Readers have spoken, and this year’s most-read stories here at Xtra were a solid mix of politics, pop culture and sex—and we wouldn’t have it any other way.
The news cycle was not a cheery experience this year. And we always hope we can help make sense of the mess, while also providing some levity, smart analysis and exploration into the sexual culture. Based on what you read this year, we’re giving ourselves a pat on the back.
It was an election year in Canada; Trump took over the presidency to the south of us; some of our favourite pop divas released new music and the hot gay hockey show took viewers, and the media, by storm. As always, readers ate up Kevin O’Keeffe’s Drag Race content (full disclosure: this list features the most-read Drag Race story of the year, but a handful more pieces on Drag Race Season 17 and All Stars Season 10 appear in the complete most-read long list). Readers were keen to dive deep into where queer folks were cruising and hooking up, and they really wanted to know what Chappell Roan was talking about when she sang that she was moving to Saskatchewan. Let’s dive in!
1. Where Canada’s political parties really stand on queer and trans issues
In the spring of 2025, Canada was gearing up for an election. Justin Trudeau had resigned. Mark Carney had taken over the Liberal leadership. Amidst the “Fuck Trudeau” flags and “banker daddy Carney” memes, we were facing Conservatives’ attacks on trans people in several provinces and a real possibility of a federal government led by Pierre Poilievre. The NDP was quiet. The Greens had an out queer man co-leading. LGBTQ2S+ people wanted to know where their rights, lives and identities and rights were headed under the contending parties’ leadership. They were searching for answers, and we were providing them, making this piece the most-read article on Xtra of the calendar year.
2. Heated Rivalry is the steamy hockey romance we deserve
Know what else people were searching for this year? Hot shirtless gay hockey player lovers. But our piece on Heated Rivalry, the gay hockey romance show Crave adapted from a book of the same name, was much more than that. Ground was broken in Canadian television and Kevin Hurren went straight to the sources, writer-director-producer Jacob Tierney and co-stars Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie, to talk about what exactly was happening. While other MLM movie and television adaptations tend to be overly sentimental and lacking in, well, heat, Heated Rivalry sets itself apart with its candid depictions of gay sex. And viewers were all for it, making this our second most-read story of 2025 within only three weeks of publication.
3. Where does Mark Carney stand on queer and trans issues?
A month before our top article was posted, Carney had just stepped into the prime minister role, and people wanted to know where he stood on queer and trans issues. So many people, in fact, that our piece answering this question surged up the ranking. After winning the leadership race by a landslide, senior editor Mel Woods suggested that Carney should affirm his stance on queer and trans issues, pronto. And when he finally did say something, Woods’s ensuing analysis went on to be our most-viewed video of the year too.
4. After my breakup, I fucked straight married men in the bushes
This personal essay topped our list of horniest stories of the year, we’re sure at least in part thanks to a headline that gets straight to the point. After ending a decade-long relationship, one writer turned to cruising and found himself engaging with more than one married man as part of those adventures. “I sought solace in the streets, the bars, the interwebs and, if need be, the bushes,” he wrote about that time in his life.
5. RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 17, Episode 14 power ranking: Who will win?
Kevin O’Keeffe’s coverage of RuPaul’s Drag Race and its many spinoffs has long been a reader favourite here at Xtra. As the main franchise zipped through its 17th season, O’Keeffe has continued to bring his characteristic wit and vast Drag Race knowledge to all of you with weekly recaps and power rankings of the contestant queens. Our top Drag Race story of the year saw O’Keeffe break down the prospects of each of the five finalists for the crown in his weekly power ranking. And if that’s not enough Drag Race for you, hop on over and subscribe to Wig! for a monthly newsletter dispatch from Kevin on all things drag.
6. With Mayhem, Lady Gaga brings popstar flair to her disability
Lady Gaga’s sixth solo studio album was heralded by critics and fans alike as a return to the pop star’s Mother Monster form, and she certainly took the world by storm with a memorable Coachella performance. But beneath the dramatic visuals and pounding synths is a lot of meaning as well, captured by Ray Stoeve’s thoughtful essay on Gaga and disability. “Witnessing her incorporate her disabilities into her art and explore how they’ve affected her has been a powerful reminder that mine do not have to take away from my art and life,” wrote Stoeve. “They are part of me and everything I create.”
7. Inside the history of Boston’s bygone gay bathhouses
Xtra readers love queer history, and Mike De Socio’s dive into the history of Boston’s gay bathhouse scene is full of the sort of intimate details and reflective analysis that makes for the best history stories. De Socio talked to historians and men who were there decades ago about what has been lost and what’s been found.
8. Department stores are dying. It’s the end of an era for anonymous sex
The closure of the Hudson’s Bay Company in Canada marked the end of a commercial dynasty dating back to the fur trade. It also was another nail in the coffin of department-store cruising. For decades, queer people had found hookups behind dressing-room curtains and in upper-floor bathrooms. Writer Stephan Petar explored how these spaces offered rare anonymity and intimacy for queer folks looking to get off.
9. Get ready for conservative civil war
The evolution of conservative politics in Canada was a key theme throughout 2025, as federal leader Pierre Poilievre lost his seat and had to air-drop into Alberta in order to win it back. After the Conservatives’ crushing electoral defeat, columnist Dale Smith mused on the party’s future, should Poilievre get the boot as leader. With his leadership review now looming in January 2026, it’s worth revisiting now who some of the key players in the future of Canadian conservatism could be.
10. The queer community still needs places for public sex
Throughout the summer of 2025, our series Taking Space looked at the value of LGBTQ2S+ third places and how they can provide vital space for gathering and community building. In this feature, writer Adam Rhodes dove into the role of public sex for queer and trans folks, from the bathhouse to the play party. They spoke with organizers and historians about how these spaces work today, and why preserving them is in all of our best interests.
11. Madonna’s ‘Ray of Light’ is everywhere
What do Addison Rae, FKA Twigs and Lorde all have in common in 2025? Not only did they release new music—it was music that drew inspiration from Madonna’s seminal 1998 album, Ray of Light. In this essay, culture editor KC Hoard explored the long tail of the Queen of Pop’s masterpiece and how it’s still driving the pop girlies of today.
12. What the heck is Saskatchewan? A guide for Chappell Roan fans
For all of the serious and important work we do here, it’s nice to have fun every now and then. Chappell Roan’s single “The Subway” and its reference to Canada’s most rectangular province provided senior editor Mel Woods ample opportunity to dive into some Saskatchewan fun facts for the uninitiated queers thinking of following Roan’s lead and saying, “Fuck this city, I’m moving to Saskatchewan.”
13. No one knows what “masculinity” is, but it’s killing us
The so-called “crisis of masculinity” dominated the news cycle in 2025, as powerful figures like U.S. president Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk sought to embody—or at least grasp at —some sense of the term. “Whether or not we as queer people believe in that kind of ‘masculinity,’ or aspire to it, it’s gunning for us,” wrote columnist Jude Ellison S. Doyle, who spoke to a range of transfeminists about the present and future of masculinity in our current discourse.
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