An article about the idea of “full equality” for LGBTIQ people gets Simon and Benjamin wondering what the idea even means, particularly once most of our civil and legal rights have been taken care of. If we can’t see a sexual revolution coming any time soon, where does the idea of equality stop making sense, even on its own terms?

After a debate in the media over the ethics of gay parenting, Benjamin interviews gay dad and rainbow families advocate Scott Williams about the politics of queer families, assumptions made about adoption and surrogacy, and the possibilities of family units that don’t fit nuclear norms.

Earlier this year, Benjamin was asked to present a lecture on ‘The Future of Sex and Sexuality’ as part of Rising Minds, a lecture series that hosts speakers from London, New York, Toronto and Sydney to examine topics in technology, business and culture.

This episode is from the Rising Minds podcast feed, which they have generously allowed us to share here. You can find more of their lectures on their website, www.risi.ng, or subscribe to Rising Minds on iTunes.

The queer acronym (LGBTIQA+, etc.) seems to be getting longer with each passing year, but who gets to be a part of it? Benjamin and Simon start out wondering whether it’s useful to dissect which letters are in and which are out, leading to a surprising discussion about the limits of abstract debate when it comes to effecting political change in the real world.

The #MeToo movement against sexual assault has dominated global headlines over the past six months, but what does it mean for queer communities? Looking specifically at gay male spaces, Simon and Benjamin consider some complex and difficult questions about the nature of consent.

At the Better Together conference in Melbourne in January, Simon interviewed Senator Janet Rice, the Australian Greens' LGBTIQ spokesperson, about the overlaps between environmentalism and queer politics, the legacy of the marriage equality postal survey, and the future of LGBTIQ politics in Australia inside and outside of parliament.

As Australian politics is embroiled in a good old-fashioned sex scandal, Benjamin and Simon dig through the muck to ask: why do we care so much about people having sex anyway? Can queers be the vanguards of a society where sex is no longer the logical endpoint of human intimacy?

We usually think of stereotypes as wholly negative things, but when it comes to queers, what are the consequences of rejecting them? Simon and Benjamin take a long, hard look at stereotypes, asking where they come from, how they limit our experience, and whether it’s possible to move past stereotypes without throwing some queers under the bus.

It's the first ever Queers live episode! Recorded at the Better Together 2018 conference in Melbourne, Simon and Benjamin were joined by researcher Hannah McCann and advocate Morgan Carpenter to take on a big question: are queers better together?

2017 is almost at an end, which means it's about a year since we did out last 'Queer in Review' episode! At the end of a year dominated by—what else—marriage, Benjamin and Simon wonder what a post-postal survey Australia looks like for queer politics, and poke our heads up out of Australia to look at how queers have been doing worldwide.

Ahead of World AIDS Day on 1 December, Benjamin interviews writer, producer and HIV activist Nic Holas about his work advocating for people living with HIV, about the impact of a big few years in HIV treatment and prevention in Australia, and about how the legacy of HIV and AIDS shapes our queer present.

Australia’s postal vote campaign on same-sex marriage is over and the results are in: it’s a yes. Still wading through the complex aftermath of the announcement, Benjamin and Simon share their feelings about the victory and the campaign as a whole, and reflect on what this all means for queer politics in Australia now and into the future.

What the hell is queer theory? We talk about it all the time, we throw the word "queer" around like it's confetti at a gay wedding, but what on earth do we mean? Simon and Benjamin take a crack at explaining the notoriously difficult idea, fail, then succeed a little bit, then finally land somewhere in the middle of a murky queer mess.

Simon is joined by the writer and author Benjamin Law to discuss his Quarterly Essay 'Moral Panic 101: Equality, Acceptance and the Safe Schools Scandal'. They discuss the causes of the scandal, the dangers of framing queer people as 'vulnerable', and what queers should do after the marriage equality postal survey. 

Benjamin and Simon take a look at Benjamin Law's Quarterly Essay on the Safe Schools scandal, and wonder what it says about the ways queer communities engage with problems as 'systemic'. Are some people just bad? And if issues like queerphobia are bigger than anything one person, how can we even begin to break them down? 

The campaign for the yes vote in Australia's postal survey on same-sex marriage is in full swing, coming after years of speculation from within queer communities about what a free-for-all public debate on the issue might look like. Digging into the campaign so far, Simon and Benjamin ask whether it's all as bleak as many queers fear, or if this is an unprecedented opportunity to fight homophobia.

Benjamin and Simon are joined by writer and commentator Helen Razer to discuss whether there's any 'left' left in queer communities, the successes and failures of identity politics, and to ask if there's even any point to queer political movements in the face of capitalism.

When actor Andrew Garfield says he's currently a "gay man right now, just without the physical act", Simon and Benjamin decide to take him at face value and address the question: who gets to identify as queer? In this second part of a two-part episode, things get weird in a discussion of postmodern pornography, the abstract-ness of "identifying", and whether Andrew Garfield is the vanguard of a queer utopia.

A major fashion magazine says it's "gender fluidity" when a (heterosexual) celebrity couple swaps clothes occasionally, leading to a backlash then an apology. Delving into the thorny topic of 'essentialism' within queer communities in the first part of a two-part episode, Benjamin and Simon wonder what is gained (and maybe lost) when we locate even an idea like gender performance within particular and essential identities.

Even though we all would have preferred otherwise, "allies" were in the spotlight during this year's Pride Month, raising the question: what role should allies play within queer activism, and even within queer communities themselves? Simon and Benjamin pit pragmatism against idealism in a discussion about how far we should go to be inclusive.