Ever wondered who the awesome human is behind The Queer Chameleon, the world’s most adored cartoon reptile⁉️🌎🦎

Well I did & I was absolutely thrilled when it’s creator Amee Wilson (she/her) agreed to be a guest for ‘Pause. And Rewind... ‘

From its beginnings as a webcomic back in 2021 during lockdown to help Amee manage her anxiety, @queeeerchameleon has now taken on a life of its own with a global fanbase, providing a source of entertainment & joy through education, humour, simple messaging and beautifully colourful visuals - all lovingly created to encourage LGBTQ+ acceptance. Something that is very much part of Amee’s learning journey when it comes to showing for the community 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

Like many people out there, The Queer Chameleon has become a staple in my social media consumption and I wanted to know more about its creator. Amee’s origin story is something she describes as a Full-Circle Moment. Amy’s early love of animals meant that she originally wanted to be a vet yet she found herself in a career in advertising & marketing. She’s a big believer in reinvention and has harnessed this to bring her to where she is now.

Combined with her other childhood loves of Disney & drawing, what she’s doing now makes sense... even if Amee does describe it as “a strange life”when talking about communicating as The Queer Chameleon. Amee is both humble and surprised by its reach and the love her work has received.

We also explore Amee’s coming out journey, from chat rooms to a love of P!nk and dealing with internalised biphobia, as well as university life, her travels and the future for our colourful friend as Amee explores collaborations and partnerships.

Enjoy… and go buy The Queer Chameleon book from an independent queer retailer ASAP for a fix of pure joy!💥

Book recommendation: Bi: The Hidden Culture, History and Science of Bisexuality by Dr Julia Shaw.

Sabah Choudrey (they/he) is an award winning activist & campaigner. An author, writer and international public speaker. A community organiser. A psychotherapist, youth worker and... a go go dancer! Impressive, right?

We often see each other at events and I know all about Sabah's incredible achievements but it's not often we get to have a decent chat so recording an episode with them was the perfect chance to find out more...

Little Sabah was a bookworm (this podcast features one of the best family anecdotes ever in relation to this) and lover of Bollywood musicals & dancing - we join the dots on how these both shine through in Sabah today! A mutual love of Mean Girls & Lindsay Lohan also comes into convo.

Sabah co-founded Trans Pride Brighton back in 2013 - one of the most well attended events Trans Pride events around. They're now the Director of Middlesex Pride and they've just finished a 10 year stint at Gendered Intelligence as a youth worker to write more. We explore what the future looks like, balancing the intersections of race, religion, sexuality & gender and writing ambitions plus Sabah's own description of 'reluctant activist.

Sabah uses these three words to describe their origin story 'Trans, Brown & Hairy' - which show up in Sabah's work throughout... with pride as Sabah talks about celebrating ALL bodies and identities. This was a wonderful conversation - enjoy!

You can find Sabah at UK Black Pride on Sunday 11 August as they're heading up the brand new youth and family offering - hope to see you there!

Sabah's book 'Supporting Trans People of Colour: How To Make Your Practice Inclusive' is out now.
Facebook Sabah Choudrey | Twitter @SabahChoudrey | Instagram @sabah.c | LinkedIn Sabah Choudrey | sabahchoudrey.com/link

Paul Carruthers (he/him) is a nurse consultant at Gender Plus, the UK's first gender hormone service to receive CQC registration for treating trans and non-binary individuals aged 16 and over. He's also Mr Gay Britain 2023!

Whilst campaigning for this accolade and since, Paul has been leveraging his title to champion trans rights, challenge false narrative around trans healthcare (deeply needed right now) and advocate for same-sex parenting through adoption. He's a role model, advocate and a bit of a hero so having kept up with him for a while, I was stoked to find out more about him.

Being similar ages, so much of Paul's story resonated with me and will do with many other gay people our age (early 40s / baby midlife queers). Growing up as a shy, effeminate kid, Paul experienced a great deal of bullying, shame and internalised homophobia - all topics that can be triggering so pleased take care of yourself whilst listening.

Yet Paul found his voice and purpose - through his life changing work, passionate campaigning and his ultimate dream to become a parent. To two boys who he is raising to be respectable, accepting and amazing humans. Paul describes himself and his origin story with the 'Shy, Dedicated and Made-It'. I hope you love listening to this conversation as much as I loved having it.

PS. Please support Paul in his journey to becoming My Gay World. Give him a follow, support & love over on Insta: @paul_cc123

Dr Paul Taylor-Pitt is an organisational development consultant, writer, activist and all round amazing human. He's passionate about helping people to show up as their wholes selves... something he leads by example on and from listening to his story, it's always been that way.

From being quite a serious kid who perhaps took things too seriously, Paul knew he was queer and despite having an understanding that society wasn't quite ok with this, he was & simply knew that was the society's problem, not his.

He's currently writing a book focusing on the stories & experience of mid-life queers (40+) which we delve into and I am loving working on an accompanying event series with him throughout this year, especially as I've now hit my 40s. When Paul turned 50, he says he felt like he finally turned the age he always was!

Paul shares his frustration at the state of the world today, what brings him joy and tons more about his origin story which he describes as 'Ordinary, Remarkable & Ridiculous'. It's a brilliant conversation... enjoy!

This week celebrates Non-Binary Awareness Week and the world is full of SO MANY INCREDIBLE non-binary individuals including this week's guest for Pause. And Rewind... Marley Conte (they/them).

Marley is an Italian trans/non-binary freelance writer, speaker, consultant and content creator. Their passion for diversity, equality, inclusion and justice shines through and they harness they own lived experience to educate people on trans+ inclusion, issues & rights. They place a real value on their work - and encourage others to hold onto that that rather than just working with anyone.

Marley is also known, on Instagram, by their handle @thenonbinaryparent and they're committed to creating resources for trans & non-binary parents cos' frankly, it's lacking.

That's Marley now and it was great to explore their origin story to see how they ended up doing what they do! We talk about growing up in Italy feeling a sense of displacement... and their love of their country & culture against its problematic LGBTQ+ stance. We also cover parenting, Marley's take on social media & phone rules and how their daughter is Marley 2.0!

Marley is a "work-in-progress" - the three words they use to describe themself and their origin story. Marley never celebrated birthdays before coming out as they never saw themselves getting older. But now as they are about to turn 40, there's a real excitement in Marley. When I ask what brings them joy, Marley responds "Looking in the mirror and it's like 'that's it, that's me'. That brings me joy". I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did!

She's been a household name for over three & a half decades so it was a real privilege to have Col. Dame Kelly Holmes MBE as a guest on 'Pause. And Rewind...'

I've actually met Kelly (she/her) a few times over the last year & a half and got to dance in the parade with her at Brighton Pride in torrential rain whilst marching for the #transpeoplearelovedcampaign and even got to have a sunny run with her along the beachfront. Yes she's very fast, no I could not keep up.

We all know her as a gold medal scoring Olympian but Kelly has achieved so much more than that, from her charitable work through to her public speaking, challenges and love of community - which has become fundamental to how she is showing up for the LGBTQ+ community.

She radiates warmth, energy & a free spirit. And if you've been following Kelly since her coming out story, you'll get a sense of why and it was gorgeous chatting to her about how the Kelly we see now is the happiest, most authentic she's ever felt. Listen in and enjoy.

Psssssst. Go grab a copy of her new book Unique. we only mention it a few times in the episode - PLUG PLUG PLUG!