True Tea w/ Kat Blaque

Based on a previous discussion we had, I thought I'd speak about my desires to have or not have children and how it relates to my transness or doesn't. As an adoptee, I have some pretty strong feelings about adoption and being ready when you have children. I thought I'd share my thoughts on having children and open the question up to my audience. 

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This month I asked if being polyamorous makes someone part of the queer commuity and I got a lot of very surprising answers to this question on this month's show. A grad student working on his thesis tells me a few stories of the discrimination his cis heterosexual subjects experienced while being openly polyamorous. A person from Utah shares some surprising insight into the Church of Latter Day Saints and their condemnation of polyamorous relationships. Two callers question my framing of the topic alltogether. I learned so much from this episode. I hope you do too!!

Full unedited version: https://youtube.com/live/si8iKcoJGtw

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If you enjoy the podcast, help support it by joining my Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/katblaque

As a polyamorous person who some see as queer, I figured I'd share my thoughts about whether or not being polyamorous on its own defines you as queer. I have...complex and honestly conflicting feelings about this. 

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If you enjoy the podcast, help support it by joining my Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/katblaque

After sharing my thoughts, I thought I would ask my audience how they felt about the term queer. For some it's a word that's too vague to speak to their experiences, and for other, the vagueness is the appeal. 

Full Unedited episode: https://www.patreon.com/posts/february-call-in-78430732

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If you enjoy the podcast, help support it by joining my Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/katblaque

"Queer" is a term I've always had a very complex relationship with. On one hand, I respect that as a transgender woman, I will always be seen by as outside of heterosexist norms by many. Yet it's hard for me to reconcile the reality of my lived experience where people tend to assume I'm a cis woman and by proxy, heterosexual. I've lived most of my life entrenched comfortably in a very heteronormative life, despite my transness; so it's hard for me to feel like "queer" is a truthful term for me, even as I attempt to form more community with queer people. In this episode, I share my personal feelings around how claiming queerness, for me, often feels like "stolen valor"; and how I reject the essentialized nature of always being seen as queer becaue of how I was designated at birth. 

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If you enjoy the podcast, help support it by joining my Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/katblaque

This month, we discussed AI Art and its ethics. In this call-in show, I spoke to several different people who all offered different perspectives on AI art and its impact. We had a great conversation about how it's impacting upcoming artists and asked the question "how long have artists been able to sustain themselves as they currently do". Are the artists who reject AI art simply elitists?

Audio editing by Silvana Alcala

Support the show

If you enjoy the podcast, help support it by joining my Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/katblaque

A few days ago, I found an acquaintance of mine trying to sell AI portraits of popular characters in baby form. His only challenge was plugging in specific descriptions of the images he wanted and  a computer generated images for him to sell and increase his reach. Since seeing that one post, he's made several more and produced more "art" in a shorter period of time than most artists are able to do by hand. The worst part? His images would exist without stealing from living artists. Artists whose signatures are clearly visible through the program shoddily trying to reference the image. 

Stable Diffusion is amazing technology with a lot of benefits, but it's connected to much darker, more upsetting realities and it's my belief that the debate we have around it is a precursor to slowly but surely removing the human artist as a worker. Automation is helpful in many ways, but what happens to art when it has no soul?

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If you enjoy the podcast, help support it by joining my Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/katblaque

This month, we're having a conversation about how young is too young to be transgender. It's a rather rhetorical question because obviously anyone at any age can identify or understand themselves as transgender, but when it comes to trans care, there are some rather complicated realities that are often brushed under the rug in this conversation in order to placate to the false concerns of transphobes. 
In this episode, I speak to several people who transitioned young or debated transitioning young who ultimately realized that transgender care is complicated and made even more so with harsh laws that shallowly push transgender kids in one direction or another. 

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If you enjoy the podcast, help support it by joining my Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/katblaque

With increased antagonism towards transgender children receiving care, I thought it would be a good idea to have an open conversation about the benefits of transitioning young; with a few caveats based on my own experiencing transitioning young. 

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If you enjoy the podcast, help support it by joining my Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/katblaque

In this month's podcast episode, I asked the question: Am I demisexual or do I just have standards? In this call-in show, people who identify as demi and ace speak to me about the difference between these two and the complexities of not exactly experiencing sexual attraction the way many of us do.

Support the show

If you enjoy the podcast, help support it by joining my Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/katblaque