The Front’s Favourite Gal

On this episode

About this episode

What if I told you the roots of Canadian drag weren’t in a nightclub, but in the mud and mayhem of the Western Front during the First World War? In this episode of Lavender Ranks , hosts Em and Karbon introduce you to Ross Hamilton, adored by audiences as “Marjorie” and remembered today as one of Canada’s earliest drag performers. Under the guise of “boosting morale,” the military somehow became the perfect stage for queer aesthetics, performance, and desire to emerge in plain sight. Today, Em and Karbon are spilling the tea on wartime concerts, the ingenuity in creating glamour at the front, and the blurry line between performance and identity during the First World War. And yes, in this…