4 queer and trans happenings to wind you up or down this week

What to watch, read, listen to or look at beginning Jan. 7

What to watch

Slag Wars: The Next Destroyer 

“Cock Destroyers” Sophie Anderson and Rebecca Moore. Credit: Matt Spike

Who’s looking for a queer reality show featuring queer people for a queer audience? The first season of the eccentric LGBTQ reality show Slag Wars: The Next Destroyer is now available to watch online. The four-episode series is hosted by British adult entertainment actresses and queer icons Sophie Anderson and Rebecca Moore, popularly known as the “Cock Destroyers.” A diverse cast of seven LGBTQ contestants face off to determine who the next Cock Destroyer will be. The sex-positive, fun and inclusive show wants to focus on the actual lives of LGBTQ+ folks, specfically those interested in sex work and the adult entertainment industry. 

Season one of Slag Wars: The Next Destroyer is available to watch here.

What to read

Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters 

After two novellas, Brooklyn-based trans author Torrey Peters is releasing her provocative debut novel Detransition, Baby on Jan. 12. The novel focuses on complex themes of motherhood, relationships and queer parenting as three characters try to navigate the idea of raising a child together. Reese, a trans woman living in New York with her girlfriend, awaits the day they can have a baby and she can be a mother. Plans shift when her girlfriend detransitions. Now Ames, Reese’s former partner, longs to reconnect with her. When Ames discovers his new lover and boss is pregnant with his baby and may not want to keep it, he contacts Reese with a proposition—to raise the baby together.

Detransition, Baby, will be available for purchase on Amazon in the U.S. and Canada on Jan. 12. 

What to listen to

Gender. Sexuality. School.

Tara Goldstein (left) with her wife Margot (right). Photo courtesy of Tara Goldstein
 

Toronto-based research project LGBTQ Families Speak Out analyzes LGBTQ2S+ families across Ontario and their children’s experiences in school. The project was launched by University of Toronto professor Tara Goldstein and has expanded to various online platforms, including the monthly podcast, Gender. Sexuality. School. The first episode of the series’ third season was released on Jan. 1. The podcast serves as a digital literature review, and features interviews with researchers, teachers and artists doing cutting-edge research on issues of gender and sexuality. In its newest episode, Goldstein talks to Harper Keenan, a professor of Gender and Sexuality Research in Education at the University of British Columbia. The pair discuss the importance of Keenan’s two recent projects, Building Blocks: Race, Gender, and Early Education and Drag Pedagogy: Queer Imagination at School. 

The newest episode of the Gender. Sexuality. School. podcast is available to stream on the series’ website

What to look at

The Violet Hour Book Club 

Violet Hour Book Club founder Christopher DiRaddo. Credit: Vincent Fortier

Montreal’s queer reading series, the Violet Hour Book Club, is hosting its latest online meeting on Jan. 9. Founded by Montreal-based author and Xtra contributor Christopher DiRaddo, the book club is dedicated to sharing, amplifying and discussing LGBTQ2S+ literature. The next installment will examine the renowned novel Maurice, written by E.M. Forster, and its acclaimed 1987 film adaptation. Leading the discussion of gay love in early 20th-century England is professor Brian Peters, whose master’s thesis focused on Forster’s novel. 

The newest Violet Hour Book Club takes place on Jan. 9 starting at 3 p.m. EST. The link to the Zoom event will be posted on the group’s Facebook page.

Sarah Taher

Sarah Taher is a Toronto-based multimedia journalist. She is an associate producer at CBC News: The National. Her freelance work can be seen in Xtra and The Pigeon, where she typically covers LGBTQ2S+ arts and culture, intersectional identities, and religion. Sarah has a BA in Journalism from Humber College. You can follow her on Twitter @sarahftaher

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