QueerAF | Inspiring LGBTQIA+ stories told by emerging queer creatives

Why are NHS gender clinic waiting times so long?

Rachel Taylor MP told the UK Parliment, "waiting times for gender affirming healthcare are nothing short of a national scandal". Speaking, using almost word for word our reporting in the Gender Clinic Files - an investigation into the length of waiting times for NHS gender identity clinics (GICs) - she set out how 48,000 adults remain on waiting lists, with an average waiting time of 25 years. In one clinic, we found a 224-year wait if you joined the list in March, three times the average UK life expectancy. More than a lifetime of waiting.This week on the QueerAF podcast, Ludovic Parsons looks back at the joint investigation we did with Claire's Trans Talks and What The Trans?! to ask, has anything changed - and more critically, what would a gender healthcare system built for Trans+ people, not cisgender doctors, even look like?Dive deeper, with our investigations and long-reads into UK Trans+ Healthcare:The Gender Clinic Files - the full investigative seriesWhat would a healthcare system that works for Trans+ people look like in the UK?A brief history of how the UK’s broken Trans+ healthcare system only serves its cisgender doctorsThe clinical symposium where cisgender doctors formed the UK's gender identity clinicSign up as a QueerAF member to listen along ad-free and support our not-for-profit work, investing in a new generation of queer audio professionals:https://www.wearequeeraf.com/membership/If you like our podcast, you'll love our free weekly newsletter that thousands of readers use to understand the LGBTQIA+ 🏳️‍🌈 headlines, learn new perspectives and stay on top of the latest queer content. Try it now:https://www.wearequeeraf.com/subscribe/Make sure to sign up for updates about Trans+ History Week, a QueerAF launchpad project:https://www.wearequeeraf.com/transhistoryweek/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ian McKellen on Shakespeare, Magneto and LGBTQIA+ activism

Our show began as a collaboration with National Student Pride, where we worked with budding students, building audio production careers and giving them their first published work. The organisation, which ran for 21 years, had it’s final event this year in February. We were back, as the event’s media partner, to help them ring the bell on it’s format as a pride of conversation with panels, a careers fair, and the largest gathering of LGBTQIA+ students in the UK. Like all the years we’ve worked together, we were on stage recording our podcast, including an upcoming episode in the season.Over the years, we’ve had Courtney Act, Olly Alexander, Dustin Lance Black, Lady Phyll, and this year the team very kindly allowed us to run this gorgeous interview you’re about to hear. The last time he was at National Student Pride, it was for a recording of the QueerAF podcast - interviewed by Evan Davis in an interview that made headlines all over the world, and won us our first British Podcast Award. So it is touching that for the final event, he was the final speaker - in what was an interview too wonderful to be lost as a moment in time. So please enjoy, author and screenwriter Juno Dawson, in conversation with Sir Ian McKellen, as he returns to the QueerAF podcast feed one more time - for the last ever, National Student Pride. Sign up as a QueerAF member to listen along ad-free and support our not-for-profit work, investing in a new generation of queer audio professionals:https://www.wearequeeraf.com/membership/If you like our podcast, you'll love our free weekly newsletter that thousands of readers use to understand the LGBTQIA+ 🏳️‍🌈 headlines, learn new perspectives and stay on top of the latest queer content. Try it now:https://www.wearequeeraf.com/subscribe/Make sure to sign up for updates about Trans+ History Week, a QueerAF launchpad project:https://www.wearequeeraf.com/transhistoryweek/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How to build a better relationship with the news as a LGBTQIA+ person

News overwhelm is an increasing issue, making more and more of us switch it off - four in ten of us now say we selectively avoid the news. But this is at a time when we need to be even more keyed into what's happening - so we know how to fight back against it. QueerAF founder Jamie Wareham sits down for a fireside conversation with Ludovic Parsons (QueerAF's lead investigative journalist) and Ruby Rare (Author, broadcaster) to talk about how we can use the news in the Pride season ahead to advocate for better for our LGBTQIA+ community for Indie News Week, with thanks to a micro-grant from the Public Interest News Foundation. Episode Credits: This episode was produced and hosted by Jamie Wareham. With thanks to our shout out tickets Queer Kent Life and Trans Club Margate - the Public Interest News Foundation's Indie News Week micro-grant that funded our venue, CAMP, photographer David Tovar, guests Ludovic Parsons, Ruby Rare and to Margate Pride for collaborating on the event with us.Sign up as a QueerAF member to listen along ad-free and support our not-for-profit work, investing in a new generation of queer audio professionals:https://www.wearequeeraf.com/membership/If you like our podcast, you'll love our free weekly newsletter that thousands of readers use to understand the LGBTQIA+ 🏳️‍🌈 headlines, learn new perspectives and stay on top of the latest queer content. Try it now:https://www.wearequeeraf.com/subscribe/Make sure to sign up for updates about Trans+ History Week, a QueerAF launchpad project:https://www.wearequeeraf.com/transhistoryweek/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Cute twinks and gym bros: Why do we police trans masculine identities?

This week, on QueerAF in an episode from our mentoring programme for Trans+ History Week, we’re going to trace back in recent history where body standards for both gay and trans men come from, how they show up, and challenge labels from drag acts to gym bros. It’s a nuanced discussion, especially when we think about how the labels we use in the queer community - often mean different things, depending on where we live, what scene we’re engaging in, and that's before we think about any other personal baggage we’re bringing to the equation.Episode Credits: This episode was produced by Otis Grieve and Batstone. With thanks to guests Zelah Glasson, Castor Von Curse, and Marc Thompson. Executive production by Amber Devereux and Jamie Wareham. This episode was produced as part of QueerAF's Trans+ History Week mentoring programme with thanks to Trans+ History Week's Creative Talent Sponsor, Publicis Groupe UK.Sign up as a QueerAF member to listen along ad-free and support our not-for-profit work, investing in a new generation of queer audio professionals:https://www.wearequeeraf.com/membership/If you like our podcast, you'll love our free weekly newsletter that thousands of readers use to understand the LGBTQIA+ 🏳️‍🌈 headlines, learn new perspectives and stay on top of the latest queer content. Try it now:https://www.wearequeeraf.com/subscribe/Make sure to sign up for updates about Trans+ History Week, a QueerAF launchpad project:https://www.wearequeeraf.com/transhistoryweek/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The He-She Ladies: The Case of Boulton and Park

In 1870, Fanny ‘Fredrich’ Park and Stella ‘Ernest’ Boulton were arrested at the Strand Theatre by three undercover policemen and prosecuted for violating the Offences Against Persons Act of 1861 – aka, Solicitation for Sodomy. They also left behind rare visual sources of their cross-dressing, which are managed by the national archives. Alongside their letters and the trial where they were found not guilty under a defence that argued that they were so 'outrageous' they couldn't be sodomites trying to hide their lives - their story is an important history lesson. Their case predated a story we all know better, Oscar Wilde's, with their case setting a precedent that went on to be used against the author.Episode Credits: This episode was produced by HRH Aphrodite I. Executive production by Amber Devereux and Jamie Wareham. This episode was produced as part of QueerAF's Trans+ History Week mentoring programme with thanks to Trans+ History Week's Creative Talent Sponsor, Publicis Groupe UK. Additional thanks to the National Archives of Great Britain. Music: “Estimations”, “Lambent (Arr. Gabel)”, “Fortis”, “Buried in the Dirt”, “Progression”, “Desert Hideout”, “Missing Memory”, “Partners in Crime”, and “Crescere” all by Christoffer Moe Ditlevsen. Licensed under Epidemic Sounds.Sign up as a QueerAF member to listen along ad-free and support our not-for-profit work, investing in a new generation of queer audio professionals:https://www.wearequeeraf.com/membership/If you like our podcast, you'll love our free weekly newsletter that thousands of readers use to understand the LGBTQIA+ 🏳️‍🌈 headlines, learn new perspectives and stay on top of the latest queer content. Try it now:https://www.wearequeeraf.com/subscribe/Make sure to sign up for updates about Trans+ History Week, a QueerAF launchpad project:https://www.wearequeeraf.com/transhistoryweek/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.