Saving 'Parc de l'espoir' From Bulldozers (Part 2)
Queer Legends: An Oral History Podcast
Release Date: 12/01/2021
The U.S. Military's Transgender Purge
Queer Legends: An Oral History Podcast
On 25 January 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order that launched a new military Purge of America's Transgender servicemen and servicewomen. Trump's Order is based on outdated, bigoted and transphobic tropes that do not hold up to scientific, nor legal scrutiny. In this episode I introduce you to United States Space Force Colonel, Bree Fram, one of the highest-ranking, openly transgender, officers in the United States military. Hear what it’s like to defend America from within Donald Trump's Republican-made culture war. NOTE: The opinions expressed by Colonel Fram in...
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The LGBT Purge Interrogation Room
Queer Legends: An Oral History Podcast
In this haunting episode, I explore the chilling discovery of a former Canadian Armed Forces interrogation room used during the LGBT Purge, that's now an ordinary office space. Once a site where gay and lesbian soldiers were questioned and persecuted for their sexuality, this room's dark history has been erased, its walls repainted and repurposed while its secrets lay dormant. Join us as we uncover how this space of institutional violence is being remembered many decades later. Learn more at https://lgbtpurge.ca/ Cover art photo by Aaron Cohen, Canadian Museum For Human Rights Create and...
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Legacy Of The LGBT Purge and A Queer Mystery - Pt.8
Queer Legends: An Oral History Podcast
The road to justice for LGBT Purge survivors was not an easy one - even after the Government of Canada’s apology. Seeking justice also meant that Purge survivors had to confront and relive some truly terrible memories. The eighth and final episode in our series that tells The True Story Of Canada’s LGBT Purge celebrates victory; seeks accountability from Carleton University for the ‘Fruit Machine’ and more documents from the federal government; explores a 1960s Purge mystery linked to Rideau Hall; introduces the drag queen who is also a CAF pilot; and the queer Thunderhead monument...
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We Demand An Apology - Pt.7
Queer Legends: An Oral History Podcast
Before the Government of Canada’s apology and before the LGBT Purge class-action lawsuit, there was a small group of dedicated Canadians who were determined to get justice. This network of Purge survivors, academics, researchers and activists was known as the We Demand An Apology Network (WDAN). The WDAN group was the catalyst that led to the landmark class-action lawsuit, settlement, and apology to queer Canadians. Meantime, the lives of queer soldiers and RCMP members were improving, but only slightly. You’re going to be surprised/not surprised by a couple of these stories - including...
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The Ban On Gays In The Military Ends (On Paper) - Pt.6
Queer Legends: An Oral History Podcast
By the early 1990s the Conservative government of Brian Mulroney knew it could not continue the military’s anti-homosexuality policies. However, his ministers and military kept looking for loopholes to continue their discrimination against LGB soldiers. Discover the behind-the-scenes legal drama that led to, what many consider to be, the end of the military’s ban on gays in the military - including an interview with former diplomat and Chief of Defence Staff, John de Chastelain. Legal challenges to the government's heteronormative views of relationships were also leading to equal...
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Towards Equality For Some - Pt.5
Queer Legends: An Oral History Podcast
The 1980s were a pivotal decade in Canadian politics and history, including key battles for queer liberation and rights. You’ll hear about former MP Svend Robinson’s efforts to get homosexuality into the Canadian Human Rights Act and protection under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms; the military and RCMP efforts to undermine the Charter rights of their members; and a straight Commanding Officer who defended his top-performing soldier from multiple SIU investigations. A young Queen Elizabeth II also has a few things to say in this episode!
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We Demand and Lesbians In The Military - Pt.4
Queer Legends: An Oral History Podcast
Canadian queer resistance emerges in the 1970s and puts a spotlight on the injustices facing gays and lesbians. This caused further police, military and government crackdowns on queers across Canada - particularly in Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa in the lead up to the 1976 Montreal Olympics. Lesbians in the Canadian Armed Forces were “walking a tightrope” over the perils of sexual violence by servicemen and discovery of their sexual orientation.
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The Fruit Machine and Bedrooms of The Nation - Pt.3
Queer Legends: An Oral History Podcast
The Government of Canada and RCMP Intelligence Service engaged in unethical human research experiments on homosexual Canadians throughout the 1960s. Queer Legends' research sheds new light on the origins and timeline of Canada’s so-called "Fruit Machine" project and its clear links to Carleton University; the CIA’s MK Ultra program at McGill; and to other similar human research programs on homosexuals that took place in the United States. Meanwhile, changing social attitudes about homosexuality and a terrible Supreme Court of Canada ruling led Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau to say "the...
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How Canada's LGBT Purge Got Started - Pt.2
Queer Legends: An Oral History Podcast
This is a true-crime episode. Gripped with paranoia about Soviet spies using ‘human weaknesses’ to steal government secrets, Canada and its allies started hunting for and eliminating homosexuals from government employment. Investigative journalist Dean Beeby tells the incredible story about how the RCMP interrogated a retired Canadian ambassador to death for being gay; plus Patrizia Gentile, co-author of The Canadian War On Queers and a professor at Carleton University, gives you context for how the Government of Canada invented an imaginary enemy in "gay people".
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Queers of the First and Second World Wars - Pt.1
Queer Legends: An Oral History Podcast
Welcome to Season 2 of Queer Legends: The True Story About Canada's LGBT Purge. We begin with amazing new research that has uncovered what life was like for gay and bisexual soldiers during the First World War. From the “gross indecency” laws that imprisoned heroic Canadian queer soldiers, to the military-sanctioned drag shows that made Ross Hamilton’s ‘Marjorie’ a star. This is where Canada’s anti-queer campaign and the Cold War began. You'll also hear from someone who knew Ross Hamilton, personally!
info_outlineThis episode was released on World AIDS Day 2021 and the 30th anniversary of Montreal AIDS activists creating Parc de l'espoir.
This is the conclusion to the story about Montreal residents who fought city bureaucrats to save 'Parc de l'espoir' from the bulldozers of a city "refresh" of the park. You'll hear from activists and gay village residents new-and-old, Montreal mayor Valerie Plante and one of the original architects of Parc de l'espoir.
Hosted by: Award-winning broadcaster and communicator, Shawn Dearn. Cover art by Tim Singleton. Produced by Secret Agents.