I loved all of this. Funny and smart men who disagree with but respect each other being funny and smart together.

Proud to sign this statement from Amnesty International demanding an end to the secrecy surrounding the way our government is treating people in immigration detention.

You can join Amnesty in demanding a royal commission into ‘Operation Sovereign Borders’ here.

You can donate to Amnesty here.

I wrote a piece for SBS Sexuality on the LGBT alphabet soup.

…the slightly-less-exhilarating option that emerged around the same time is the acronym “LGBT” (“Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender”), or its now slightly unwieldy descendent, “LGBTQQIPAA” (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer Questioning Intersex Pansexual Asexual Ally).

Heck, if you’re feeling particularly inclusive, why not whack a “2S” (“Two Spirits”) in there to acknowledge the tradition of some indigenous peoples that considers sexual minorities to possess both male and female spirits?

But then what about the Kink community? And Swingers? And Polyamorous People? And Bears? And Twinks? And Rice Queens? And Butches? And Femmes? And Nudists?

And Parents, who should really be in a completely different sexual class of their own so we don’t have to think about them touching each other?

I normally love a mouthful, but “LGBTQQIPAA2SKSPPBTRQBFNP” might be bordering on excessive.

Read the whole thing here.

BEGIN THE SMUGNESS #qanda pic.twitter.com/Bquo9Z2I5d

— Tom Ballard (@TomCBallard) October 26, 2015

On Monday night I hosted Q&A live from Toowoomba in Queensland. I was joined on the panel by Rural Health Minister Fiona Nash, Shadow Agriculture Minister Joel Fitzgibbon, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Southern Queensland Jan Thomas, Mayor of Toowomba Paul Antonio and singer-songwriter Katie Noonan.

Things got pretty PASSIONATE as we covered everything from CSG extraction, resettling refugees in rural areas, medical marijuana, obesity and daylight savings.

You can watch back the whole thing here if you like.

I believe in all of those things and am happy to be saying welcome at the Melbourne Walk Together on Saturday October 31st.

There are walks happening all over the country; find out if there’s one near you here.

Exciting news, pals! I’ve been announced as a recipient for a Moosehead Grant for 2016.

The Mooseheads help fund shows at the Melbourne Comedy Festival that are in some way different and ambitious. They’ve very kindly gone with my idea of a comedy lecture about Australia’s fucked up immigration policies, Boundless Plains To Share.

I’m stoked and terrified about taking on this challenge and hope to make it something really special. The brilliant Scott Edgar of Tripod fame will be my director and I’m hoping to collaborate with refugees, detainees and advocacy groups from far and wide to make sure it’s all legit.

I’ll be keeping folks updated on the progress of the show via my podcast and you can also follow along via the Mooseheads facebook page.

BPTS is only slated for the 2016 Melbourne Comedy Festival at this stage, but I’ll also be touring a brand new stand up show, The World Keeps Happening around the country in the first half of next year. Watch this here website for further details. DON’T WORRY EVERYONE YOU’LL ALL GET YOUR BALLARD FIX.

Last night I headlined at Clubhouse Comedy in Hobart and my friend Chloe Escott was one of the support acts. Chloe has recently come out as a proud transwoman and it was pretty amazing to see her absolutely own her experience in this stand up set.

Stand up comedy is hard. Being openly trans is hard. This lady did both at the same time and made a room full of Tasmanians laugh. Enjoy.

A very very very funny episode of this very very very dumb podcast. Listen for free here!