QueerAF | Inspiring LGBTQIA+ stories told by emerging queer creatives

 “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 c...

CW: This episode contains themes of a sexual nature, including references to kink

Who 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...

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 sharin...

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 gen...

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 tha...

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....

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 f...

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 in...

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 musici...

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 ...

A live panel recording on "How do we win our rights?" with three Trans+ change and history makers, Roz Kaveney, Jude Guaitamacchi, Sabah Choudrey interviewed by Nancy Kelley.

This episode was recorded in front of an audience of 200 people in London's Canary Wharf at our first-ever Trans+ History Week community event.

Read more stories from Trans+ History Week:

• https://www.wearequeeraf.com/transhistoryweek/

Watch the Tr...

After a busy Pride month at QueerAF HQ - a rewind episode, while we prepare the final few episodes of an already stunning set of stories from emerging and marginalised LGBTQIA+ audio producers. 

This Week Rosa Eaton ponders: Do they need to get a queer haircut to feel part of the community? 

In their university town of Bristol they meet the towns local queer hairdresser who has been helping trans, non-binary and LGB...

It's a story many of us know, but in a new telling of the classic tale, Harry Woodgate has reimaging Oscar Wilde's Happy Prince.

This week, Jamie Wareham meets the author and explores, along with groups who donate books to schools, why diverse and LGBTQIA+ inclusive books are so valuable for children.

Harry Woodgate shares how and why they reimagined the classic tale, The Happy Prince, first written by historical queer icon O...

We all know the trope: the supportive bestie who helps the main character finally achieve their dreams, gives the advice that helps them land the heartthrob or drops hard truths that lead to epiphanies. We all know that’s producers and casting directors' favourite place to tick their diversity boxes. I should know, I’m the actor playing them.

But what this week's producer Ki Griffin wants to know, especially as an actor and a bl...

"I’ve been taking PrEP for almost 7 years now. During that time, I’ve been crazy enthusiastic about making positive changes to reduce health inequalities. But I have seen how queer health has been mishandled time and time again."

So today Phil Samba is here to help us all discover the untold story behind PrEP, the revolutionary pill that's transforming HIV prevention and sexual health.

In the first episode of our new six-part...

Seeing your own experiences reflected back in history is often challenging when your identity has been erased, as many queer people know.

As an Irish lesbian living in Dublin, Oran Keaveney spent a great deal of time documenting and discovering the queer women who shaped modern Ireland. It was a huge turning point and they felt like they fit into their country’s mythology.

Now that they’ve transitioned and moved to London, th...

Do you love a queer punch up too? The comedic kind of course.

Lucie's first gig was in the basement of an Italian restaurant in Edinburgh, during the fringe:

Back then I was presenting as a straight guy, and performing routines about how terrible my hometown was. I stopped performing for a while as I went on other adventures, but after an 8-year, hiatus, I’m back as a transgender woman."

This week, comedian Lucie takes us ...

Did you know that 50 years ago, Leeds held the UK's first-ever Trans+ conference?

This week, Alexander Parnham Cope, a trainee broadcast journalist at City University specialising in data and investigative journalism travels back to a city he called his home.

In Leeds he uncover the curious and little-known history of the city, which held the UK’s first ever Transgender conference some fifty years ago. Leeds welcomed transgender...

A live recording of the QueerAF podcast on the history-making TV representation In Sex Education:

• Guest host Kenny Ethan Jones, the first trans man in a period product ad campaign
• Stars of Sex Educations's T4T storyline Anthony Lexa and Felix Mufti
• A discussion about the power of on-screen representation, creating inclusive stories about Trans+ communities and what it was like to make that visibility for Sex Education.

Thi...