The title of this recording is "Beth - Q12". It is described as: Beth talks about being young and lesbian in 2012. It was recorded in Manawatū, Manawatu, Aotearoa New Zealand on the 13th September 2012. The duration of the recording is 17 minutes, but this may not reflect the actual length of the event. A list of correctly spelt content keywords and tags can be found at the end of this document. A brief description of the recording is: In this podcast Beth talks about being young and lesbian in 2012. The content in the recording covers the 2010s decade. A brief summary of the recording is: In an introspective conversation captured in the "Beth - Q12" podcast, recorded on September 13, 2012, in Manawatū, New Zealand, a person named Bethany navigates through their experiences of being young and a member of the LGBTQ+ community during the early 2010s. The interview, lasting 17 minutes, provides a vibrant window into Bethany's life and projects their dynamic personality, aspirations, and reflections on sexuality, gender identity, personal hobbies, and the pursuit of opening a dominatrix business with no sexual exchanges involved. Bethany introduces themself as a caring, generous, and aspiring musician who enjoys assisting those in need, including supporting the homeless. A prevalent thread in the conversation is their burgeoning entrepreneurship in establishing a dominatrix service, legally conducted in New Zealand. Bethany is keen to help clients fulfill their fantasies and advocates for openness regarding one's sexual desires, arguing that society should not stigmatize these inclinations. Their journey in the LGBTQ+ community is also touched upon. Bethany expresses comfort with their gender identity and explicit clarity on their sexual orientation - identifying as gay. They blend their feminine expression with the practice of dominatrix, while in everyday life they prefer a more relaxed, casual apparel, and are even considering adopting dreads, an unusual choice for a dominatrix. Bethany’s personal narrative encompasses the complexity of relationships within the LGBTQ+ community, overshadowing traditional norms with genuine emotion and connection. Bethany has engaged in relationships with both women and transgender individuals since coming out at the age of 16. Their touchstone for the LGBTIQ community engagements is through friends and groups like the Closet Space youth group, where they fostered connections and found relationships. Dating sites also play a significant role in meeting peers and potential partners. Discussion ventures into the concept of virginity, with Bethany regarding it as a meaningful connection rather than being strictly about physical acts. They consider one's first encounter to be with someone special, whether or not love is part of the equation. Bethany has faced challenges due to sexual orientation and gender identity, including abuse and hostility during school years. They convey troubling experiences of being bullied for being gay but also note a lack of such episodes after leaving school. To contextualize the social atmosphere of the time, Bethany briefly touches on the political landscape, mentioning participation in activism for marriage equality in New Zealand's Parliament. This glimpse into advocacy underscored the ongoing struggles and progress at the intersection of personal rights and national legislation. Throughout the interview, Bethany's resilience shines despite previous adversities encountered due to their identity. This resilience is bolstered by a supportive family and friends network who have been the backbone of Bethany's journey to self-acceptance and advocacy. The full transcription of the recording begins:  Hello. How are you today? I'm fantastic. Thank you. How are you? Fabulous. Absolutely fabulous. I'm glad to hear you're fabulous. So who are you? My name's Bethany. Bethany? Yes. Who? Who did you tell us? A little bit about yourself? A little bit about myself. Well, I'm 20. I'm really short. I have blue green eyes and long red hair. I like long walks on the beach. Um I? I don't know. I, like long walks on short hairs. What about your personality? You're very Jo Jo. I didn't even know that was an English word. But it works. OK, Um I'm joking. I'm caring. I'm extremely kind. Generous. I give way too much for the people around me. I literally give everything I have to everyone. I. I could be like 100% broke. I'll go ask 20 bucks for my dad and give those people the person who needs it. 20 bucks, Like I see any homeless person I see on the street I give money to. So it's just who I am and the bus as well. Oh, yeah, man. Absolutely. I. I am an aspiring musician, so I know how it feels to be a busker. What do you play? I don't play. I sing. What do you say? Um I sing blue and jazz, blues and jazz like Hey, OK, yeah. It's kind of like, um you're singing your whole life, but you're saying nothing at the same time. Uh, well, my entire life is pretty much just me. I live my life every day I take every day as it comes. You know, I, I don't I don't box myself into being like This is my future. This is my past. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. This is who I am. My entire life can escalate from angry to sad to happy in one day I have It sounds like I've really been mood swings, but that's not the case. Yeah, So you have likes and hobbies. My likes and hobbies are singing. Um, I'm currently opening a business. And do I have to Yeah, OK, we're going to be a dominatrix. At least be a dominatrix, but open to the men to digest, but no sex, because that's not what dominatrix is do. So if anybody in palmy was turning into, like, an advertisement video video audio clip, it worked very well, so if anybody in palmy would like to be dominated, absolutely anybody can come like I'm not fussy. Any age, sexuality, gender, race, orientation, anything. Come, I'm just going to be like, Well, it all depends on what you want, but yeah, At the end of the night, they'll be spanked, and at the end, they will be spanked, and they will be happy about it. So I suppose that can work. Oh, God, you're imagining it. Oh, no. So what else? Um, I'm a horse rider. I've been horse riding since I was five. I. I like to fire spin. I'm a fire spinner. Um, actually, it was just recently my birthday and I went to a fire spending event and it was amazing and wonderful. And everyone's so cool. Wow. Yeah. Wild is one way to put those people. Are they? Oh, wow. So what inspired you to become a dominatrix? What inspired me? Well, I mean, I've been doing it personally for about four years, and it just kind of I was sitting down in my room one day and I was just talking to my flatmate, and I was like, Well, you know, it's something I enjoy doing. There's nothing wrong with it. Like being a dominatrix prostitute or anything like that is the oldest profession in the world. So I know it's still sticking around. So it's like, Well, and it's legal in New Zealand. It's legal in New Zealand, so there's nothing wrong with it and, like I'm not having sex with my clients. So it's not like, you know, unless I pay big bucks and I mean Mother fucking big bucks. But I mean, big bucks. Um, yeah, I suppose it was more along the lines of Just like I just want people to experience their fantasies like I have I love just like it sounds bad, but I love sex. I love sex. It's such an intriguing and passionate thing. It's like humans will go to any means to get it any means at all, including prostitution and dominatrix, which is why I was like, Well, if if people are at the desperate measures like I had someone come up to me the other day and go, I've always kind of dreamed of being belted by a woman, and I was like, That's so normal. Like people, people assume that you don't. It's not normal and you should hide it. And oh, my God. People will judge me. But that's not the case. People should just, like, let loose and be free. Did you watch that 2020 episode on dominatrix? Yeah, I did. I mistress Mariah. Oh, my gosh. She is a legend. Like I've I've heard so much about her. Um, I'm actually talking to one of the other dominatrix is in Auckland. Mistress Venom. She's really cool. And, um, we've been emailing for a bit, and she was giving me some business advice and stuff and she asked if I lived in Auckland. If I wanted to be her assistant. No, no, not an assistant. Um, apprentice. So she asked if I want to do an apprenticeship If I was living in Auckland and I was like, I don't live in Auckland, but I would so love that. That was just quite I've never heard of something like that before. Apprentice Dominator. Absolutely. It's It's so common. Like my flatmate is my P A. I'm not going to say her name, but, um, she's like, she's my she's my P A And I wouldn't know what to do without her, so I could never leave her behind. You know, it's just you can become a PAAP a. They could get interesting. Yeah. No, she's Yeah, it's just there will be no spanking for her. No, no, it's a new contract. No spanking, no whipping, nothing, but yeah, no, it's been it's been an adventure trying to set up this business. I had a business seminar yesterday with IRD so much to learn in such a short amount of time. It was good, though. It was good. Yeah. So, um, what is your sex? I'm a female. I am a girl. And what is your gender identity? Do you know what gender identity is? I do know what gender identity is. I'm I'm perfectly happy in my gender. Like I'm I'm pretty much just as female always will be. So, unless, like I do, I am a drag queen, though, or drag king. I'm a drag. Yeah, my, um but that's just for fantasy and fun. That's that's more along the lines of Yeah, just just fun stuff. Like I just have a blast with it. I, um my drag name is Clin. Tolin. Yeah. C to a friend of mine. Logan came up with it so funny. He was like, you know, you should be C to And I was like, You know, it's funny. My parents are gonna name me Clint if I was a boy. Well, that works. So, um, what is your sexuality? My sexuality? I'm gay. I'm as gay as I come. I'm actually sitting here in rainbow pyjamas because I wear rainbow rainbow cupcake pyjamas at the moment talking about domination. Hey, that's interesting. Um, So what is your cultural identity? My cultural identity? Question marks like as in Like what? What culture do you like to identify with? Oh, I'm happy. I'm a happy Oh, my God. I'm a happy happy I have the whole year man thing going on as you well know. And how do you express yourself in a masculine, feminine tomboy? I see, Like with my that that brings in the whole dominatrix thing again. My femininity comes through completely in dominatrix. I wear corsets, freely, underwear, lingerie, all that kind of stuff in the dungeon. I'm not a leather dominatrix. I'm a classy dominatrix with air quotes there, um, with the with bunny rabbits. This cute um, but like in everyday life, I wear fat pants and a snap back, you know, just kind of crazy, Crazy hippie. I mean, the hippies don't normally wear snap bags, but I'm gonna have dreads soon, so I'm looking forward to art a dominatrix with dreads. Yeah, it would be cool, man. A dominatrix, feminine dress dominatrix with dreads. I. I can imagine it can work, though. Yeah. So, um, when did you first realise about you being lesbian? Well, I was actually 11. Um, I lost my virginity to a girl before I before I sleep with men and I lost my virginity to a girl at a very young age. And, um, I kind of just always liked women. There'd never been a kind of an issue with it, and I Yeah, I guess I was just I was really young. And because my dad was around the acting community when I was a kid. So it was Yeah, he was a theatre guy. So, you know, being gay wasn't any problem to me, so I just kind of was like, Ah, oh, girls are sexy. Oh, OK. Oh, that's yeah, that's different. I was like, Oh, tits. Oh, I cannot look at tits on the TV, though. I get so embarrassed, I just look away. Look, look away. I actually I actually hide my face. It's really funny. I just Can I do it on V and movies and stuff like that? But anything else? I'm sweet. It was it. So it's just TV and movies. I'm like, you know, II. I remember watching this in the interview with Will Smith, and he was, I think it was Independence Day. He was watching with Prince Charles and when I think there was, like a sex scene in it or something. And, um, his bodyguards tapped Prince Charles on the shoulder when the sex scene was coming up and Prince Charles just looked just put his hand over his eyes until actually finished. And then the boy touched his shoulder again and he starts watching the movie again. Really, that's funny. I mean, I guess that that's the whole English upbringing, though. You kind of like that. The the royal Yeah, definitely a royal royalty in there. Yeah, absolutely. It's just like the Queen would probably not want exactly a lap to answer. But I think the queen's very down to earth. Really? II I can imagine she would be. I like how it's gone from dominatrix to politics, but not politics. Royal family. Did you watch the, um, royal family wedding? Yes. My friends decided to play a drinking game. So I ended up leaving. And I was like, because I, I don't drink. So I'm just, like, drink water, drink water and tea. It would be good for your kidneys. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not allowed to drink caffeine at all, so Yeah, water and tea is my green tea. Green tea is my go to I'm not allowed that because it's got caffeine in it. Yeah, but, um no green tea is my go to It's like my little Saviour. If I'm feeling stressed out, I have a a cup of green tea and I'm sweet. So but, um, anyway, anyway, um, when did you come out of the closet? Um, I broke up with my boyfriend. Um uh, who's actually a really good friend of mine. Um, I broke up with him, and we've been together for a year and a half, and I kind of just like towards the end of our relationship I've been thinking about it a lot more. Kind of like, Oh, you know, I'm not really interested in, you know, sleep with me and, you know, it's not really my cup of tea. It's not really a cup of my green tea, but, um, by the end of it, I was just kind of like, Well, you know, I'm just gonna I'm just gonna try it. And I slept with another girl and I was like, Yeah, that's it for me. I'm I'm gay. And I told my mom pretty much the night after it happened. I was just came out to her and she was like, Well, if this could be a phase, But if you're 100% sure, then I've got your back. My parents were really supportive. I told my dad and he was so good about it. He was so, so good about it. And the rest of my family is pretty good about it, too. And my extended family are sweet with her. My cousin James actually calls me Dick all the time. He's like, Hey, dike, how's it going? I'm like, Fuck you. Oh, he's a good cousin. So he had a big support system. Yeah, I had a really strong support system. I got really good friends who have supported me and anyone who didn't support me. I was just like, Well, what is the point in talking? So, um, you've been in relationships. Obviously. I dated a lot. I've dated, um, more transgenders than I have women. Actually, I have dated a lot more transgenders. Um, I've dated three transgenders and two women. So, um, since I've come out and I'm only 20 I came out at 16. So it's only been about four years, so about five people. Yeah. How long were they? Average? Um, averaging between 3 to 8 months. So kind of in between those practically got engaged. Oh, well, actually, I was engaged. I was engaged, Uh, when I was 17, Um, I was in love with a girl and we were mad about each other. It was crazy. It was really We were engaged after three weeks, and I gave her an engagement ring and everything. It was serious. Absolutely 100% serious, and it just fell apart. Unfortunately, we were together for five months, but like it was, I guess it was just the rush of a like she was my first serious girl relationship, so I thought I was going to spend the rest of my life with her. You know what lesbians are like? It's like the same with, uh, with, um, gay teenagers. Absolutely. Like, you think you're gonna be together forever, and sometimes it works out, and sometimes it doesn't. You just gotta You gotta keep get back on that horse. Yeah. You gotta get back on the horse, bro. You gotta get back on the horse, man. That's a different situation. Yeah, that's a different situation. Best reality is not really with it. Oh, no. Oh, Maybe we should restart the interview just from here. No, um, where was I? So how do you meet other people in the LGBTI Q community? I suppose it's normally through friends. Or, um, I used to go to the youth group closet space here. And I met my ex-girlfriend through there, and she was pretty cool. And, um, yeah, it was It's been It's been an adventure doing all this I. I didn't think my life would turn out like this. I didn't think I would be this kind of free about it either. Especially with the whole marriage thing coming up in in Parliament at the moment. I'm doing the petitioning tomorrow. It is Saturday, and it is Saturday. We're doing it. Um, sorry it is Saturday. We're doing it. Not Friday. It's not. It's not Friday. It's Saturday. Sorry, darling. I told him like, Yeah, she should come hang out with you on Friday. You better. I'll expect it. You drag me from the rope or No, um, we were Oh, yeah. LGBT Q. I, um Yeah, I guess I just meet them through friends and yeah, dating sites. Yeah. Dating sites is a big one. I mean, I've met quite a few of my friends, actually. One of my my my, my most recent exgirlfriend, um, I met through into dating, and, um, she's lovely. She's really cool. She's 27 and she's Yeah, she's really nice. She's, um She's trouble, as I do as I do. Yeah, absolutely. So, uh, what is your definition of virginity? My definition of virginity. I suppose it's That's actually a really good question. I've never thought about that before. My definition of virginity, I suppose, would probably be the person that you want to sleep with. It's the person that you love and cherish. Except I didn't really love and cherish them. They were my childhood friend, but it doesn't matter. But, um, you can love a friend like, Yeah, exactly. But, um, lose your virginity to a friend in a friendly type way. Um, yeah, I suppose it would just be kind of Yeah. Just who you wanna lose it to. It's not about. It's not about penetrative sex or anything like that. It's who you want to lose it to. Yeah. So I lost it to at a very young age, like I said, but I the person I lost it to is still a very valued friend of mine whom I love dearly. So yeah. So, um, last question. What? Have you ever experienced or, um, any abuse or abusive behaviour because of your sexuality or your gender identity? Oh, yeah. I was beaten up a lot through high school. I got beaten up a lot through high school. I, um, had my head shut down toilets and stuff like that. It was It was difficult at the start when I first came out because I told one person. And then suddenly the whole school knew and I went to an all girls school, so people were like face, but, um yeah, but not since I left high school. Have I really experienced anything? I have the occasional Oh, what a lesbian, Blah. And I'm like, Oh, go away. I'll bugger off. Go sleep with your sock. Well, thank you for the interview. You're very welcome. The full transcription of the recording ends. A list of keywords/tags describing the recording follow. These tags contain the correct spellings of names and places which may have been incorrectly spelt earlier in the document. The tags are seperated by a semi-colon: 2010s ; Aotearoa New Zealand ; Closet Space ; Coming Up ; Drag Queen ; God ; LGBT ; Manawatū ; Palmerston North ; People ; Q12 (series) ; Rainbow Youth ; Space ; Stuff ; The Closet ; Youth ; abuse ; acting ; advice ; apprenticeship ; author ; birthday ; blood ; broken ; cis female ; closet ; coming out ; community ; dating ; dominatrix ; drag ; engagement ; escape ; face ; family ; fantasy ; femininity ; fire spinning ; friends ; fun ; future ; gay ; gender ; gender identity ; hair ; homophobia ; horse ; identity ; jazz ; lesbian ; love ; marriage ; marriage equality ; masculine ; mistress ; movies ; music ; normal ; nzdating. com ; other ; pa ; pants ; parents ; performance ; podcast ; politics ; prince ; queen ; race ; rainbow ; relationships ; respect ; royal family ; running ; school ; sex ; sex work ; sexuality ; singing ; single sex schools ; sleep ; support ; time ; tomboy ; underwear ; video ; violence ; virginity ; water ; women ; work ; writing ; youth. The original recording can be heard at this website https://www.pridenz.com/q12_beth.html. The master recording is also archived at the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington, New Zealand.  For more details visit their website https://tiaki.natlib.govt.nz/#details=ecatalogue.1089319. Please note that this document may contain errors or omissions - you should always refer back to the original recording to confirm content.