Rach & Dean were beside themselves to have Fortune Feimster join them.

A standup comedian, writer and actor, Fortune uses her confessional comedy to bring people together. Through laughter and storytelling, she shows audiences of all ages, backgrounds, and sexual orientations that common ground is only a joke or two away. 

Ahead of her tour of New Zealand and Australia kicking off this week, the legend herself Fortune Feimster started the week off with JOY Breakfast.

You can catch the hilarious Fortune Feimster LIVE on her Live, Laugh, Love! tour around New Zealand & AustraliaDuring the month of July – get your tickets here.

 

It was a big week on JOY Breakfast with Rach & Dean diving from hot topics, fun chats and awesome tunes to kickstart your morning.

Here are some of the highlights from the week as they are joined by Cal Hawk from Week, Well, Well and look at the history of Thorne Harbour Health ahead of their 40th anniversary, we find out all the goss from the Minus18 Queer Formal, plus what happens when the rental crisis and pet crisis collide with Second Chance Animal Rescue, all the goss on queer tv with Joel King Mayne, the anniversary of the Intersex Flag & more.

Join Rach & Dean every weekday from 7-9am on JOY Breakfast.

Kaitlin Keegan, the Naarm/Melbourne-via-Boorloo/Perth singer-songwriter, announces her sophomore EP alone is too loud, out independently on August 3rd. We love supporting local up-and-coming artists who joined Rach & Dean to talk about her newest song ‘Ghost You’ and perform her track ‘Without You’ on our JOY Breakfast Live Lounge. 

It’s not new news that a long overdue look is needed into barriers for blood donation in this country, especially the way in which they stigmatize gay, bisexual and trans people who have sex with men and create a barrier for them to donate blood when there are increased calls for more donations being needed. 

Last month in a world first, the Therapeutic Goods Administration approved an application by Australian Red Cross Lifeblood to remove all questions about sexual encounters from the plasma donor questionnaire, allowing GBT people to donate via a plasma pathway, but is this the win we have been waiting for? 

Rach and Dean are joined by Dr Sharon Dane, Postdoctoral researcher on JOY Breakfast; as they dive into what exactly this means, and to find out if there’s a better way forward.

NAIDOC Week celebrates and recognises the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and this morning we are joined by a proud Wiradjuri & Kamilaroi nonbinary stage goblin, Kitty Obsidian. 

Aggressively queer fierce, fabulous and one hell of a fire breather, Kitty Obsidian is a powerfully diverse performer who last year, at the fourth annual Vic NAIDOC LGBTQIA+ Pride Night they took out the top title of the night bowling everyone over with their show stopping performance. They joined Rach & Dean on JOY Breakfast.

As a part of RISING festival, Yarra Trams ‘Art Trams’ have officially hit the tracks with a series of tram artworks that responded to the theme ‘Blak Futurism’ told by indigenous artists. 

One of the artworks designed on one of these trams was by Ngarigo visual and performance-based artist in Naarm, Peter Waples-Crowe, whose bold colourful work explores the representation of Aboriginal people in popular culture, often referencing the dingo as a totemic figure and an analogy for Indigenous peoples. 

You can catch Peter’s Dingo power and rainbows Yarra tram on routes 1, 6 and 19. 

It’s been a few weeks since we checked in with Dean’s love life, but there’s no greater time than the present to put your heart on your sleeve and open up to the possibility of finding true love. Joining Rach in the hopes of finding Dean a love match is Morgan Fitzgerald, who runs Open House Club

Single? Tired of the online dating apps? Want to expand your potential dating circle?

The Open Hearts Club will bring together a great bunch of single guys (both CIS and trans) who are in the same boat as you and then run some fun, engaging, and informal activities which will help us get to know each other better.

The event will be hosted by Speed Mating’s Morgan Fitzgerald, and he will do everything within his power to help make you feel at home. As a proud member of the LGBTIQA+ community and as a mental health first aid instructor, he truly cares about making a difference.

If you are shy or feel like this event is just ‘Speed Dating’ disguised… this is not. It’s a social mixer with a twist.

Find out more here.

 

The Pinnacle Foundation, Australia’s leading LGBTQIA+ education charity, is releasing new data which demonstrates what barriers still exist for young LGBTQIA+ Australians who are trying to get into tertiary education and land their first post graduate job. 

Joining Rach & Dean on JOY Breakfast to discuss the research and scholarship experiences we are joined by the CEO of Pinnacle Andrew Staite as well as scholarship recipient Lachlan.

Applications for The Pinnacle Foundations scholarship program are being accepted from July 1st to August 31st.

If you are between 18 and 26 and would like to know more information about the scholarship program and research, head to  thepinnaclefoundation.org.

Women’s Circus in Footscray is a not-for-profit intersectional feminist arts organisation that offers a year-round program of community, circus and performance training for women. Their inclusive and accessible practice celebrates the creative and physical potential of all that come through their doors. 

They believe empathy is the most powerful force for social change, but so is taking a risk, both physically & creatively, and they have a new term starting for Circus Mixtape, their heavily subsidised class is for trans and gender diverse folks, who can come to the space to build confidence, learn new skills, and be welcomed and accepted. 

Executive Director Steph Cox and Resident Trainer Sal Frances joined Rach & Dean on JOY Breakfast.  

If you’re a trans/gender diverse person who would like to explore a range of circus skills including acro, aerials, tumbling, juggling, hula hoops and more, and discover community and learn something new in a supported environment, no matter your skill level, head to womesncircus.org.au to find our more, with Circus Mixtape kicking off next Tuesday, 11th July. 

Gary Lonesborough grew up surrounded by stories, as part of a large and proud Aboriginal family in the far south coast of NSW.  At the age of 12, Gary began to realise he was queer, and with the lack of not only Aboriginal representation in books, but particularly queer indigenous representation he moved away from reading and writing stories and focussed on trying to “fit in”.

Fast forward to now, Gary is an award-winning Author, sharing his own stories of Aboriginal and queer characters and has recently released his newest book ‘We Didn’t Think it Through’. 

His new book ‘We didn’t think it through’ is a compelling coming-of-age novel about sixteen-year-old Jamie Langton finding his future and navigating the challenges of racism, family and friendship in a small Australian town, and Gary joins Rach & Dean on JOY Breakfast to tell the all about it.