Brandy Cooklyn

13/07/2020

Lockdown isn't *that* bad.
I've got my best friend with me.

13/09/2019

Here it is. My new piece on SBS Voices, a subsection of SBS Australia.

This article may elicit emotions. If so, I've done my job.
Now to figure out where to stow all of mine.

"Words can be simple, fleeting, convoluted and flowery. They beat and ebb like a heart. Without words, relationships are like wandering through gardens without flowers in bloom. The feeling is there, but the details are missing. And those details – what my grandmother thought and felt, and all the idle loveliness in between – were lost on me."

We exchange smiles; small talk and vague pleasantries in broken, almost floundering English. I wonder sometimes if she knows who I am – and if she does, will it last?

17/03/2019

I wrote for SBS Life about medication; my maligned lifesaver. On how much-stigmatised antidepressants turned me from shaken and often-stirred, to able to function in society. Yay! Get amongst it.

"I tried everything – every form of alternative medicine, every ancient Chinese secret – to quell my psychological horror."

18/10/2018

Get out of bed.

18/10/2018

New on SBS Australia for SBS Life / SBS Sexuality - Men and masculinity: Being a traditional man seems exhausting.

What IS a man? Is it you? Is it me? It's probably not me.
Featuring a litany of Spice Girls references, because you can't keep a good gal down.

"Gentle men are ousted. Schoolchildren are taught from a young age through the example of their older peers that sensitivity is to be mocked, ridiculed and beaten out of you. The proverbial man-bun is snipped off at the root, and we’re left with strong-arming soldiers keen on sports-based camaraderie at best – and chaotic, cruel misogyny at worst."

In this age of “gender whisperers” and Q***r Eye revolutionaries, we have to ask: What is a man?

17/10/2018

Snaggletooth.

08/07/2018

Here's a new one from the week that just passed, on news.com.au, about a chronic illness I live with - but not for long!

If you can guess the "popular Australian comedian" I reference in Tuesday's article, I will give you a kiss. But only if you consent to that. Thanks.

I’M STUPID. I’ve made many mistakes in my life; some more crippling than others.

10/04/2018

Get up.

27/11/2017

My newest is with Overland Literary Journal , on "Tina"; crystal m**h as used and abused by gay men -- and how different it all looks to Australian conceptions of the addict.

When you’re doing your Sunday morning shop, she’s in the apartment just overhead, being passed around by a group of gay men in various states of undress. She’s in every rainbow neighbourhood of every big city, everywhere. She’ll make your s*x better and your fun wilder; make you want to f**k for day...

06/08/2017

This is it. By far the most intense and significant article I've ever had published: on drug addiction, and societies' propensity towards ignoring the voice of the addict.

I hope you like it.

EVERY day I sit down at my laptop, go online — and see another slew of salacious articles written … about me.

24/05/2017

My beautiful friend Jie was diagnosed with one of the rarest forms of cancers in the world - Stage 3 high grade Myxoid Liposarcoma. This is ten years after surviving malignant soft tissue sarcoma.

He was given a prognosis of a 33% survival rate with anywhere from 12-18 months to live.

By some kind of divine intervention, however, he was recently accepted into a clinical trial beginning in late August, at the worlds' leading sarcoma centre in Texas. They are offering him surgery from the worlds' leading specialists, as well as an abundance of revolutionary treatments.

This means his survival rate could skyrocket to an 84% success rate with a clear 5-year period without recurrence of symptoms.

But all of this treatment is expensive. Which is why he's started this fundraiser.

Here is Jie, asking for help. Please donate and help save his life.

https://www.youcaring.com/jieeccles-830631

Late last year my worst fears were confirmed when I thought I had surpassed my remission period - going 10 years strong since I had first survived malignant soft tissue sarcoma - when suddenly my world came hurling to a halt when what I thought was an innocuous sebaceous cyst turned out to be a...

21/05/2017

Hi everyone,

So recently I published an article on The Guardian involving my experience of homophobic bullying in my own suburb.

One of the multitude of responses urged me to create a platform where people can submit their personal experiences of LGBTI harassment, hate speech, verbal abuse and threatening acts, and have those experiences published and logged.

There is always the opportunity to report these events to the police and local council. However many LGBTI Australians are wary of the police and authorities, preferring community engagement -- which is where this page comes in.

I will be updating regularly with the most recent events in particular cities and suburbs, with the consent of the submitters. People may either post to the page wall directly, or message the page to have their experiences published anonymously or otherwise.

This page will also provide advice and connections to support groups and LGBTI-friendly lawyers, with the potential for extensions in the form of private groups for further discussion.
Share it. Tell your LGBTI friends. Spread the word.

S**t happens - but we don't have to accept it.

https://www.facebook.com/LGBTI-Harassment-Reports-Australia-111098962807172/

A page where LGBTI individuals can share their personal experiences of harassment and abuse. Posts will be shared and logged in the interest of our safety.