Valerie Coates' story hinges on the three-and-a-half years she spent working in the Royal Australian Air Force, or RAAF. A lesbian, Val’s sexuality was something she knew to hide in the 1960s for her own safety. She was outed in the worst way when someone she worked with told the military police that Val was a lesbian. Val was subjected to hours of interrogation and dismissed from the Air Force.

The trauma of that experience has never left Val. It is an example of the potency of our experiences. Of how something that happened in minutes can stick with us for months, years, our whole life.

In this conversation, we discuss Val’s childhood, which included a move to Kenya at the age of nine, that interrogation, and about sexuality, love, and family.

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