The tension of the handkerchief - do you feel it too?

 “Ballroom is liberation, it's queer history, it's trans history, it's power, it's fashion, it's sex, it's dance, it's music, it's love, it's hate, it's everything that you need in order to survive as a queer person in this world, especially as a queer person of colour.”You may know ballroom from the legendary show “Pose” or “Paris is Burning” but this beautiful home curated for and by queer icons is becoming a worldwide community, with queer communities of colour, finding safety and unity in these spaces.There’s nothing more queer than doing something because no-one else will. That is the story off Ballroom - from it’s New York blossoming, to as Anthony Pius will take us through in this episode of the QueerAF podcast with Trans+ History Week - it’s flourishing international growth from India to Wales.Episode Credits: Produced by Anthony Pius. Executive production and mastering by Jamie Wareham. A QueerAF Production. Made with support from Publicis Groupe UK. Thanks to guests Muz Ramzan, Alia Ramna, KRISH, Voguing In India 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.

CW: This episode contains themes of a sexual nature, including references to kinkWho do you think you are? A universal tension exists in an acute way for trans people, our dependency on other people for recognition, part of how identity works is laid bare in the struggle for trans liberation.Perhaps not better explained by examinig not just any simple piece of cloth, but the very queer and Trans+ history of the handkerchief.There’s the hanky code (or flagging). There are historical examples (some fictional, others not): phallic handkerchiefs, morality judgments intertwined with the hanky, hankies as tokens passed from lover to lover, and handkerchiefs worn around the neck. But they all rely upon the handkerchief to be read – to be perceived in a certain way. They rely upon dependency.In this week's QueerAF podcast with Trans+ History Week, Ted Tinkler explores the ontology of the handkerchief and what it tells us about the power dynamics of dependency and intimacy - and what that tells us about being Trans+.Episode Credits: Produced by Ted Tinkler. Executive production and mastering by Jamie Wareham. A QueerAF Production. Made with support from Publicis Groupe UK.Thanks yous from Ted: A huge thanks to Olivia Warren, Kylo Thomas, Raul Cornier, Del laGrace Volcano, Hal Fischer, and Nat Reeve for their generosity and time during our conversations. The brilliant song used at different points in the show is “Summertime, Free Palestine” by Gay Skeleton Club.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 can we use stories as part of the fight back against anti-LGBTQIA+ narratives?At an acute time for our community, stories are a powerful tool to unpack prejudice and set a better narrative for queer communities.But what can the media industry do differently, and how can we do this in the audio and podcast space? Join us for an insider goss look at what it's like to tackle this question as a media professional. By sharing this to our audience, we hope you can better understand the way the media works. The more we understand how it works, the better we can advocate for its change.In this 30-minute panel, with a short Q&A we ask our expert guests what we can do to ensure the stories we tell about LGBTQIA+ lives do justice to the community in engaging, entertaining and high-impact ways.Episode Credits: Hosted and chaired by QueerAF's Jamie Wareham and joined by Ki Griffin (Hollyoaks actor, producer of a QueerAF podcast for Trans+ History Week), Phil Samba (Host of The Other Blue Pill documentary podcast, Love Tank and PrEPster) and Holly Newson (Executive producer, most recently of the British Podcast Award's 'Gold Podcast Of The Year' Press, Play, Turn On). Recorded at Acast Studios London, and held during Indie News Week.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.

There perhaps isn’t a more British way, to say - gender is a construct - than with Shakespeare is there?So put aside your stack of sonnets, go stick on the kettle, brew a cuppa, and let Shevek Imogen Fodor tell you about the gender foolery that took place in Shakespearean England and ignited and already ember burning flame of gender diversity on stage in the UK's most hallowed theatre institutions.If we acknowledge that gender was performed, messed with and expanded on stage then we can find a glimpse of positive non-binary, genderqueer, genderfluid ways of existing in the past. That's what we'll explore in another episode with Trans+ History Week of the QueerAF podcast.Episode Credits: Produced by Shevek Imogen Fodor. Opening monologue performed by Aryn Jae (they/them). Executive production and mastering by Jamie Wareham. A QueerAF Production. Made with support from Publicis Groupe UK.From Shevek:"Additional thanks to: Dr Will Tosh (he/him); Emma (they/them); Sarah Li (she/they); Stan Doubt (he/him); Vick the Prick (say what you see); Veggie Stripper (he/they); Mack (they/he); and Darkwah (they/them).Thanks to all of the lovely members of the DGA Collective who helped me feel so at home rediscovering drag performance in the North East, sharing all of their experiences of queer discovery and self-acceptance to inspire my thinking for this project. Find out more about Edward's Boys here. Find out more about the history of male impersonation and principal boys with the virtual exhibition of Opening the Closet Doors, the project Sarah did with the Darlington Hippodrome. All of my knowledge and fascination with Shakespeare is a direct result of my parents - I'm indebted to them and to my queer extended found family for encouraging, supporting and inspiring me always (and especially while making this)."Music:“Enlightened”; “Pondering”; “It Doesn’t Have to End”; “Timeless Master” -  Medieval Lofi - licensed under a CCSA4.0. Vintage Piano - Piano_Music (Pixabay)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.

Lynn Conway pioneered the technology that makes it possible to use the device you're about to listen to this podcast on now.She even coined a term for why her story has been forgotten, ignored and erased. With a contribution to computer science in almost parallel importance to Alan Turing, producer Chuck Copenspire explains the Connway Effect of why her story is only just beginning to be celebrated as well as the legacy that should be.In this episode of the QueerAF podcast, producer Chuck Copenspire digs through precious archive material of Lynn, telling her story in her own words, mixed with interviews with her contemporaries and historians to ask: what is her legacy, and why has it so rare for people to know her work? Like Alan Turing, her work in computer science was pivotal to how the world works today.Dig deeper into Lynn's work on the Successful Trans Men's Archive in the Trans+ History Week 2025 workbook:https://www.wearequeeraf.com/trans-computing-pioneer-lynn-conway-knew-that-were-stronger-together/Episode Credits: Produced by Chuck Copenspire. Executive production and mastering by Jamie Wareham. A QueerAF Production. Made with support from Publicis Groupe UK. With thanks to all of our guest's valuable time and archive material from: LGBTQ Digital Collaboratory, Trans Activism Oral History Project, Michigan Engineering, University of Victoria, PBS Origins and the Greater Victoria Public Library. 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.

Abigail Thorn is currently filming a new role as a trans femme action star, she revealed at the Trans+ History Week community event on a live recording of the QueerAF podcast. The actor, who is known for her roles in the Game Of Thrones (House Of The Dragon, Sharako Lohar) and Star Wars (The Acolyte, Ensign Eurus) universes, said: “I can't say what it is, but I am about to start filming a big action thing this summer. I'm having boxing lessons and sword fighting lessons like three times a week and like learning to dive across things.” Although there has been a transgender superhero before, notably Dreamer, played by Nicole Maines in the CW series Supergirl - Thorn says this is the first time a trans femme person has been cast as an action star in a production of this kind. “I said to the producers when I got it, was like, thank you for giving me this. Because they didn't write it with a trans woman in mind, they just wrote it. And I said to the producers, thank you for giving me this because the idea that a trans woman can be an action star has not yet occurred to anyone outside of this project. And when it does, it's going to blow their minds.”Check out the full interview with special guest Abigail Thorn and guest host Anthony Lexa out now.And if you missed last year's interview with Anthony LExa and co-star Felix Mufti, listen back here. 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.

Do you know who Lynn Conway is? Without her work on the microchip - you wouldn’t be listening to this podcast. Did you know that there are genderqueer ballroom voguing scenes in both India and Wales? How much do you know about the eccentric Reed Erikson, who funded research into dolphin telepathy and pioneering gender-affirming surgeries when no one else would? This season on the award-winning QueerAF podcast, we’re back for more of the history lesson we never had - with Trans+ History Week.Six Trans+ budding audio producers are here with stories from Trans+ history to help us understand the queer world we live in now  - plus how we can march for our future.Knowledge of our past, is fundamental for our liberation. So we’re back with our trademark stamp, investing in Queer and Trans+ creative talent, buying them equipment to keep forever, supporting them to change the media, and yes - telling you beautiful stories. Season 6 of QueerAF, is for the millennia-old history of Trans+ communities all over the world. Look out in your podcast app for a special live recording with Philsophy Tube and House of Dragon’s Abaigial Thorn with Netflix’s Sex Education’s Anthony Lexa May 7th, and the whole series comign out in June, and all the way through Pride season. We are QueerAF, and so are you.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.

To celebrate 20 years of National Student Pride - in 2025, we were back on stage as a media sponsor, for a special live recording for a panel about disability and healthcare in the queer community. It was particularly special because the last time we covered the topic in this way, it was also at Student Pride - check back for the Access All Rainbows episode in season four for that. National Student Pride is an incredible event, and as well as giving QueerAF an incredible launchpad - it's been helping students get graduate jobs, and driving critical conversations in our community, and to mark 20 years of it this year is quite something. The panel is hosted by @char_bailey_, with guests:💜 @iamsteffilynn💙 @jessicaoutofthecloset💚 @_ali.bromley💛 @hausofasadSign 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.

Figures like Wendy Carlos not only defined the genre but were also instrumental in developing the modern synthesizer. Meanwhile, SOPHIE redefined the boundaries of pop and experimental music. And then there are the musicians and sound artists working today. All Trans+. Learning about how they came to their craft, exploring where they have blurred the lines between music and other mediums as well as asking why transgender musicians and artists are drawn to these genres in particular, this episode (the final of season five) explores Trans+ History Week's theme: We are more than Trans+, with guests:Cai Gwilym Pritchard (they/them) – Sound Designer, Noise Artist and WriterChi B Williams (she/her) – Sound Artist, WriterZoe Blade (she/her) – Musician, Writer and ProgrammerRoshanak Kheshti (she/her) – Writer and Academic – University of Berkeley Read more stories from Trans+ History Week:https://www.wearequeeraf.com/transhistoryweek/Here is the article we recommended:https://www.wearequeeraf.com/raves-reflect-my-transness-back-at-me-theyre-joy-as-a-form-of-rebellion/ Watch the Transcending Words poetry night:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tmbn900ekPM Plus, be sure to sign up for our newsletter to understand the LGBTQIA+ news every Saturday:https://www.wearequeeraf.com/subscribe/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.

Rehangs at art museums are rare. The last one at Tate Britain was in 2012. Whilst galleries will make small changes to their on-display collections, these are small, only happen every few months and usually happen for specific reasons (such as an item going on loan to another gallery).But each rehang gives an art gallery to make a statement on what its mission as an institution is. A statement that visitors will likely see for ten or more years. So it's a big deal that Tate Britain and the National Gallery both increased the amount of LGBTQIA+ representation in their recent rehangs. This week's producer, Mills Dyer explores some key Trans+ history they reveal, with guests:Abi Penton – A Tate tour guide and expert on GluckCas Bradbeer - A queer historian and V&A Tour guideProf Matt Cook – Professor of Queer History at Oxford UniversityView the art discussed in today's show:Flora’s Cloak c.1923, GluckChevalier d'Eon by Thomas Stewart, after Jean-Laurent MosnierPrints of Chevalier d’Eon at the National Portrait GalleryRead more stories from Trans+ History Week:https://www.wearequeeraf.com/transhistoryweek/Here is the article we recommended:https://www.wearequeeraf.com/the-jewish-transgender-couple-who-fell-in-love-and-escaped-the-nazis/Watch the Transcending Words poetry night:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tmbn900ekPM Plus, be sure to sign up for our newsletter to understand the LGBTQIA+ news every Saturday:https://www.wearequeeraf.com/subscribe/This episode is made possible with the support of 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.