TCD Q Soc Publication

THE QUAB FRESHERS 2021

Editor In Chief: Daire Kelly Visual Designer: Daire Kelly Copy Editor: Tig Marston Cover Art: Daire Kelly Design + editing assistants: John Sy, Julie Dory, River Cooke, Alex Siekmann, Sarah Lawler

TABLE OF CONTENTS

01 Introductions

11 Bitesize Book Reviews & Recs by Julie

07 On Authenticity

by Tig

08

10

Online Queer Culture And The Loss Of Memory by River

Poetry And Art

14

16

18

T4T Couples

by Daire and Aoibheann

More Book Reviews by Alex

The False Front Against Trans Healthcare by River

20

23

Recipes by Tig

Crochet Corner by Tig

27 Games and Puzzles!

28 Sticker Designs!

MESSAGE FROM THE AUDITOR

Hi! I’m Sarah, my pronouns are She/They and I am this year’s Auditor. I’m so happy to be able to say: Welcome to Q Soc, and Happy Freshers Week! Whether you are brand new to the Society, brand new to Trinity, or coming to sign up again for another year, we are so happy to have you as part of this lovely little corner of college. Q Soc is Ireland’s oldest LGBT+ Society and we run loads of different events throughout the year to provide Trinity’s LGBT+ students and staff with a safe and fun experience.

The society began in the 1970s out of the Sexual Liberation Movement and we are true to those roots to this day and committed to ensuring the rights and needs of every person in the community are met, inside and outside of college. We are one of the most active societies in college and we run so many different types of events - you’re sure to find something you’ll love! Some of the highlights of our previous events include quiz and game nights, educational talks, movie nights and TV show screenings, closed spaces for people to talk about their experiences, pride events, craft hours, and coffee hours where everyone can chill and have fun together.

I’m so happy to welcome you all and we’re so excited for you to join us this year. Our lovely committee can’t wait for you to see the events we have planned in the next few weeks. We know that this last year has been difficult, and we will be running our events this year in the safest way possible and in line with guidelines. We don’t know exactly what that will look like, but after a year of all of our events being online we still managed to make many friends and have so much fun, so whatever this year requires, we know we can do it together.

Lots of love, Sarah

A MESSAGE FROM OUR INCLUSIONS OFFICER

Hi all! I’m Chloe, my pronouns are They/Them and I’m Q Soc’s Inclusions Officer for the year. This means that it’s my job to ensure that Q Soc is a safe and welcoming place for all, as well as being an enjoyable experience. As the Inclusions Officer, I will aim to promote good relations and practices towards different minority groups within the Society to ensure that everyone feels welcomed, comfortable and safe at events and society spaces.

So if you are nervous about joining, going to an event or don’t know anyone and need a familiar face, you can always come to me. You can always let me know of anything that you think would help make you feel more welcomed and comfortable.

You can contact me through qsocinclusions@csc.tcd.ie. I’m happy to help, whatever the case may be :)) I'm looking forward to meeting you all and I hope I will be able to make Q Soc a fun and welcoming experience for you 💜 Much love, Chloe🐢

A MESSAGE FROM THE TCDSU LGBTRO Hello! My name is Jenny Maguire (she/her) and I am your TCDSU LGBT+ Rights Officer for 2021/22. My job is essentially to represent LGBTQIA+ students to the best of my ability, as well as organising Rainbow Week and answering any queeries (pun intended) you may have. I am, of course, very excited to work with Q Soc this year. Though I cover two whole letters of the LGBTQIA+ acronym myself, it would be foolish of me not to recognise the varied and unique experiences our multitude of queer identities grant us.

I also would be foolish to not take into account the unique experiences and challenges that someone of an intersectional queer identity might face that I simply do not. And so, working with Q Soc is something I’m very excited for in order to voice the concerns of as wide of a scope of queer identities as I can.

Ensuring that you, your friends and those around you feel safe and comfortable in College is vital. We all must treat each other with compassion and care from our cafès to our clubs, to our Gay Spars to our Trans Centras. So be gay, do crime, and look after each other, ‘righ?

MEET THE COMMITTEE Sarah

Auditor | she/they | Aries What three things would you bring to a desert island?

My letter box, my guitar and my journal - my letter box contains all the letters people have sent to me and I would be sad if I could never read them again, my guitar is fun to play and I could probably use some entertainment with that long by myself, and my journal because maybe interesting things will happen there and if I'm never going to speak to someone again I would like to at least write it down.

What's something people don't know about you?

I collect postcards because they're cheaper and smaller and easier to transport than art and I can put them on my wall.

What's the last song you listened to?

Alex

Secretary | they/them | Taurus

Mind Blank No Thoughts by Noahfinnce

What three things would you bring to a desert island?

I should probably bring books on what plants I can eat and how to build a raft. Other than that, definitely my crochet supplies so I don't get bored and chocolate.

What's something people don't know about you?

I have always dressed really colourful, so in school people called me canary bird for a while (a name I wear with honour).

What's the last song you listened to? Hermit the Frog probably

River

Treasurer | they/them | Libra What three things would you bring to a desert island?

8 million kilos of soil, a few potatoes, and an introduction to botany textbook. If I can't escape, then I ain't starving.

What's something people don't know about you?

I only started wearing shoulder straps/braces in early 2019, and it’s a source of great pride to me that no one can now imagine me without them. The platonic ideal of "River" comes with braces included.

What's the last song you listened to? Neverland by Holland

Daire PRO | they/he/it | Scorpio What three things would you bring to a desert island?

I would bring one of those screw taps that lets you have clean water from trees, my friend Aoibheann and a blanket. We are just gonna recreate Madagascar and hope someone comes get us.

What's something people don't know about you?

I wanted to be a priest when I was younger.

What's the last song you listened to?

Homage by Mild High Club

Chloe Inclusions Officer | they/them | Taurus What three things would you bring to a desert island?

A green lantern ring as I would be able to make literally anything with it. My friend Adam as he seems to be quite handy and reliable plus has good survival instincts I think. Maybe a TARDIS, but then again I could make one with the green lantern ring What's something people don't know about you?

I'm very ambidextrous and able to write and somewhat draw with my feet.

What's the last song you listened to? (ai ren cuo guo pinyin), Amber Liu's version

愛人錯過

Aodh

Webmaster | he/they | Sagittarius What three things would you bring to a desert island?

Garfield (but its just a regular orange cat that I have named Garfield), tea, Britney Spears What's something people don't know about you?

I've walked from the east coast to west coast of Ireland.

What's the last song you listened to?

"Denim Jacket" - Sammy Rae and the Friends

Aoife

Amenities Officer | she/they | Gemini What three things would you bring to a desert island?

Snacks, my cat and my phone so I can get help.

What's something people don't know about you?

I’m currently growing a lavender family.

What's the last song you listened to?

I’ve been playing the ‘In The Heights’ soundtrack on repeat.

Julie

Liaison Officer | she/her | Cancer What three things would you bring to a desert island?

Sun cream, a Rite in the Rain waterproof notebook & pen (I'm not giving up on the idea of a legacy just yet), and an eternally charged (weatherproof) Kindle with a sizeable but finite store of books.

What's something people don't know about you?

I am professionally trained in Speech & Drama and only one wee step away from being qualified to teach!

What's the last song you listened to?

Blood by The Middle East

Tig

Librarian | she/they| Virgo What three things would you bring to a desert island?

Duct Tape, a reusable water bottle and a Swiss Army Knife What's something people don't know about you?

My favourite Disney character is Stitch.

What's the last song you listened to? i wanna be your girlfriend - girl in red

Carmen

OCM | she/they | Scorpio

What three things would you bring to a desert island?

My pillow, my blanket, and copious amounts of tim tams.

What's something people don't know about you?

I have perfect pitch.

What's the last song you listened to?

Scent by Colde !

Rachael

OCM | she/her | Aries What three things would you bring to a desert island?

A book, a box of matches and a knife What's something people don't know about you?

My emo phase, much like my gay phase, was not actually a phase.

What's the last song you listened to?

Heaven Is a Place In My Head by Bad Suns

Patrick

OCM | he/him | Saggy Tortoise (Sagittarius) What three things would you bring to a desert island?

Popcorn, Factor 50, All the pretty books I bought and put off reading.

What's something people don't know about you?

I have an extreme irrational fear of fishing but not fish🐠.

What's the last song you listened to?

“Put Your Records On” by Corinne Bailey Rae

John

OCM | he/him | Big Capricorn Energy What three things would you bring to a desert island?

I’d leave myself at home, then send a care package with: Water Purifier, A message in a bottle with my socials, and a cooking pot for whoever gets stuck there.

What's something people don't know about you?

I can recognise, name and sing any Barbie film song pre-2013.

What's the last song you listened to? Pasta by New Rules

ON AUTHENTICITY BY TIG In the LGBTQIA+ community, being our true and authentic selves is a topic of unique gravity given how much the forces of society, be they vicious cruelty or conformist assimilationism, seek to ensure we live differently. It is often easier to just go along with the heteronormative society we live in, even in spite of the misery doing so creates, which makes it all the more remarkable that our community still persists in stubborn opposition to this effort to subdue and erase us. As a gal who just came out to herself in the last year and experienced her first pride month this year, I can speak from experience that it is never easy being who you are in a society that always tries to ignore you and pretend you aren’t there.

But the reasons that society tries to hide us for are the very same reasons why we have pride. They are the same reasons why we must continue to make our voices heard. We choose to be true to ourselves on a daily basis, which I for one think is truly beautiful and courageous. Many of us know that coming out will make our lives harder (maybe we all know), yet we still do it. If we did not come out, we would be living someone else’s life, as identity and love is inextricable from who we are. We would be living inauthentically, a life that is not our own. We have seen and admired the lives of people who refused to live any life that their surrounding culture attempted to force upon them, and determined that they would be unapologetically themselves. So strong is the desire to be who they are, they can risk safety and stability to be honest and authentic to themselves.

After all, this avoidance of bad faith is what Sartre argued we should all strive for. Of course, there are degrees of safety, and what might be a moderate risk to some may be a grave risk to others. You can only live your own life if you are alive to live it, and therefore caution must be exercised. But whatever your situation, being yourself in a world where we are constantly told that who we are isn’t “normal” is hard.

However, I would ask that you take comfort in the fact that you can rely on the solidarity of a global community that loves and supports all its members through their struggles and joys, and know that all the same people that have been there for me, and have been there for people I know and have known, will be there for you, just as you and I, with luck, will be able to be there for the generations to come who will need our help. So be who you are, and never let others control how you present your beautiful self to the world.

Sliabh Liag by Rachel

Online Queer Culture And The Loss Of Memory by River When Tumblr undertook its infamous purge of “adult content” in 2020 in order to try and abate the litany of bots and satisfy the increasingly strict standards of the various mobile app stores, caught in the crossfire, whether intentionally or not, was a wealth of queer artists whose content, whether explicit or otherwise, was flagged as such and removed from the site. While the trend of major digital service providers going to extreme lengths to scrub queer content from their platforms is nothing new and deserves an article in itself, between the Apple store removing Grindr from circulation to TikTok’s placing of LGBT tags behind an adult filter, it could not be covered in the detail it deserves here. Suffice it to say that queer lives are viewed by these platforms as inherently and inextricably adult, and as such they are moved to the margins if not prohibited altogether. This is compounded by the disproportionate amount of queer people who earn their living as sex workers, an industry under fire from these platforms. This poses a huge risk to the preservation of queer history.

Returning to Tumblr, in the face of an oversensitive algorithm that seemed to hone in on major LGBT blogs, hundreds of threads and discussion boards which not only documented LGBT history, but themselves constituted LGBT history, were lost to time. While the damage of this example was limited to one website, it is part of a concerning trend of queer history falling to digital decay and going unremembered. What brought my attention to this was a Twitter thread by the Gay Times (now since deleted), wherein it attempted to list the history and meaning of the flags of various queer identities. It declared that the origins and colour meanings of the lesbian pride flag were unknown, despite the creator Emily Gwen being an active and vocal Twitter user who has talked at length about both of these topics. It made similar claims around the pansexual flag, the origins of which was not anything as mysterious or unknown as described. It was in fact designed by Evie Jasper in 2010 (on Tumblr, funnily enough).

In addition, it purported that the contemporary asexual flag was designed only last year, despite it being over a decade old. I don’t particularly care to jump on top of the voices yelling at them, as mistakes can happen, although generally these sorts of things ought to be sorted out in the editing process. However, to me it hammered home one crucial fact; modern queer history is underdocumented. Once again, this is not the fault of the Gay Times, but there is an urgent need to fight to preserve this history while we can.

While the contributions of Emily Gwen and Evie Jasper are easy to learn about from their own publications, they are fighting the tide of a sanitisation of the net, a tide which has already claimed the voices of other community figures. Of course, there is a valid question to be raised; why is this unique to the queer community? How is it that so much of queer culture is grounded in the “online”, when LGBT folks have existed for millennia? Why is the internet such a critical source for documenting and learning queer history in a way that is so unlike any other field of history?

The answer lies in the unfortunate reality of how the AIDS crisis impacted the LGBT community.

I do not possess the writing skills to communicate how severely this pandemic impacted the age demographics of the LGBT community even to this day.

One example that continues to strike me is the 1997 reunion of the San Francisco Gay Men’s Choir. Of all those shown, only seven were original members of the choir who had not died of AIDS. However, due to limits of space, the full scope is further still; an additional forty-seven choir members beyond those shown in black had also passed away, however, there was not enough room in the theatre to feature every person.

To put it bluntly, an entire generation was effectively lost, with those that were left passing on what they remembered by word of mouth, which invariably meant that much of the community's cultural memory was lost to history. The next generation had to, in large part, rebuild a community language to express their joy and pain with one another. The timing of this was important, as this was the generation that experienced the rise of the Internet. From classical forum boards to Livejournal to Tumblr, the development of the internet was in tandem with a new generation of LGBT people that had to create their own communities without a large population of elders to pass down their culture.

This was compounded by the unique suitability of the internet to the emergence of queer enclaves, as people could discuss their experiences and congregate openly, anonymously, and across geographic boundaries. This is why a disproportionate amount of what we understand as queer culture has been created in the last two decades. Blogging websites essentially become the hubs that generated much of what we understand today as modern queer social cues and symbols as isolated people attempted to find community and carve out the language to express their experiences, however, this cultural memory is under threat.

While the Gay Times’ goof was largely harmless, it shows more and more that the exclusively digital nature of this history could make it immensely vulnerable to being lost. As social media and blogging sites are scrubbed to be made palatable, caught in the wake will invariably be these fixed points of memory that will mean, more and more, we will lose any and all understanding of the flags we fly and the symbols we wear. We would lose our memory of people like Emily Gwen and Evie Jasper, whose contributions to their communities are immense.

I don’t have a solution to this. Supporting the Internet Archive is obvious and necessary, however it only documents pages that are uploaded to it, and we never know what obscure chat boxes may prove profound with hindsight. In addition, the march to homogenize the internet, if not challenged, will come for the IA with time. Already, legal suits are attempting to have it shut down for copyright violations. I really wish I had a solution for this. I really fret for the day that the profound meanings of things like the lesbian flag, the black ace ring, or the “handkerchief code” are forgotten, with queer culture entirely sublimated into heteronormativity.

[Author’s comment: This was written before OnlyFans announced they would, under pressure from debit card companies, be banning explicit content.]

July 1st by Patrick

POETRY AND ART Real or Fake by Sarah They never really say it But I hear it in my head, Just be kind and pretty Do I want something else instead?

Late nights out, pretty clothes Is it real or just a show?

There’s so much bright and colour Do I love or hate it, maybe both They never really see it All they see is she Do I really like it?

Have I got something else to show I stare at the person in front of me Is she all that I see Will I ever separate the causes Of my femininity 19 years So many tears shed Over a lifelong role Is it me or will I ever know I’ll never separate the Real from the fake show

Smoke Kiss by Chloe

Real or fake, real or fake, am I Real Or fake?

Nevertheless, by John I keep drinking the acrid liquid To keep me light and swift, The colour reminiscent of the shadows cast By the leaves of autumn’s fall, Yet, I fall into heavy daydreams unaware Of the tart bite of the berry notes.

The warmth that came with summer Left with time replaced By the loss of life to live. As such What once kept me warm Now only reminds me of the bitter loneliness Of the sickly sweet memories I have of you.

Black and White by Alex

Bitesize Book Review & Recommendation Blitz - Julie Dory Heartstopper, Volumes 1-4 by Alice Oseman

★★★★★

Alice Oseman’s Heartstopper is a wonderful place to start.

Originally published as an online webcomic, all episodes of the series can be found for free online. This series is - for the most part - light, warm, cute, and an overall comfort.

Heartstopper follows rugby player Nick and out-and-proud Charlie’s relationship as it blossoms from a friendship into something more. Oseman illustrates what it can look like to be a queer teenager questioning sexuality and identity, whilst bringing us along for the ride and letting us get to know Charlie, Nick, and their eclectic group of friends and family.

Darius the Great Is Not Okay / DTG Deserves Better by Adib Khorram

★★★

A seriously underrated YA novel, Darius the Great Is Not Okay by Adib Khorram centres the eponymous Darius - an Iranian American teenager grappling with depression while visiting his family. This novel also explores Darius' bittersweet relationship to his complex identity in in vivid detail. Don't let these heavy topics deter you, though! This duology also delights with its descriptions of Persian culture and yummy authentic cuisine. This alongside the exploration of both new and familiar relationships throughout will leave your heart feeling thoroughly warmed.

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

★★★★★

Sharing the 2019 Booker Prize with Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments, Bernardine Evaristo’s Girl, Woman, Other is a polyphonic novel that (very deservingly) stole the literary show. Both nuanced and thorough in its execution, the novel spans over several generations and the stories of twelve different central characters, strongly affirming its place as a monolithic and representative text of contemporary and intersectional Britain. A wide scope of identities are examined and explored - each story as important as the last– through lenses including but not limited to, race, class and sexuality. This book is a joy to read – accessible and current, but I believe it will age well as a classic of our time. Evaristo brings the divisive question of authors writing outside their own identities to the table, and shatters expectations and prejudices whilst doing so.

The Tea Dragon Society by K. O’Neill

★★★★

If you have twenty minutes to spare, time to make a warm drink and a cosy gap that needs to be filled, K. O'Neill's The Tea Dragon Society will do just the job for you. This short graphic novel is set in a dreamy and adventurous world where rare dragons grow tea leaves on their backs that induce magical nostalgia infused memories when consumed.

O'Neill tells nothing short of a beautiful story that revolves around tender friendship, pride and honouring tradition.

A Kind of Spark by Elle McNicoll

★★★★

A very big thank you to Hodges & Figgis' very own legend, Mary Brigid, for spotting my pile of books and recommending this one based on it - I've never known her to not absolutely nail a book rec. Spoiler alert, this one was absolutely brilliant. We follow Addie, a young autistic girl who is campaigning for a memorial for women killed during the witch trials in her small Scottish village. Elle McNicoll scrutinses the lack of understanding of neurodivergent people in our society, exploring terms and topics like stimming, person-first language and masking, and is definitely a book to be read by all.

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

★★★

Set in Chinatown in San Francisco during the time of McCarthyism and the Red Scare, Last Night at the Telegraph Club is a coming of age and coming out novel about Lily Hu, a seventeen-year-old Chinese American girl coming to terms with her sexuality. Lily (a space enthusiast) meets Kath, who has set her heart on becoming a pilot, and together they risk it all for love.

I am critical of this novel and of the fact that whilst it advertises itself as a historical adult fiction book, it reads much more like young adult and does little to incorporate history as it claims. The Red Scare feels minor and its relevance throughout the story is inconsistent. However, this book has received wide acclaim and many people seem to adore it.

So, if you are reading this and just want something relatively easy, I appeal to you and say give it a shot and let the world know what you think!

GAY ANIMAL FACTS In giraffes, sex between two males accounts for about 90% of all observed sexual activity. Also, they apparently have foreplay that can last up to an hour (takes notes, humans) Bottlenose dolphins have as much homosexual sex as they do heterosexual sex, including "oral activities."

Male lions often form coalitions between multiple males to protect the females they live with. To strengthen the bonds between the males, they typically have sex with each other, which researchers refer to as bromance. You know, typical bonding exercises.

Male bison are so horny that they cannot wait for the females to get into the mood, meaning that more than half of the sexual activity happens between males.

Macaques are flaming homosexuals. While the males often get together for one-night stands, the females form intense and sometimes monogamous bonds.

Laysan albatrosses usually form monogamous and lifelong partnerships – 30% of which are between two females.

Also, they are really pretty, you should look them up.

Bonobos are the closest living relative to humans and also very gay and horny. They have sex for fun, pleasure, bonding exercises and to climb the social ladder. Much like humans. Except that they don’t seem to care much about the sex of their partner.

This study was only done on domestic sheep but around 8% of male sheep seem to prefer males over females in every scenario. Some real homosexuals here. Good for them.

Male walruses can only sleep with females during the breeding season – so for the rest of the year they just have sex with other males.

And cuddle with them.

Fruit flies (and many insects in general) cannot differentiate between sexes, so they will just have sex with whoever.

Reviews with Books I Saw on TikTok - Alex The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon Also known as the chunky sapphic one. And it’s true, it is very chunky but well worth the read. Set in a world loosely based on Renaissance time Europe/Asia/Africa (except dragons and magic are real), the story focuses on a gay man mourning his dead lover, an aroace girl dragon rider, an ace guy just trying to get back to his best friend and a lesbian mage that has to protect her queen. Also, they all have to try and save the world from being completely destroyed by an evil dragon and in the process, make unexpected friends and learn to overcome their prejudices. Highly recommended read, especially if you thought the Lord of the Rings could have used more gay people.

Girl, Serpent, Thorn by Melissa Bashardoust In a world that draws inspiration from Persian fairy tales, a princess is being kept from the world because her touch is deadly to all living things. In a quest to overcome her curse, she uncovers family secrets and makes unlikely friends (and more than friend, wink wink), all while having to fend off an ancient evil. It is a story about growth, love, and also a lesbian princess. What more could you want?

Castle Swimmer by Wendy Lian Martin This is a webtoon about gay mermaids. You heard that right.

Kappa is the beacon, a mythological creature that is destined to fulfil the prophecies of many peoples. Siren is the prince of the mersharks and destined to kill the beacon. Too bad that he doesn’t really want to do that and instead goes and falls in love with him. The story and the whole world building is amazing and the art is stunning, everyone needs to go and read this yesterday.

The Croaking by Echorise

Muted by Miranda Mundt

Another webtoon. Here, there are humans with bird wings, belonging to all the different bird specie. The main characters are both accepted into a prestigious academy, outcasts who are the first of their background to do so. They also share a room.

Dumbassery and gayness ensues throughout!

In the swamplands of Louisiana, different tribes of witches live, all with different powers. Camille belongs to one of them but when she is supposed to summon a demon during a ritual, something goes wrong. She starts learning about her heritage and meets some cute girls along the way.

Wish it were me.

A Dark and Hollow Star by Ashley Shuttleworth This book takes place in our world except fae are real. A royal fae from Toronto meets a disgraced fury, teaming up with another fae prince and his childhood friend to solve a series of murders that have shaken the faes. It has murder, it has mystery and it has the gays.

MORE POETRY, MORE ART Luz and Amity by Chloe

She -Anon She is made of magic and all things sweet, A soul full of power with a beauty beneath, Eyes filled with wonder and curiosity, Everywhere she goes she holds a smile so crystal clean She brings the light, the sunshine and everything inbetween, She is an angel, a goddess, a queen, The beacon of warmth and all things pleasant to be seen, Soft hands and a heart too pure, She is like no one I have met before.

A Symphony of Longing (to touch your soul once more) - Anon The way you kiss my soul, Despite being nowhere near close Is like nothing I have tasted before It is full of light sweetness Soft, gentle melodies of tingling warmth That sing like whispers, As you travel furthermore, Music made specially for our souls to dance, Intertwining together as if they are one.

So splendidly magically, Like the starry skies, That stretch beyond galaxies afar.

Yet I still crave, Crave for so much more.

To feel, to know,every last bit of your soul.

Queer View Mirror by Patrick

The False Front Against Trans Healthcare by River Much has been made both of the state of Irish trans healthcare, which if I were to dedicate an entire article to criticising might take up the entire volume of this QUAB, and the ethics of youth healthcare for trans people in general. In the latter case, transphobic thinkpieces litter the front pages of British broadsheets, decrying things such as hormone blockers as new and untested, and arguing that young trans people should be forced to undergo the wrong puberty so as to ensure, to take them at their word, that cis people do not accidentally take hormones they later regret.

Of course, these arguments are founded on the principle that one cis person undergoing the wrong puberty is worse than thousands of trans people undergoing the wrong puberty, but the point of this article is not to litigate transphobia. Rather, it is to highlight the state of trans healthcare, when arguments like this are taken seriously. HRT is commonly understood as mysterious and novel, to the point that many general practitioners lack any understanding of it.

So often, trans youth are forced to bring their medical attendants up to speed on the science, and even at the level of dedicated experts patients regularly need to push through outdated, inaccurate, or contemptuously stereotypical notions of transness and the medical needs associated with transitioning. So few doctors are informed of the specific needs of a large portion of their patients that as of next year there will be no practicing public doctors to facilitate top surgery for transmasc people in Ireland. All of this has contributed to the idea that the medical science in this area is still rudimentary and underdeveloped.

This is not helped by the conduct of a specific endochrinology department in a certain hospital, which shall remain unnamed for legal reasons, whose approach to trans people has been the subject of much criticism which I lack the space here to enumerate. Far from what their overwrought, Kafkaesque process might suggest, trans healthcare has in fact been extremely well researched, with the first example of the application of hormones to abate gender dysphoria (though it was not known as this at the time) now dating back to almost a century ago.

The man behind this, and the man who was able to undertake immense amounts of research on behalf of LGBT people generally, was Magnus Hirschfeld. Born in 1868 in Kolberg Germany (then Prussia), he grew up to be one of the most prominent physicians in early twentieth century Germany, as well as a major openly gay figure within Weimar Germany’s emergent LGBT culture. He would found the Institute of Sexual Research and World League for Sexual Reform as well as the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee. Historian Dustin Goltz characterized the committee as having carried out "the first advocacy for homosexual and transgender rights".

Hirschfeld and his colleagues had a huge impact on queer visibility. By 1929, various forms of sex work was now legal, LGBT magazines were everywhere, gay bars were hugely popular, and sex between two men was nearly legalised in part due to the activism undertaken by openly gay people like Hirschfeld. However his most lasting contribution, and the reason I am discussing him, is his contribution to the field of transgender health.

As a result of transphobic laws prohibiting “crossdressing”, many trans people in the late 1890’s and early 1900’s felt compelled to seek out sexologists to “cure” their dysphoria.

Hirschfeld was among the first doctors to look beyond this cisnormative framework and examine what his patients were experiencing. He worked to painstakingly profile and study the experiences of “transvestite” individuals in and around the contemporary queer circles, and marshalled all the medical facilities he had access to to facilitate the very first sex change operations, performed by Dr Ludwig Levy Lenz and Dr Felix Gohrbandt under Hirchfeld’s auspices.

As well, endocrinologists studying under Hirschfeld such as Harry Benjamin would go on to revolutionise the application of hormones as a means of gender affirmation on the principles created by and learned from Herschfeld.

Of course, this is not to say that, when examined with a modern lens, his views would necessarily hold up to scrutiny; much of the modern idea of queer sexuality as an identity as against a behaviour is a development of theory that took place long after his death. At the time he worked, psychology was barely beginning to come up with theories on genderdivergent people; while we can look with hindsight at how much more we know now than he did, almost all of the work he did was without the explanatory language we can now use to more minutely explain our own experiences.

The work Hirschfeld did to document trans experiences and understand transness as more than a defect to be done away with is invaluable, however it was eventually met with ill fate.

In May 1933, Nazis destroyed the Institute of Sexual Research, and held a public book burning of the entire library.

Tens of thousands of scholarly works, photos, interviews, patient records were destroyed, and he was forced to flee to France and later to Vancouver, where he met his eventual partner Liu Shi Tong. He would die in 1935. In spite of much of his work being lost to malicious destruction, more of it survived in the people he trained that travelled abroad and were able to undertake some of the first institutional examples of transgender healthcare through the 1950’s.

The point of all this is to state that not only have trans people been around for centuries, which is evidenced in innumerable examples such as the Fa'afafine of Polynesia or the Takatāpui of Aotearoa (New Zealand), but that trans healthcare has likewise been a welltrodden subject. It is not an acceptable excuse or a legitimate concern to claim that HRT or other medical procedures are untested or new-fangled. Certainly, there is a deficit of dedicated medical and sociological research into the lives and experiences of trans people due to the general history of marginalisation, however in the field of gender affirming surgeries and hormonal treatments people have been doing it for decades, and the years of delay, waiting times, trial periods, and wilful overcaution that results in trans youth undergoing an avoidable and traumatising puberty, are not excusable.

We’ve been doing it for decades. There is not any lack of understanding. Any deficiency in the delivery of trans healthcare is inextricably the product of viewing trans youth as less deserving of a satisfying life than cis youth.

Home Recipes: Casey The Caterpillar

by Tig

Do you want to start some copyright law related hijinks and get away a delicious gender neutral vegan caterpillar cake to boot? Well we’ve got just the recipe for you! Introducing: Casey the Caterpillar, our definitely original cake idea that we didn’t take from anywhere else. In this recipe not only will we show you how to make a delicious vegan caterpillar cake, but also how to evade copyright lawsuits from a certain wholesale grocery chain! What’s not to love? You get to eat cake AND use the special secret ingredient: crime!

Ingredients:

Buttercream & Decoration: 160g Vegan Icing Sugar 80g Vegan Butter Block 150g Plain Flour 15g Dark Cocoa Powder 1 TSP Baking Powder 2 TSP Oat Barista Milk 110g Caster Sugar 75g Vegan Dark Chocolate 70g Vegan White Chocolate 19g Dark Cocoa Powder 300g Vegan Milk Chocolate Vegan Sprinkles 50g Aquafaba Vegan Smarties 110g Oat Barista Milk

You will need a 33cm x 23cm baking tray or swiss roll tray.

1. Pre-heat your fan oven to 160C. 2. Line the tray with baking paper leaving longer pieces at each end.

3. Add the flour and baking powder to a bowl and mix well.

4. In a saucepan, add the chocolate, cocoa powder, sugar, aquafaba and milk and heat on a medium heat until completely melted and stir really well. Heat the mixture enough to melt the chocolate and then mix until the chocolate is fully incorporated with the milk.

5. Add the wet mixture to the dry ingredients 1/3 at a time and mix really well until it is a nice thick, smooth batter.

6. Add the batter to the pan and spread it out to all the edges, shake the pan to get the batter as level as possible.

7. Cook for exactly 8 minutes 30 seconds.

8. Straight from the oven; remove the cake on the greaseproof paper to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely.

9. Whisk all your buttercream ingredients together using an electric until light and fluffy, then spread it evenly across the cooled sponge.

10. Make an indentation along one of the short sides of the sponge, this will help with the rolling.

11. Using the greaseproof paper to help you; gently roll the cake starting from your indented side.

12. You should end up with a nice cylinder wrapped in greaseproof paper, keep the seam side down.

13. Gently unwrap your cake and trim the ends to neaten them up.

14. On a low heat, being careful not to let the chocolate get hot, melt 200g of the milk chocolate, take off the heat and add the remaining 100g and stir until it is completely melted.

15. Pour/pipe the chocolate evenly over your cake.

16. Add your sprinkles/smarties then pop it in the fridge until the chocolate sets.

17. Keep the excess chocolate for the drizzle and for attaching a face which you can do when the chocolate has set.

18. You can also pipe the chocolate onto the cake now, as this will make it look more even. Tapping the cooling rack will also help to even out the distribution.

19. If you're adding a face, this can be done using molten chocolate at this point.

Home Recipes: Vegan Garlic Bread

by Tig

This recipe goes out to all of my fellow asexuals who absolutely love garlic bread not just as a meme but as a nice side to any meal! What makes this recipe even better is that it is completely vegan and you can get your own little slice of the snack that you can't browse online aspec communities without reading about!

Ingredients: Handful of fresh parsley (It's not absolutely necessary but looks nice) 1 tbsp dried oregano 4 tbsp vegan parmesan (not necessary, but is cheese so cheese good)

1 baguette / ciabatta loaf 100g dairy free margarine (Flora plant butter or Naturli Block) 4 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed (You can use a garlic crusher or can substitute garlic puree if needed)

You will need a 33cm x 23cm baking tray or swiss roll tray.

1. Preheat the oven to 220°C (fan)/ 420°F / Gas Mark 8.

2. Cut the baguette or ciabatta into slices about 2cm thick, but don’t cut right through to the bottom - leave the load intact at the bottom.

3. In a bowl, mix together the dairy-free margarine, garlic, parsley, oregano and half the vegan parmesan (if using).

4. Place the sliced load on a large sheet of tinfoil, and spread the garlic margarine over both sides of each slice of bread. Sprinkle the remaining vegan parmesan over the top of the loaf, then wrap it tightly in the foil and place on a baking tray.

5. Bake for 20 minutes, then unwrap the foil and bake uncovered for a further 5 minutes until golden brown and crispy on top. Serve immediately.

CROTCHET CORNER

by Tig

Hallo and welcome to the Quab’s Knitting and Crochet corner! I wanted to present some of the lovely and amazing queer creations our members have made over the past year as well as give you all some patterns for some inspiration! I hope you all enjoy : D Some crochet terminology!

MR = Magic Ring Inv dec = invisible decrease Sc = single crochet Hdc = Half Double Crochet Dc = Double crochet Ss = slip stitch PRIDE BEE PATTERN (courtesy of Alex!)

6sc into MR *inc* x 6 (12) *sc, inc* x 6 (18) *2sc, inc* x 6 (24) *3sc, inc* x 6 (30) *4sc, inc* x 6 (36) Sc in each stitch around (36) Sc in each stitch around (36) Sc in each stitch around (36) (Attach safety eyes and embroider face) Change colour Sc in each stitch around (36) Sc in each stitch around (36) Change colour Sc in each stitch around (36) Sc in each stitch around (36) Change colour Sc in each stitch around (36) Sc in each stitch around (36) Change colour Sc in each stitch around (36) Sc in each stitch around (36) Change colour Sc in each stitch around (36) Sc in each stitch around (36)

Change colour *4sc, inv dec* x 6 (30) *3sc, inv dec* x 6 (24) *2sc, inv dec* x 6 (18) Stuff the body *sc, inv dec* x 6 (12) *inv dec* x 6 (6) Cut yarn and run end around the outside loops of last 6 stitches. Synch it closed and weave in end.

(For flag with four stripes, starting colour follow instructions for first nine rows, switch colours for four rows, switch colours for four rows, switch colour and finish following instructions.)

(For Bi flag, follow instructions for first nine rows, black for 2 rows, purple for 3? Rows, black for 2 rows, finish instructions with blue) (For Rainbow flag, MR + first 6 rows in red, 3 rows in orange, 3 rows in yellow, 3 rows in green, 3 rows in blue, 3 rows in purple.)

(Flag with 5 stripes (lesbian, trans) first 9 rows in red, switch to orange for 3 rows, white for 3 rows, pink for 3 rows, purple for 3 rows).

Wings - Make 2 Wings are made with single crochet for round 1, half double crochet for round 2 and double crochet for round 3 Using white yarn 6sc into MR (6) *Hdc inc* x 6 (12) *1dc, dc inc* x 6 (18) Join with ss and cut yarn leaving long end to sew to body Sew wings to the middle of the 2nd black stripe.

FLAG PATTERN This pattern can be scaled to your preferred size! The most important thing is that the width is 2/3 as long as the length : D (And don’t worry if the flag isn’t perfectly straight, it is a gay flag after all!)

Chain until you have a foundation chain roughly 45.5 inches long, then chain 2. (Or 30 inch foundation chain) Put 2 dc into the first stitch in from the end of the chain.

Skip 1 stitch and put 2 dc in the next. Continue until the other side of the chain is reached.

Chain 2 and turn the work, put 2 double crochet in the second last stitch from the previous row. Continue across until the row is finished.

Chain 2 and turn the work, repeat the last row until the red colour is roughly 5 inches wide.

Switch colour to orange.

Put 2 dc into the first stitch from the end of the previous row, continue the same as the red until the orange is roughly 5 inches wide.

Switch to yellow, repeat same process as red and orange.

Switch to green, repeat same process.

Switch to blue, repeat same process Switch to purple, repeat same process.

(Same process for flag with four stripes or five stripes) (Four stripes - chain until you have a foundation chain 45.5 inches long, repeat same process as red above until the first colour is 7.5 inches wide. Switch colour, repeat until all four colours are finished.)

(Five stripes - chain until you have a foundation chain 45.5 inches long, repeat same process as red until the first colour is 6 inches wide. Switch colour, repeat until all five colours are finished.)

NONBINARY HEART PATTERN by Azra STEP 1: MAKE TWO HEART ‘HUMPS’ Cast on: 3 stitches (YELLOW YARN) Row 1: Knit All Row 2: KFB, P1, KFB (5 stitches) Row 3: Knit All Row 4: KFB, P3, KFB (7 sts) Row 5: Knit All CUT YARN MOVE FIRST HUMP DOWN YOUR NEEDLE REPEAT ROWS 1 – 5 TO MAKE 2ND HUMP. PLACE BOTH HUMPS ON THE SAME NEEDLE (14 sts) STEP 2: KNIT BODY OF HEART SWITCH YARN TO WHITE Row Row Row Row Row

6: K1, P12, K1 7: Knit All 8: K1, P12, K1 9: K1, SSK, K8, K2Tog, K1 (12 sts) 10: K1, P10, K1

SWITCH YARN TO PURPLE Row Row Row Row Row

11: 12: 13: 14: 15:

K1, K1, K1, K1, K1,

SSK, K6, K2Tog, K1 (10 sts) P8, K1 SSK, K4, K2Tog, K1 (8 sts) P6, K1 SSK, K2, K2Tog, K1 (6 sts)

SWITCH YARN TO BLACK Row Row Row Row Row

16: 17: 18: 19: 20:

K1, P4, K1 K1, SSK, K2Tog, K1 (4 sts) K1, P2, K1 SSK, K2Tog Bind Off

STEP 3: KNIT ONE MORE HEART SHAPE STEP 4: SEW TWO HEART SHAPES TOGETHER STEP 5: FILL HEARTS STUFFING

Games!

Games! lgbt+ characters in fiction

Figures In Irish LGBT+ History

STICKER DESIGNS

YOU CAN PRINT THESE OFF ON STICKER PAPER

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