Guess what Stephen first did after being elected? He went to the dentist. In this episode of QTD, Stephen Bates (he/him) shares his experience of giving his first speech in parliament as an openly gay person, which he considers to be a full-circle moment. We also discuss various topics such as the aftermath of the federal budget, the Green party’s proposal to lower the voting age to 16 and 17-year-olds, the impact of Germany’s voting age reduction, ageism in parliament, the government’s lack of engagement with young people, and Stephen’s unconventional path to becoming an MP, including his past experience working in retail. Additionally, we delve into how living in America contributed to his political involvement. He ran his campaign on Grindr, changed his speech at the last minute, advocated for queer issues as an openly queer person in parliament, and why we need dental and mental health into Medicare.

You can follow Stephen and me on Instagram, Stephen, myself, and the podcast on Twitter, and the podcast on TikTok.

Georgia (she/her) came back for an episode! This means that two neurodivergent queers talk, about why Australians are obsessed with sunscreen, balancing masked and unmasked socialisation, flirting as neurodivergent lesbians, our friendships with straight men since coming out, the pain of first sapphic relationships and breakups, and the homoerotic friendships that end in catastrophic emotional explosions. We discover that we both have synaesthesia and discuss the importance of queer spaces, chosen family, unlearning trauma and patriarchy, the intensity of the first time you experience an emotion, and the way our neurodivergence impacts how we communicate online.

You can follow Georgia and me on Instagram, myself, and the podcast on Twitter on TikTok.

On this episode of Queers These Days, my fantastic friend Ananya (She/Her) joins me to chat about what music we’ve been listening to recently, life being a never-ending series of processing trauma, getting haircuts, queer fashion, being neurodivergent air signs, the neurotypical education system, self-worth being tied to academic validation, queer work environments, the fetishisation of bisexual women, navigating dating apps as a sapphic person, The Seven Husbands Of Evelyn Hugo, straight passing relationships, our relationship to labels, Hijars, how we came to realise our individual queerness, the property revenge and fetishisation of the daddy issues trope, the depictions of a good father vs a good mother, and what happiness means to us. 

You can follow ⁠Ananya and ⁠me⁠ on Instagram, ⁠myself⁠, and ⁠the podcast⁠ on Twitter on ⁠TikTok⁠.

In this episode, Athina (she/her) explains to me the plot of aftersun because I am uncultured and have not seen it yet. We also discuss the joys of networking, the importance of representation, paparazzi, the Kardashians contribution to beauty standards, why middle school is strange, tarot, situationships, dyeing our hair, moving countries in your VERY early twenties, nodal returns, we’re not really strangers, and the advice we most recently received that was hard to hear in the moment.

You can follow ⁠Athina⁠ and ⁠me⁠ on Instagram, ⁠myself⁠ and ⁠the podcast⁠ on Twitter, and the podcast on ⁠TikTok⁠.

Author and professional tarot reader Cassandra Snow (they/them) is on the podcast this fortnight to discuss living life as a double Pisces, neurodivergent planning skills, the differences between choosing to do less and being forced to, how they got their first book deal, how they learnt tarot, why queer people are drawn to spirituality, how the gender binary bleeds into tarot descriptions and definitions, their time at a conservative baptist college, doing theatre in college, how growing out of the ideologies you were raised in can cause a disconnect between parents and their children, the humanisation of our mothers, setting boundaries with family members, coming out to our parents, casually dating as a non-binary person, liv hewson making the choice to not submit themselves for an Emmy consideration, the importance of queer media covering queer issues, why historically oppressed people need to be in the writers room for television, corny holiday movies, our favourite canceled sapphic tv shows, overcompensating femininity due to gender dysphoria, why wearing clothes at the beach is silly, and the last time we earnt our own self respect. 

Check out Cassandra's website here. You can follow Cassandra and ⁠me⁠ on Instagram, ⁠myself⁠ and ⁠the podcast⁠ on Twitter, and the podcast on ⁠TikTok⁠.

School Strike 4 Climate organiser Arlie (She/Her) joins me to talk about greenwashing, the fast fashion industry, politicians and the 1% who can escape the climate crisis, the cycle of toxic consumerism, passing down phones like family heirlooms, our little brothers being taller than us, how much we love socks, emotional support Doc Martins, scott morrison at COP26, activism burnout, our parents responses to our activism and why pauline hanson needs to be sued/humbled.

You can follow Arlie and me on Instagram, myself and the podcast on Twitter, and the podcast on TikTok.

This episode, I'm joined by three of my incredible friends Georgia (she/her), Taylor (he/him), and Kay (any pronouns) and we talk about the differences and similarities we encountered growing up as queer people in neighbouring generations. Georgia and Taylor are millennials, whereas Kay and myself are both Gen Z.