Sam Orchard's Blog

Oh. So. Ummm… I am officially winding this blog down. I did a little post about it and then there was an announcement about banning new prescriptions for puberty blockers.

So – before this site’s hosting expires I thought I’d put this up. As a reminder.

Some helpful links:

Go back  for part 1

The post Blockers Banned Part 2 first appeared on Rooster Tails.

Oh. So. Ummm… I am officially winding this blog down. I did a little post about it and then there was an announcement about banning new prescriptions for puberty blockers.

So – before this site’s hosting expires I thought I’d put this up. As a reminder.

Some helpful links:

Click through for part 2

The post Blockers Banned Part 1 first appeared on Rooster Tails.

I’ve taken some time off work to work on writing and comic making as well as travel. I thought I’d share some comic about what I’ve been up to since I ventured abroad. I’m catching up on weeks at the moment – so this is Week 1! I landed in London and was reunited with Anna, who left a few months before me. I’ll recount the full adventures over on my patreon but you’ll get the comics highlights here for free, as always!

London was incredible, the jet lag (and the tiredness from 30 hours of travelling) was gruelling, but it’s been amazing to wander around, looking at incredible art (big and small), the ghost tour was one of my top activities I wanted to do, and perhaps we didn’t read the description right, but it was less ghostly than anticipated so we felt a bit sad about that.

The post London Ghost Tours first appeared on Rooster Tails.

I’m currently at Auckland airport waiting to fly out. I’ll arrive in London in about 30 hours from now… so today is a very long day. But what an exciting and amazing privilege it is to get to go do this. Adventures ahoy.

The post Journeying first appeared on Rooster Tails.

Here’s the link to the Law Commission page, with all the readings and question links. As mentioned – you don’t have to answer ALL the questions, just the ones you want. There’s some really helpful information here about what it all means, and how you might think about answering the questions by the Rainbow Support Collective. Submissions close at 5pm on Thursday 5 September 2024.

The post Law Commission first appeared on Rooster Tails.

Thank you to everyone who has submitted something for the Birthday Challenge it’s been such a joy receiving your things. For those who are shy about drawing I’ve got a couple of non-comic/non-illustrations coming up – happy to accept photos, poems, pasta art, whatever you want!). I’m not sure I’ll get all the way up to 40 but I’ll keep posting until I run out. I’ve made a collection of them so they’re easy to view and easy to find, and I’m uploading one a day.

One of the things I’m doing in my 40th year is taking some time off work (just time off, I’m not quitting my dream job!) to do some travelling and some writing about queer comics. I’m off to Europe at the start of September, then heading to the USA and Asia in the new year – so any travel tips or queer comics things I should know about, please let me know!

The post Birthday Reflections first appeared on Rooster Tails.

Weird update – I had a couple of days where I fainted a whole bunch so I took myself to hospital. It has turned out to be an anomaly, it hasn’t happened again (which is relieving). The staff at the hospital were all super chill about me being trans, not even in an overcompensating way – just chill, it was lovely.

Anna enjoyed her joke though.

Thank you to the lovely people who have submitted stuff to my birthday challenge – I’ll start sharing them in the next few weeks. If you don’t wanna draw something, just make something in whatever art form you like (or just tell a trans person you appreciate them).

In other news – I’m going on a big adventure, taking some time off work to go travel (10 months starting September) and write. Where should I go?

The post Hospital first appeared on Rooster Tails.

It’s been a hell of a few months – but… It’s my birthday at the end of the month so I thought I’d do another birthday challenge.

Things are pretty weird at the moment with trans stuff – worldwide, and NZ specific – and by weird I mean really hard. This is not to say that other things aren’t really hard either, the whole world feels pretty full on and awful. But I thought this challenge might bring a little bit of niceness to the world. A few years ago, I was part of a 100 days project, where we asked people to talk about someone who means a lot to them (here’s the project) and it just filled me with joy. So this is  a similar vibe – an opportunity to tell a trans or non-binary person that you’re glad they exist.

I’m hoping I can get 40 little artworks or comics for the whole month, and it can be a nice little heartwarming thing. I’d love it if you wanted to draw something!

The post Birthday Challenge first appeared on Rooster Tails.

Wowsers it’s been a time for trans and queer communities recently.

There’s been a number of Rainbow Crossings that have been painted white over the last week. And that’s after a bunch of libraries had to cancel their ‘Rainbow Storytime’ events because people have threatened violence. The threats are usually directed around rainbow communities being unsafe in general, but there’s a heavy dosage of anti-trans (specific) rhetoric in there. So I figured, even though I’m not a big fan of Trans Day of Visibility, to do a little comic, just to remind people that we’ve always been here and we’re gonna keep being here.

The post Trans Day of Visibility 2024 first appeared on Rooster Tails.

And the follow up page to the broccoli strip I made for Inside Out’s pride exhibition.

The post You fry broccoli in butter page 2 first appeared on Rooster Tails.