Holding out for my trans masc hero - will I find one?
QueerAF | Inspiring LGBTQIA+ stories told by emerging queer creativesShow Notes
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, they're here on QueerAF to look for this moment of self-recognition in Irish history again - but this time through the lens of transmasculinity, with a search for a trans masc hero from Irish history, with guests: Dr Mary MacAuliffe a lesbian historian and expert on Margaret Skinnider Eliott Rose, a trans, post-graduate historian at the university who specializes in queer studies speaking on Dr James Barry Iarfhlaith O’Connell, Oran's co-host on the In Awe of Mná podcast for Near FM
Read more stories from Trans+ History Week: https://www.wearequeeraf.com/transhistoryweek/ Here is the article we recommended: https://www.wearequeeraf.com/every-time-you-wash-your-hands-you-honour-this-transgender-doctors-legacy/ Plus, be sure to sign up for our newsletter to understand the LGBTQIA+ news every Saturday: https://www.wearequeeraf.com/subscribe/ Sign up as a QueerAF member to listen along ad-free and support our not-for-profit work, investing in a new generation of queer audio professionals: https://www.wearequeeraf.com/membership/
If you like our podcast, you'll love our free weekly newsletter that thousands of readers use to understand the LGBTQIA+ 🏳️🌈 headlines, learn new perspectives and stay on top of the latest queer content. Try it now: https://www.wearequeeraf.com/subscribe/
Make sure to sign up for updates about Trans+ History Week, a QueerAF launchpad project: https://www.wearequeeraf.com/transhistoryweek/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More from QueerAF | Inspiring LGBTQIA+ stories told by emerging queer creatives
June 2nd 1953, London, England. Coronation day of Elizabeth the second, who would at the age of twenty seven become Queen of the United Kingdom and Head of the Commonwealth Nations, but that morning much of the United Kingdom was already celebrating. News had broken that four and a half thousand miles away Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay had finally become the first individuals in history to conquer Mount Everest. The person breaking this historic news, via coded message and two runners, was none other than Jan Morris, intrepid reporter for The Times. Jan Morris would go on to become a world famous journalist, writer, and historian, known for her works on Venice, Trieste, the British Empire, and her beloved home country of Wales - as well as her book covering her transition, Conundrum.
Margate Pride has been around for ten years, and depending on which local you ask, it celebrated its tenth, or 11th, anniversary this year. See, that’s the thing about local and regional queer stories and history. You often have to rely on one of the queerest forms of communication to find them out - gossip. It's that fascination, which has led this town - with one of the densest populations of LGBTQIA+ people in Britain, only a little behind London, Manchester and Brighton - to better understand its queer heritage.
Recorded in February 2026 at National Student Pride, a live recording of the QueerAF podcast, hosted by Juno Dawson, with guests Munroe Bergdorf, Zelah Glasson, Lars Fellows and Fizz Sinclair - the panel explores Trans 2030, what life is like now and how Trans+ lives have changed.
The north of England has a long history of welcoming migrant communities, despite a growing far-right movement growing in the region. Indeed, immigration is an integral part of the history of the UK. While that’s in part due to a horrific colonial past, today we would hardly be anywhere without it. The well-loved national dish of Fish and Chips was brought over by Spanish and Portuguese migrants, and popularised by the Jewish migrant community in the mid-1800s. The iconic mini cooper was invented by a Greek engineer, who came to the UK to study. Chicken tikka massala, development of Marxist theory, 4am shawarma after a night out. Adrian Collins heads to Bradford, to speak with Trans+ refugees and migrants to find out what it's like on the intersections of being Trans+ and a migrant.
Allyship, solidarity. They’re words that are banded around a lot. Allies often ask how to show solidarity, and marginalised queer and Trans+ folks try their hardest to give ever-increasing practical insights. But what do those words, really mean? How do you do justice to the work?