Xtra celebrates its 30th anniversary

Snapshot of gay rights contained in pages of Toronto biweekly

Xtra celebrates 30 years on the streets of Toronto. Despite tough times in print media, this LGBT community paper continues to thrive.

In 1984, Xtra was a mere insert meant to boost readership for The Body Politic. Fast forward 30 years and Xtra is still on the stands, while its big-brother publication is no more and many other community publications have come and gone.

While the gay community has seen many hard-won advances in the struggle for rights in recent years, storm clouds appear to be gathering.

Where things will land remains unknown, but whatever the outcome, historians will pore over the pages of Xtra’s first 30 years when writing the book on the gay rights struggle.

In the above video, Ken Popert, president and executive director of Pink Triangle Press; Brandon Matheson, Xtra’s publisher and editor in chief; and Lucinda Wallace, Xtra’s creative director, look back at the history of Xtra.

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Video, Opinion, News, History, Toronto, Canada

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