A Queer Legends × Art Against Empire crossover. Ian Danger Capstick sits down with Cleve Jones, the activist who conceived the AIDS Memorial Quilt on a cold November night in 1985 with a stack of posterboard and Harvey Milk's own bullhorn, given to Cleve after Harvey was assassinated.

They talk about the afternoon Cleve first walked into Castro Camera, the morning Gilbert Baker raised the first rainbow flag, the grandmothers who could not find the words, and Seven Days in June, the new mobilization Cleve is building to mark forty-five years of HIV and AIDS. Close to an hour, close to uncut, and one of the most important conversations either one of our shows has had this year.

We hope you enjoy this crossover episode. And don't worry...season 3 of Queer Legends: An Oral History Podcast is in the works!

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 Trump's Order is based on outdated, bigoted and transphobic tropes that do not hold up to scientific, nor legal scrutiny.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 this episode are her own and they do not reflect those of her employer.

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 hosted by Shawn Dearn. Executive Producer: Ian Capstick