Show Notes
For much of history, queer lives were criminalized, and what survives of us is too often filtered through police files and court records; stories told by those who sought to erase us. But every so often, a different kind of record survives: a story the community protected; a story someone loved enough to keep alive. Charles McDonell's is one of those rare stories. His life was captured not by the state, but by queer hands: poets, lovers, and friends who refused to let him disappear. This is a tale of forbidden queer love in the mud-soaked trenches of the Great War… of a soldier who found tenderness in the unlikeliest place, and the grief and trauma that followed him home like a shadow.
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Lavender Ranks explores queer life during the First World War and contains frank discussions of war, discrimination, repression, sexuality, and historical violence. Listener discretion is advised.
Written by Emily Gioskos Hosts Emily Gioskos & Karbon Executive Producer Ryan Barnett Edited by Sonia Gemmiti Series consultant Sarah Worthman Illustration by Henry Fong Additional Research Dr. Sarafina Pagnotta Featuring original interviews with Sarah Worthman, Mitchell LaFramboise, Cameron Telch, Andrea McKenzie, and Martine Roy.
An original production of Knockabout Media This podcast was made possible thanks to funding from Veterans Affairs Canada’s Commemorative Partnership Program. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More from Lavender Ranks
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This episode was produced by Queer Collective and previously published on their feed.
And the were “roommates”... or at least that’s what some historians would like you to believe. This is episode three of Lavender Ranks, in which we enter our Hallmark era to share a great sapphic love story between war-time Nursing Sisters Ellanore and Murney. Today, hosts Em and Karbon are digging deep to explore how women-loving women relationships were seemingly able to slip under the radar during the First World War only to be erased from the record.
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lavender (noun) /ˈlæv.ən.dər/ A symbolic colour associated with LGBTQ2S+ identity, queer culture, and queer resistance.