photographer, about his experiences of isolation in the 80s, being queer, and questioning his gender and sexual identity and gender expression, and the quasi-correlation to the current measure of self-isolation and social/physical distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic.Shane's work focuses on the abandoned space, where he visually captures traces of human emotion and urban evolution. His work has been featured on CNN, The Business Insider, Huffington Post, Daily Mail, La Repubblica, Viral Nova, and The Weather Channel. View Shane's work via Facebook, Instagram, and shanethoms.com. Content warning: This episode contains some sexual and explicit language, and descriptions and discussions about queerphobia, othering, isolation, and discrimination towards queer people. If this type of content is a trigger for you, please contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or lifeline.org.au, Switchboard Victoria on 1800 184 527 or switchboard.org.au, Queerspace

Michele presents a collection of spoken word audio works by author, activist, and storyteller Otter Lieffe, a trans woman living in Berlin. Her works discuss ageism, precarity, gender, trans lives, and intersecting oppressions affecting trans women. Michele also presents an excerpt of a 2017 interview they conducted with Otter at the time of the release of her first novel Margins and Murmurations.Works in this episode include Margins and Murmurations: chapter 1, Ageism And Survival, My Gender Is Precarity, Not An Artist, and My Fucking Voice.More information at otterlieffe.com and soundcloud.com/otterlieffe.Tracklisting: 'The Park' by Body of Work feat. Otter Lieffe, 'Cut The World'by Antony & The Johnsons, 'A Deeper Love' (Sam Halabi Remix) by Aretha Franklin. Digital image by Julian Curico [Image shows: a digital painting from a photo of Otter. She stands with her right hand on her right hip and wea

Frank and Emily interview Wolfram-Jaymes von Keesing of QueerContent Comix & Zines.

We hear voices of dissent at three protests: the Invasion Day 2020 rally in Melbourne, organised by the Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance, with Sasha Edwards and Apryl Watson-Day; to the  Sack Scomo - No right to discriminate rally held by Rainbow Rebellion. featuring Annette Xiberras, Roz Ward and Lucas; to the No to racism, lift the travel ban rally by Stand Together Against Racism featuring Yanni from Anti-Colonial Asian Alliance Kulin Nations / Melbourne.Mentioned:Pay the rent - Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance's post. Pay the rent grassroots collective: Facebook, Website.Red Pocket Press and AAA Present Queer Lunar New YearIRL Prisoner Letter WritingQueering the Air, No Pride in a Police State (2012). Songs:Miss Blanks - Skinny BitchesThelma Plum - Woke BlokesJune Jones - Look at You GoElectric Fields - Vision

We hear some news items and shout outs: FPVFLS funding cuts (#SaveFVPLS) , CJ Palmer solidarity fundraiser,  Power from the Margins, and 3CR awards. We hear audio from the HIV and Intersectionality Symposium (2019), from the panel 'Intersections of colonisation, racism and HIV', touching on issues around borders, migration and racism: featuring Christian Vega (LGBTIQA+ engagement and projects - Multicultural Health and Support Service at Centre for Culture, Ethnicity and Health),  Peter Waples Crowe (Aboriginal health - Thorne Harbour Health) and Aashvin (Peer navigator - Living Positive Victoria) . Credit to Hope Mathumbu of Women on the Line for the recording. We then hear from surprise guest Sha Gaze. Finally, we hear about the Visability exhibition,  Disrupting Artistic Terra Nullius curated by Paolo Balla, and shout-outs to DJ Abyss from Hip Sista Hop.  TracksKaiit - Natural WomanThelma Plum - Woke BlokesElectric Fields  - Shade AwayMi

On this episode of Queering the Air, Frank and Emily interview artist Bretty Bobett and review some of the latest queer zines in Australia. 

Taz in conversation with Elsa and Kochava on their experiences being queer, Jewish and much more.  Video mentioned on religious discrimination bill is here. 

First, no justice, no peace: we briefly mention the Warlpiri people's struggle for justice after NT death in custody of a 19 year old man.Then we hear from the #JusticeForMhelody Polan Bruno vigil, remembering her name as a trans Filipina woman of colour, after being murdered by a man, and the broader struggles. We hear from Laura McClean, Alexia from Migrante Australia, Charmaine from Anakbayan Melbourne, Ness from Gabriela Australia, Rabi from Philippines Australia Solidarity Association - PASA, and Yani + Sophie from AntiColonial Asian Alliance.  To support her family, donate to the PayPal, with a note that says 'Justice for Mhelody'.We play Papaphilia's, Endless copies distributed and distorted from their origin, from Peace Was Never An Option (Launch).We are joined by Marian, an organiser with Blockade IMARC fighting for climate justice, who talks about the blockade, tensions and systemic problems with the police. We briefly hear audio from the blockade that connects the two struggles: Justice for T

We celebrate the strength and passion of older LGBT women as they negotiate ageing and aged care. Three older members of our diverse communities (identifying as gender diverse, bisexual and lesbian) talk about their experiences, expectations and attitudes to ageing and aged care. Program created by Switchboard Victoria’s Out & About Program with funding from Lesbians Incorporated.Credits: Program produced by Meredith Butler and Thanh Hằng Phạm. Original music by Mx Munro.