Tr​ansdemic is a four-part podcast detailing the Australian trans and gender diverse experiences of the global pandemic between May and August 2020.

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More about the SPARK Facilitator

"Hi, I’m Sam, and I am one of the facilitators of Transgender Victoria’s SPARK Peer Support program.

I’ve had a pretty frenetic few years after beginning to medically affirm my gender in 2016. Until recently I worked as the Coordinating Lawyer of the LGBTIQ Legal Service. In 2019 I set up the Roberta Perkins Law Project, a community law partnership between St Kilda Legal Service and Transgender Victoria to help our community with everyday legal problems like renters rights and change of name issues. We ran the first ever Change Your ID Day event that year to help trans and gender diverse Victorians change their ID in a safe and inclusive environment.

My partner and I produced the radio show Transgender Warriors, a long-form interview series that aims to capture the social history of our community. This year we also produced Transdemic: Trans and Gender Diverse Experiences of the Pandemic. This show recently got shortlisted as a finalist in the 2020 GLOBE Community Awards for Outstanding LGBTIQ Media reporting, which we are really chuffed about. I am also part of the Spilling the T Collective, a trans and gender diverse writers’ group that meets online to share and workshop new writing. We're working on publishing our debut anthology in 2021.

We launched the Melbourne Fringe event Let Me Get Something off My Chest, which featured a whole bunch of trans and gender diverse storytellers. I hope to run a number one of these next year for Midsumma.

All these projects have given me the opportunity to connect with the trans and gender diverse community and witness our collective creativity, resilience and humour in the face of adversity. I really love working on projects that showcase our unique life stories and outlooks, and I am excited about continuing to collaborate with our community on creative projects in 2021."

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