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Speaker 1: From the newsroom at News to come today.

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Speaker 2: Today. There, I'm Andrew Bucklow.

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Speaker 3: Let me tell you about some of the articles you

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Speaker 3: can find online at News dot com dot au. Right now,

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Speaker 3: we've got a very fun list of ten things coffee

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Speaker 3: drinkers do that really piss off barristas. I've had a

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Speaker 3: quick sneak peek at the list and I'm guilty of

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Speaker 3: about eight of them, so big apologies to my barista

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Speaker 3: if he's listening. We've also got some info on Karl

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Speaker 3: Stepanovic's new contract with Channel nine. Rumor has it he's

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Speaker 3: about to sign a deal worth three million bucks a year.

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Speaker 2: Is that accurate, Carl, that's true.

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Speaker 3: Okay, thanks for clearing that up to more serious matters now.

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Speaker 3: And twenty twenty five has been a brutal year for

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Speaker 3: the trans community. A number of countries have proposed or

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Speaker 3: passed legislation that's stripped away at their rights. In today's episode,

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Speaker 3: we're going to take a look at some of the

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Speaker 3: anti trans laws that have come into effect, and then

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Speaker 3: we'll meet a trans man who's going to open up

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Speaker 3: about his experience.

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Speaker 4: It will hence be the official policy of the United

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Speaker 4: States government that there are only two genders male and female.

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Speaker 5: We are breaking news. The Supreme Court has lifted a

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Speaker 5: temporary nationwide injunction that had blocked the Trump administration for

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Speaker 5: banning transgender people from serving in the military. The nation's

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Speaker 5: highest court ruled along party line six to three to

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Speaker 5: reinstate the ban, while the litigation continues in lower court.

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Speaker 3: Hungary's parliament has passed a new law which bans pride

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Speaker 3: events and allows authorities to use facial recognition software to

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Speaker 3: identify those attending.

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Speaker 1: Now, the UK Supreme Court has ruled that the legal

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Speaker 1: definition of a woman is based on biological sex. The

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Speaker 1: landmark decision comes after a long running legal battle between

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Speaker 1: the Scottish government and women's rights campaigners. The ruling could

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Speaker 1: effect whether the trans people are allowed in some female

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Speaker 1: only spaces.

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Speaker 6: A proposed bill in Austin now threatens to charge transgender

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Speaker 6: people with quote gender identity fraud. If passed, it would

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Speaker 6: become a felony to identify as a gender opposite to

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Speaker 6: what a person was assigned in birth.

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Speaker 3: Isn't it crazy to think that all of those headlines

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Speaker 3: are from the past six months. Personally, I'm not sure

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Speaker 3: why trans people are being targeted, but I reckon.

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Speaker 2: It has a fair bit to do with fear and bigotry.

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Speaker 3: People often fear what they don't understand, right, So today

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Speaker 3: we're going to hear from someone who can help us

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Speaker 3: understand by sharing their own experience of being trans. I

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Speaker 3: interviewed Lawrence being a bisexual transgender man a year or

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Speaker 3: two ago for another news dot com dot Au podcast,

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Speaker 3: and Lawrence has given me permission to replay it for

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Speaker 3: you today.

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Speaker 2: Let's start at the beginning.

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Speaker 3: When did you first start to feel as if you'd

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Speaker 3: been born into the wrong body?

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Speaker 4: I knew within myself when I learned to walk and talk.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, right. And did you talk to your friends and

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Speaker 2: family about it from an early age that you felt

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Speaker 2: this way.

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Speaker 4: To be honest with you, I'd say no and yes.

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Speaker 4: Because of the ages of four and eight, I represented

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Speaker 4: myself socially as a very masculine person, right. And I

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Speaker 4: had no knowledge of LGBT plus community or anything about transitioning,

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Speaker 4: although I wish I did, all.

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Speaker 3: Right, So what happened when you were eight was there

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Speaker 3: kind of like an awakening?

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Speaker 4: What happened when I was around eight years old, I

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Speaker 4: was pretty much forced back into the closet, socially by

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Speaker 4: teachers and students who actually bullied me. At between the

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Speaker 4: ages of four and eight, I used to be able

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Speaker 4: to wear the boys' uniform, and the teachers and the

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Speaker 4: students used to consistently bully me for that, and then

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Speaker 4: to the point where I had to again wear the

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Speaker 4: skirts the dresses in order to not be a target

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Speaker 4: in my school.

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Speaker 3: So did you have to continue to wear those female

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Speaker 3: outfits at school until the end of your schooling at

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Speaker 3: year twelve?

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Speaker 4: Yes, I definitely did. Yep. So it was a lot

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Speaker 4: of years of trying to push through feeling very uncomfortable.

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Speaker 4: Every night I would create my own dreams, and in

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Speaker 4: those dreams, I'll always be biological male in my dreams

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Speaker 4: in order to be able to cope when I wake

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Speaker 4: up to go to the school and having to put

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Speaker 4: on this uniform that was not who I was.

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Speaker 2: When did you decide that you wanted to transition Lawrence personally?

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Speaker 4: For me, it's not a choice, it's kind of who

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Speaker 4: I am. I started transitioning after graduating high school in

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Speaker 4: twenty seventeen.

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Speaker 3: Did you sit down and have a conversation with your

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Speaker 3: parents and go, you know, this is what I want

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Speaker 3: to do I want to transition.

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Speaker 2: I want to start the process.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, I had a conversation with family and also friends,

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Speaker 4: but I'll start with family that I'll move into friends,

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Speaker 4: because to be honest with you, it went completely opposite

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Speaker 4: within their reaction, which I actually wasn't prepared for at all.

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Speaker 4: So family members were all around accepting and lobbing. Some

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Speaker 4: that I don't see often did take a little bit

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Speaker 4: longer to come around, but by a few months into

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Speaker 4: my transition, everything kind of carried on like normal. So

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Speaker 4: that's just kind of relating to my family. Ninety five

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Speaker 4: percent of my friends that I did come out to,

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Speaker 4: on the other hand, didn't take it well at all.

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Speaker 4: Most of them really distant themselves to me until having

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Speaker 4: zero contact with me at all.

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Speaker 3: How does the transitioning process begin? Do you have to

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Speaker 3: get approval from psychologists or anything like that and doctors

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Speaker 3: and then what sort of medication do you start on.

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Speaker 4: Yes, you do have to get a lot of approval.

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Speaker 4: It definitely wasn't easy to say the least. It does

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Speaker 4: take a lot of time, but also because we need

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Speaker 4: quite a lot of approval and quite a lot of money,

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Speaker 4: which a lot of people don't really expect and realize.

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Speaker 4: I started my therapy in twenty eighteen, which is the

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Speaker 4: very first step I took, which each session cost one

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Speaker 4: hundred and twenty dollars for forty minutes, and I had

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Speaker 4: to do that weekly just to be able to meet

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Speaker 4: in a certain criteria for my therapist to write a

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Speaker 4: letter to my endocrinologist. Start HRT, which is hormone replacement therapy,

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Speaker 4: and I started testosterone which took over about a year.

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Speaker 3: So what was the first physical change that you noticed

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Speaker 3: when you started on HRT and how did that physical

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Speaker 3: change make you feel?

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Speaker 4: Physical change I noticed first was my facial hair. I

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Speaker 4: also actually started medosadil, which is a regrowth foam for hair,

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Speaker 4: so it kind of like encourages the testosterone to grow

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Speaker 4: facial hair a little quicker. I was shocked. I legit

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Speaker 4: fainted because it had been a dream to me for

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Speaker 4: literally so long, and to finally have it become a reality,

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Speaker 4: I have literally so much euphoria.

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Speaker 3: In twenty twenty one, Lawrence underwent top surgery. That's a

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Speaker 3: procedure where the breasts are removed and a nipplegraft is

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Speaker 3: done to make it look like a male chest. There's

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Speaker 3: a video on TikTok of you seeing your chest for

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Speaker 3: the first time post surgery. It's beautiful video. Can you

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Speaker 3: describe how you felt in that moment?

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Speaker 4: I felt like literally so overwhelmed, so shocked. I actually

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Speaker 4: fainted in that video, which I think you can actually

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Speaker 4: see at the end, and my mum literally had to

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Speaker 4: hold me.

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Speaker 2: Oh.

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Speaker 4: It was a complete dream and I felt so normal

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Speaker 4: and I felt so right since right after having that surgery.

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Speaker 4: It was fantastic.

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Speaker 3: Can you talk about the effect that transitioning has had

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Speaker 3: on your mental health? It must have done wonders for you.

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Speaker 4: Mentally. Yes, it was absolutely fantastic. I felt so much

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Speaker 4: relief from a lot of the past experiences, the negative

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Speaker 4: past experiences that I've had growing up, not being able

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Speaker 4: to be who I am, and just being able to

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Speaker 4: be open not only to family, friends, but on social

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Speaker 4: media as well, which I'm really happy I'm able to

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Speaker 4: do that because not only I'm able to document it

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Speaker 4: for myself, I'm able to help other people along the

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Speaker 4: progress too.

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Speaker 2: More from Lawrence in Just a Moment Welcome back.

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Speaker 3: You're listening to my interview with Lawrence, being a transman

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Speaker 3: in his twenties who documented his transition on social media.

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Speaker 3: I was watching all of your TikTok videos. They're all

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Speaker 3: just so interesting, so educational, and so entertaining as well.

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Speaker 3: There are a few terms though that I came across

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Speaker 3: that I didn't quite understand, so I'm hoping you can

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Speaker 3: explain them for me. The first one, you mentioned something

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Speaker 3: about packers or packing or something like that. I don't

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Speaker 3: know what a packer is.

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Speaker 4: So a packer is a silly current object that you

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Speaker 4: can use for bottom dyspharria, all right.

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Speaker 3: So it's kind of like a silicon mold of male

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Speaker 3: general tools that transmen can wear down their pants.

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Speaker 2: Is that right? Yes?

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Speaker 4: That is correct?

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Speaker 2: Yes, okay, nail that all right?

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Speaker 3: Yes. The next one, STP is another thing that was

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Speaker 3: mentioned on your TikTok.

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Speaker 2: What is an STP?

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Speaker 4: So? STP stands for stand to pee, So it's almost

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Speaker 4: the same as a packer, but it's a device which

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Speaker 4: allows you to STP, which literally comes in handy when

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Speaker 4: all the stalls closed and there's only urinals available.

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Speaker 2: Right, okay? And have you used an STP in a

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Speaker 2: public urinal before? Yes?

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Speaker 4: I have, and I've had a lot of success, which

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Speaker 4: is really helpful, especially when all the stores are closed,

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Speaker 4: or if you're in a public place and yeah, there's

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Speaker 4: not much stalls available, or either there's not unisex toilets.

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Speaker 3: Lawrence, I want to ask you, what do you think

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Speaker 3: is the biggest misconception about trans people.

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Speaker 4: One of the biggest misconceptions is when people say, quote

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Speaker 4: they're too young to know. Quote I knew at a

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Speaker 4: very young age is literally four and a half. When

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Speaker 4: they say your gender identity sol flags at three to

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Speaker 4: five years old, which is basically when a child can talk.

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Speaker 4: We don't tell sis gender kids kids who are not trands.

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Speaker 4: Quote you are not cis gender, you might actually be trans,

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Speaker 4: you don't know yet because you're too young. And the

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Speaker 4: quote we don't know that because we allow kids to

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Speaker 4: know who they are because they do know. And in

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Speaker 4: other words, we should be doing that for all people

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Speaker 4: that are trands too.

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Speaker 2: The last question for you, Lawrence, what's one thing that

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Speaker 2: everyone who's listening right now can do to make life

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Speaker 2: easier for trans people.

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Speaker 4: I would say the number one thing is, please do

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Speaker 4: your research, Please reach out to us, say hello, be

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Speaker 4: a friend. And I feel like, just just treat us

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Speaker 4: the same way you would treat everyone else and that's

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Speaker 4: just with a lot of understanding, support and acceptance.

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Speaker 3: You can find Lawrence on TikTok you just search for

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Speaker 3: Lawrence bing Au. That is it for today's episode. Thank

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Speaker 3: you so much for listening and I will chat to

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Speaker 3: you again tomorrow.

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Speaker 1: Follow us, subscribe to from the Newsroom wherever you get

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Speaker 1: your podcasts.