In this premiere episode of “Bellies Out!” Joe Baez interviews Mx. André Terrel Jackson. André talks about their childhood, their current relationship with their body, what it’s like dating in the bear scene, and their visions for fat politics.

You can find Joe on Instagram as @thejoebaez. You can connect with André on Twitter, Hive Social, TikTok and Instagram at @TrickiVisaj. You can also connect with André on their personal Instagram which is @andreterreljackson. You can find all of André’s work on their website AndreTerrelJackson.com.

In this second episode of “Bellies Out!” Joe Baez interviews Dr. Caleb Luna. Caleb talks about their childhood, their disability, their health and movement practices, chub/chaser dynamics, and the state of fat politics today. You can find Joe on Instagram at @thejoebaez. You can follow Caleb on Instagram and Twitter at @dr_chairbreaker. You can also get in touch with them at their website, Caleb-luna.com.

This audio will take you through the life of a one Black, nonbinary, queer, disabled person. You will be exposed to the mundane everyday tasks associated with a bodymind that is mine. Have you ever woken up and forgot to put on your ears?! I hope that you gain a little perspective outside of the idea that Blackness begins at struggle, that disability is always sad, and queerness is unwanted. Each of these facets of my identity is infused in all of the others. Come with me into a world of the ordinary joys.

Democracy in difference: Debating key terms of gender, sexuality, race and identity focuses on concepts and analytical frames we use when discussing how marginalised identities navigate their place in an assumed common culture.

This ebook offers a path for exploring how we might build a shared vocabulary when working through the muddle of public debates like identity politics, political correctness, pronouns and what constitutes racism. Democracy in Difference is an unconventional interdisciplinary guide to key concepts, which borrows from decolonial methodologies, Marxism, feminism, queer theory and deconstruction.

Key terms are illustrated through written text, La Trobe Art Institute artworks (centering Indigenous artists), poetry, comedy and song, and customised animations which make difficult terms accessible.

This text is published by the La Trobe eBureau.

Environmental Design, House Music, and Queer Kinship defines environmental design then defines kinship as a familial relationship that is outside of the traditional family structure. Queer kinship is a practice and formation that is primarily a survival and care work framework. The short discusses the many Black LGBTQ owned bars and lounges that have been shuttered over the years and the implications of legislation on Black LGBTQ public culture.

The house music was a generous gift from DJ Boomer’s playlist, “Keep This Fire Burning.”

This episode summarizes and reflects on the presence of gay populations in postsocialist Chinese society, especially in the two well-known films Lan Yu and East Palace, West Palace.

Combining a review of Xie Jin’s Two Stage Sisters and a reflection on personal history, this episode attempts to introduce the presence of lesbianism in socialist and postsocialist Chinese society.

This course examines relationships between identity and participation in Japanese popular culture as a way of understanding the changing character of media, capitalism, fan communities, and culture. It emphasizes contemporary popular culture and theories of gender, sexuality, race, and the workings of power and value in global culture industries. Topics include manga (comic books), hip-hop and other popular music, anime and feature films, video games, contemporary literature, and online communication. Students present analyses and develop a final project based on a particular aspect of gender and popular culture.

Gentrification and Queer Time was written as a response to the senseless murder of O’Shae Sibley, a Black gay dancer who was fatally stabbed in Brooklyn, New York’s Midwood neighborhood. This short introduces gentrification as a shift in the land costs and a shift in demographics. Queer time is introduced as a non-traditional time-system that is realized and appropriated by queer people for their survival at time.

Gentrification and Queer Time uses sounds from The Shrine, which is a music venue in Harlem, New York.

This course is primarily a literature seminar. We will use American literature as a lens through which to examine different passing tropes. It will provide an introduction to queer, gender, and critical race theories for science and math majors. We will read such works as Running A Thousand Miles for Freedom, Incognegro, and Focault’s A History of Sexuality, to name just a few.

There continues to be a lack of health sex education that is queer and trans inclusive. Many of us are not exposed to our resources until later in life yet must learn everything regarding heterosexual sex practices and resources. This feels extremely homophobic and transphobic given the health induced epidemic we as a community experienced 40 years ago during the HIV/AIDS crisis. Now, in the midst of another global pandemic, reminiscent of survival’s guilt and potential recollections of the past and feelings of “we’ve been here before," we must educate and provide adequate resources around health education. In this short I engage in a reflective platíca where I revisit the first date with my partner where I learn about his status of being HIV+. The aim is to understand how we can move towards destigmatizing sex in our communities that are impacted by HIV and provide current resources, practices, and ultimately share how I am positively in love.

Queer and trans* Texans have faced scrutiny and precariousness for decades. But in 2022, a series of sweeping legal decisions, increasing economic inequality, and state-level political attacks very publicly threaten the safety and stability of many in Texas’s queer communities. This audio short explores how artists and activists across the state are making and using stages at pride celebrations to draw attention to the histories of and possible futures for queer and trans* people in Texas and beyond.

Archival audio of Sylvia Rivera speaking at the Gay Pride Rally June 24, 1973 at Washington Square Park, NYC courtesy of the LoveTapesCollective, with special thanks to the Lesbian Herstory Archives.

By using the death of Sarah Hegazi, a queer Egyptian woman who died in exile after being imprisoned and tortured in 2017, this audio brings into question the place that queer women occupy within the heteronormative carceral state and the tension that arises when these same nation states claim to support women. Furthermore, it interrogates the limit of state feminism in Egypt and questions how gender is mobilized to further carceral logics and institutions.

Queerness, Race, and Reproduction: Exploring the Politics of Childcare Through and Beyond Lee Edelman and José Muñoz
This open-access education resource explores the political, social, and theoretical issues surrounding children, childcare, and reproduction. It begins with a personal reflection on how my queer friends and I would speculate about the possibility of having children as undergraduate students. I observe that our queerness made these questions so salient to us as we recognized the unique challenges that we had as queer children. I then explore a tension within queer theory between scholars Lee Edelman, who characterizes childrearing as a necessarily heteronormative endeavor, and José Muñoz, who critiques Edelman’s argument for ignoring the fact that society does not value Black and brown children in the same way as it does white children. Despite Muñoz’s influential critique, I caution against assuming that critiques of the imperative to reproduce necessarily exclude racial analysis by drawing on the work of Black studies scholar Christina Sharpe, who calls attention to the ways that racist institutions have forced Black people to reproduce in certain contexts. By putting these scholars in conversation, the audio reflects on the wide-reaching practical and theoretical consequences of reproductive politics.

Queer Chisme is a cultural intuitive way of knowing rooted in survival by womxn, queer, trans, and those at the margins to survive cisheteropatriarchal structures (Gonzalez, 2021; Gutierrez, 2017; Trujillo, 2020). The chisme exposes power imbalances and cultivates community and safety with those who we can build kinship with to resist and exist in collective spaces. I use chisme as a way to share care, to mobilize towards advocacy, and expose inequities in higher education (Gonzalez, 2021). I invite you to listen and use this queer chisme sensory audio experience to reflect, move towards healing, and learn more about the power within you.