Queerbrood

In our final episode of Queerbrood,  Anya speaks with Sham and Hannah, parents to beautiful baby Jaya. Sham and Hannah talk about their journey to parenthood: what factors they took into consideration while deciding if they wanted to have a child, how they worked together as a couple to prepare for this journey, and how they navigated issues such as race, identity and gender. Sham also discusses their transition journey and what it means to be a nonbinary parent, and Hannah talks to us about birth trauma and shares some advice for fellow queer people considering having a child. Later in the episode, we hear a conversation between Sham and Jacek [Ya-tzek] (formerly known as Ania). Jacek  is a proud non-binary uncle to Jaya, and since Jaya was born, they've visited regularly from interstate to be one of Jaya's constellation of special people. Sham and Jacek talk about their friendship over the years, and the importance of role models in chosen families.

In this episode of Queerbrood, we hear from Steph, who, with her wife, has welcomed two beautiful children via IVF.  Steph talks us about how the couple researched their options and decided on a clinic before embarking on the at times really challenging journey. Steph is a statistician, poet, and queer parent. She recently published her first poetry collection “Pieces That Fit, and other poems set in Melbourne”. You can find her on Instagram @steph_kaymir.We also hear from Kristina Antoniades, a Naarm-based family lawyer who is proud to work with her queer community to help them navigate complex family law systems and the legal side of becoming parents. She does this through her work as a lawyer and also as a facilitator of the Prospective Lesbian Parents organisation. Kristina has also undergone IVF and had two donor conceived pregnancies, which she tells us about in this episode.

Mick, Bonz, Tiff, Loz and BB are a queer chosen Family, webbed together by strands of friendship decades, share-house life and parenting, and evolving love and relationships. Their Family currently spans Turtle Island to Naarm, in another practice at stretching! In this episode, they are reflecting on their shared family experience, as part of their chosen family web and connections to fam/partners/loves (some who aren’t part of this one recorded conversation, but whose ways of loving and living are very much part of the Fam and of what’s discussed). They are all connected together by movement and solidarity work and dreams for collective liberation.Mick is an Indigiqueer Dinè, Omaha, Pawnee, nb femme and fierce cream puff.Bonz is a white Australian nb trans masc feelings guy, the popcorn top of the family.BB is the sweet and sassy nb pre-teen of our collective dreams.Loz (she/her) is an anglo-Burmese immigrant/occupier in Naarm, community organiser and devotee of biscuits and baths.Tiff, the goldenchild, is a nb punk who teaches us all about how to be very kind and also a wiseass.

Brent and Paul join us in this episode to talk about their expansive, loving queer family. Paul and Brent have been together nearly 25 years, making their home in the fabled Buggery Acres, an idyllic off-grid homestead where they have nurtured and enabled a brilliant brood of young queer folk as their family of choice. They are fierce advocates for justice, social transformation and queer and trans liberation, and have long been active in the HIV response movement.

In this episode we hear from Govind and Adrian, who are parents to the beautiful Jasmine, who they welcomed through surrogacy. They walk us through their journey, from the decision to welcome a child into their family, to finding and travelling to their surrogate, the international breast milk network that fed Jasmine for a year, and their reflections now that Jasmine is a toddler. They provide listeners with tips and guidance, and a lot of food for thought about the process of surrogacy as a whole.Adrian and Govind are an intercultural queer couple who reflect in uplifting and moving ways, on their quest to become parents. A journey of self discovery, they come to learn about themselves and the world as they discover if they are destined to receive the biggest gift of their lives. You can read more about them and their adventure in their book Without Expecting.

In this episode, Anya first speaks to Tarsh, a proud queer Palawa Iowana from Tasmania, who has been living in Melbourne for 7 years now. Tarsh talks about how she has forged queer blak family who embody culture through community. Anya also speaks with Sasja Sÿdek, an indigenous Singaporean trans woman of color, and co-founder of Trans Sisters United. Sasja is also the lead peer worker at the www.transfemme.com.au project, a published author with the 'Nothing to Hide - Voices of Trans & Gender Diverse Australia' anthology, hosts a television show called 'Trans Fabulous' on Channel 31 and is a producer and presenter at 3CR's Queering the Air. In today's episode, Sasja reflects on her journey over the years, trans sisterhood, and the importance of chosen family.

In our first episode of Queerbrood, new parents Meri and Azja talk with Anya about community, family and some of the unique queer experiences of planning and caring for a newborn.Azja Kulpinska (they/she) is a mum to a toddler and a dog, community organiser, social worker, a friend, a reader and sometimes a writer/zine-maker and is based on unceded Wurundjeri Country. Meri Leeworthy (she/her) is a mum and disability support worker, training to be a software developer. She sometimes makes music, works on community projects, and is interested in worker cooperatives, cybernetics, neuroscience and other stuff.