Time to take a bow for these 12 actors, activists, politicians and more. Combined, they are the people who rose to the top of the LGBTQ2S+ news cycle this year, for better and for worse.
Each year, we here at Xtra put our heads together to think through the calendar year and what news broke the internet and our hearts. Who we’re glad to bring into the new year with us, and who we’ve got our guard up against. Last year saw the rise of Chappell Roan, but also the cruelty of Danielle Smith. And this year, again, there was joy, there was pain; there were gains and there were losses.
In November, Xtra’s parent company, Pink Triangle Press, hosted its second annual Pink Awards ceremony, which also celebrates champions and changemakers in the queer and trans community. On the pink carpet, we asked queer elders about the political moment we’re in. Again and again, they said that we’ve been here before, and we’ll prevail again. That politics and acceptance happen in waves. Consistently, their message was to soldier on and not give up the fight.
With that in mind, moving forward with fight, we bring you our righteous queens and shady bitches of 2025.
Righteous Queens
Cole Escola
Cole Escola was inescapable this year—and praise Mary for that. The non-binary actor and writer has been a notorious scene-stealer among queer fans for years: from their pastiche YouTube videos, to their electrifying turn in Please Baby Please, to their eerie performance in Search Party. But Escola finally broke into the mainstream with their smash hit Broadway play Oh, Mary!, which continues to break records and has employed one of the greatest examples of stunt casting in recent memory.
In June, Escola won the Tony Award for Best Lead Actor in a Play for Oh, Mary!, becoming the third non-binary actor to win an acting Tony—and making history as the first non-binary person to win in a lead acting category. Escola also charmed audiences this year with their dual performance as Old Slippy and Nan in Julian Glander’s atmospheric animated film Boys Go to Jupiter.
As the rest of the world wakes up to Escola’s brilliance, 2026 seems like it will be another fruitful year for the performer. They’re set to join Netflix’s live-action One Piece series as Bon Clay and are writing a movie about the world’s most glamorous Muppet, Miss Piggy.
—Cody Corrall, social video producer
Skipping Stone, Egale Canada and other groups filing legal challenges against anti-trans legislation in Canada
It’s been a grim fall for trans rights in Alberta, as premier Danielle Smith invoked the Notwithstanding Clause to shield her government’s three anti-trans laws—which take aim at gender-affirming care for youth, trans women in sports and school pronoun policies—from legal challenge.
Legal experts have called it a gross overreach and misuse of the clause. But Smith only did that in the first place because these policies have been challenged fiercely and extensively in the courts thanks to the work of groups like Egale Canada and the Calgary-based Skipping Stone Foundation. Multiple challenges have been filed related to the laws in the past year, urging courts to overturn them on the basis of their violating the rights of trans people in Alberta.
With the Notwithstanding Clause now in effect, these challenges can’t result in the laws being overturned as violations of Charter rights. But these challenges can continue to draw attention to the fact that they should.
A similar situation has played out in Saskatchewan, where Premier Scott Moe has invoked the clause to protect his pronoun law. But the Regina-based UR Pride Centre for Sexuality and Gender Diversity filed a legal challenge, arguing that the law violates the rights of gender-diverse youth. Saskatchewan’s Court of Appeal ruled that the challenge can continue even with the clause in effect, and now it’s headed to the Supreme Court.
So the groups putting time and effort into these challenges do matter, even if premiers are pushing the nuclear button to ensure their laws can continue.
It’s going to be a long couple of years, but groups like Skipping Stone and Egale have shown that they are not willing to back down, and trans youth in Alberta are lucky to have them in their corners.
—Mel Woods, senior editor, audience engagement
Miss Major
Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, known as Miss Major, passed away in October at age 78. Best known as a Stonewall veteran, Miss Major was an activist and community organizer dedicated to justice and safety for the LGBTQ2S+ community, especially Black trans women, for decades. Xtra paid tribute to her in her own words.
Miss Major was an AIDS activist through the 1980s and ’90s and an abolitionist and harm reduction advocate. She was the founder of House of gg, an organization serving BIPOC trans people in the U.S. South; and served as the director of the Transgender Gender-Variant & Intersex Justice Project.
She is the subject of the 2015 documentary Major! by director Annalise Ophelian and the short film The Personal Things by Tourmaline. She was an executive producer of the 2021 docuseries Trans in Trumpland. In 2022 she co-authored a memoir, Miss Major Speaks: Conversations with a Black Trans Revolutionary.
Miss Major was a vocal former sex worker and activist for the rights of sex workers; she survived incarceration and fought for others who did, and against police brutality. She was a mother figure to many younger trans women of colour, positing that women like them had existed since the beginning of time. She was unafraid to call out prejudice against trans people from the mainstream or within the queer community.
She is mourned by her five children; partner Beck Witt Major; and a large community of co-organizers, admirers and mentees.
In the words of Miss Major: “With all that we’ve gone through, we’re still there. We’re still going to rise. We’re still going to get up, dust ourselves off, change our outfit and go out there again, and again, and again.”
—Tara-Michelle Ziniuk, managing editor
Trans Journalists Association
In a year of rampant scapegoating of trans people, the Trans Journalists Association (TJA) has been doing the crucial work of combating misinformation and disinformation about our communities. The association has been supporting trans journalists, offering training and pushing for accurate reporting since its creation in 2020—particularly through its stylebook and coverage guide, a free online resource with best practices for reporters and editors working on stories about trans issues. This year has seen the TJA growing into the much-needed role of media watchdog as trans people receive more and more airtime in U.S. media, often for the worse.
After the killing of far-right activist Charlie Kirk in September, claims of the alleged shooter’s connections to trans people quickly spread in news coverage and on social media. The day after the shooting, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) published a story citing an internal law enforcement report that suggested authorities had discovered “ammunition engraved with expressions of transgender and antifascist ideology” inside the rifle believed to be used in the killing. The claim was repeated by other mainstream outlets even as some sources called the report into question. Officials soon cautioned about the report’s accuracy, and in the days after the WSJ article’s publication, the newspaper updated its piece and added an editor’s note acknowledging these findings. But conservative influencers had already latched on to the WSJ and other outlets’ misleading news stories to perpetuate myths about trans people disproportionately committing violence and mass shootings in the U.S.
According to research conducted by the TJA, more than 40 media outlets—including CNN and The Atlantic—published anti-trans misinformation in the two days after Kirk’s death. In response to these failures of news coverage, the TJA put out statements naming “transgender ideology” as an anti-trans dog whistle and demanding transparency and care in the reporting of stories that can fuel the “trans shooter” myth. “When journalists credulously circulate claims about shooting perpetrators’ identity or motivations without verification or while the facts are still developing, they can spread misinformation,” notes an October TJA statement. “This can have tangible consequences for trans people.”
The existence of an authoritative industry voice by and for trans communities has been critical in a news ecosystem plagued by anti-trans falsehoods. In teaching reporters to recognize anti-trans language and framing, tracking and analyzing national news coverage and calling for accountability from mainstream media, the TJA is raising the bar for the entire industry.
—Tobin Ng, contributing editor
Anania
What a year it’s been for Anania, the mononymous Brooklyn-based trans content creator and beloved host of the queer internet’s favourite game show, Gaydar. The vertical trivia show has garnered over half a million followers on TikTok thanks to its smart blend of questions about queer culture and history, politics, sexual health and entertainment. Each short-form interview—usually with a celebrity or creative—ends with Anania making an informed guess about the guest’s sexual orientation (gay, straight or homophobe). While she’s right only about half the time, it’s undeniably fun to make your own assumptions as guests ace or stumble over questions like “What is a performative masc?” and “Why would cis women take testosterone?”
Over the past year and a half, Anania has gone from guessing the sexualities of local stand-up comedians to LGBTQ2S+ icons as buzzy as Chappell Roan and Bob The Drag Queen, and even big-name straight politicians like New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer. The show’s success can’t be divorced from its charismatic host. Anania gamely banters with guests and effortlessly bounces between indulging their wackiest takes (the gayest chess piece is the horse) and exchanging quips about conservatives’ latest attacks on queer people (“if JD Vance is reading to your kids, run”). Amid the doom and gloom of the news, Anania makes political education accessible and fun. They’re definitely one to watch. I was thrilled to see her star power and lesser-known vocal talent earning praise with her performance in the indie musical Saturday Church off Broadway this fall; and I can’t wait until her dreams of creating her own late-night talk show come true.
—Tobin Ng, contributing editor
Zohran Mamdani
Following an electrifying grassroots campaign, Zohran Mamdani decisively won the race to become New York City’s next mayor—all while being a staunch advocate for queer and trans lives throughout his campaign. While high-profile democrats like Gavin Newsom, Pete Buttigieg and Kamala Harris spent much of this year backpedalling on trans rights and wading into whether or not trans girls should be able to play competitive sports, Mamdani proved that the party doesn’t have to throw trans people under the bus in order to win.
Among Mamdani’s proposed policies for LGBTQ2S+ New Yorkers is a $65 million healthcare plan for trans residents to combat potential federal funding cuts for Medicaid; an Office of LGBTQIA+ Affairs responsible for reallocating $87 million toward housing, education, and legal support; as well as making New York City a sanctuary city for queer and trans people. As part of his transition team, Mamdani has also enlisted trans rabbi Abby Stein to focus on trans health initiatives in the city.
Mamdani will be sworn into office in January, and while the rollout and efficacy of these policies remains to be seen, his win is indicative of an electoral path forward for democrats in the U.S. that looks out for LGBTQ2S+ people instead of abandoning them.
—Cody Corrall, social video producer
Shady Bitches
ICE
Readers in Canada might be aware that the U.S. has been having a hell of a year. With the inauguration of Donald Trump in January came a slew of executive orders and increased militarization that has devastated many communities in the U.S—foremost among those immigrants, people of colour and queer people living in the U.S. In particular, Trump’s leveraging of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)—an agency that operates under the Department of Homeland Security—to come after undocumented immigrants has disrupted thousands of lives and devastated families and communities. It’s a push that has had violent and deadly consequences.
In a particularly insidious twist, the administration has used ICE to target pro-Palestine protestors and activists, including in the widely publicized case of Columbia University grad student Mahmoud Khalil. While Khalil was ultimately released, there are hundreds more cases of students who have been targeted and had their visas revoked. And the increasing banding together of America’s technocratic elite with the far-right government has resulted in mounting digital surveillance that is directly targeting undocumented people and immigrants at large—from AI-powered Flock cameras that read licence plates to facial-recognition apps.
But in the face of these threats, the people are banding together and fighting back to keep their families and neighbours safe. This has been another year that emphasized the power of collective action. When ICE agents started disappearing people off the streets of Los Angeles, the entire city rose up and fought back. In the Bay Area, protestors shut down immigration courts and provided a continuous protective presence when ICE began implementing a new strategy of arresting people who showed up for their immigration hearings. Whether they make the mainstream news or not, there are countless stories like these from cities, towns and rural areas all across the U.S., in red states and blue states.
—Oliver Haug, contributing editor
Action4Canada
Alberta premier Danielle Smith certainly made more than enough of a case to be included on this list once again, but for 2025 let’s turn our attention to some of the figures pulling the strings of her government, namely the Christian nationalist-affiliated advocacy group Action4Canada. The group gleefully claimed responsibility for the province’s de facto book ban introduced this spring, following several meetings and correspondence with high-ranking Alberta officials.
While Smith and her education minister claimed the Alberta book policy—which bans “sexually explicit” materials from school libraries—came about as a result of wide-ranging concerns from parents, this summer, the Investigative Journalism Foundation (IJF) reported that a list of prospective books to ban—including the four graphic novels publicly mentioned by Alberta officials—was provided to government officials by at least two social conservative activist groups: Parents for Choice in Education (PCE) and Action4Canada. That list itself was also largely pulled from the work of Moms for Liberty, which has established itself as one of the big bads of anti-LGBTQ2S+ policy across the United States.
Find anti-LGBTQ2S+ policies or other fringe right-wing organizing in Canada and Action4Canada probably has its fingers in the pie. The group claimed responsibility for Saskatchewan’s school pronoun law back in 2023 and has a long history of anti-drag protests, harassing school boards over sexual orientation and gender-diversity guidelines, and suing governments over vaccine mandates.
Groups like this exist to get policy like this introduced. And as long as politicians like Smith are willing to listen, expect to see more of their agenda on the legislative docket in 2026.
—Mel Woods, senior editor, audience engagement
Bari Weiss
In a move that elicited a “huh?” from many, this year media behemoth Paramount acquired rage-baiting “anti-woke” rag The Free Press (TFP), and appointed its founder and anti-woke crusader-in-chief Bari Weiss as the new EIC of CBS News. The Free Press is known for its anti-DEI, anti-trans, pro-Israel and generally provocative stances. Weiss herself is known for loudly leaving the New York Times opinion section in 2020, arguing that the paper was too influenced by its left-wing critics (again, huh?) and establishing TFP as a sort of retort to this supposed left-wing control of U.S. media (I wish!). Weiss, frankly, could have made this list in any number of previous years—whether for her provocative NYT opinions or any number of things she’s said in TFP. But what stands out to me about this latest development is that it’s such a clear signal of how far the Overton window has shifted in the U.S. media. If someone who is so avowedly bigoted can ascend to such a role of power—presumably at least partly because of her stances—it’s not looking good.
—Oliver Haug, contributing editor
Róisín Murphy
Balding elder millennial white gay men, this message is for you: Róisín Murphy is a pathetic loser and a traitor to the queer community. I don’t care if you find her tiring, eight-minute disco odysseys to be a more sophisticated alternative to Kylie Minogue and Jessie Ware, and I’m not interested in your poorly lit Instagram stories of the confounding outfits she wears at her concerts. In the midst of the U.K. Supreme Court’s vile ruling about the legal definition of womanhood, Ireland’s Murphy, a perennial flop who has failed for over 30 years to penetrate the mainstream music industry through her singular style of bastardized gay club music, came out as a full-fledged TERF this year. If this is a gambit for relevance, it has failed disastrously. It’s time for her to hang up her ugly dresses and leave that derivative disco on her hard drive. Permanently.
—KC Hoard, associate editor, culture
Democrats turning their backs on trans people
Gavin Newsom thinks it’s “deeply unfair” for trans girls to play women’s sports. Rahm Emanuel is fed up with pronouns. James Carville thinks “woke politics” have left a “lasting stain on [the Democrats’] brand.” Pete Buttigieg thinks Democrats are obsessed with identity. (Thanks for the representation, Mayor Pete!) In 2025, a flailing Democratic party has decided the only thing standing between them and success is their support for trans people—a tiny and immensely vulnerable minority—and that stomping on us will win over the angry, belligerent cavemen they imagine “ordinary” voters to be. It’s not that trans and queer people are the only ones on the line: John Fetterman spent the year condemning protests of ICE and taunting protesters for a free Palestine whilst sucking up to Charlie Kirk’s widow. Rahm Emanuel is enraged at the word “Latinx” and, apparently, Yeti cups. Graham Platner has a Nazi tattoo and some truly terrible opinions about rape. The battle against “identity politics” and “the groups” (which is, apparently, what Democrats call advocacy organizations for marginalized communities) is, as always, a many-headed Hydra, and all sorts of people stand to be thrown under the bus in the name of recapturing the Common (White, Straight, Cis) Man. Here’s what none of the anti-“group” worriers seem to have noticed: The biggest Democratic victory of 2025 went to a guy who ignored everything they said.
—Jude Ellison S. Doyle, columnist
Jamil Jivani
Conservative MP Jamil Jivani has been making a name for himself outside of the House of Commons this year, and is trying to become the new face of the Conservative movement. On election night, he started taking swipes at Ontario premier Doug Ford for not being conservative enough, and tying him to the federal Liberals, who were on track to retain government. He was not given a critic portfolio in Parliament, which seems to suit Jivani just fine.
Jivani made a career before politics of being a conservative commentator who would brag about how he went from someone who was labelled “illiterate” by the Ontario education system to Yale Law School, where he became best friends with now U.S. vice-president JD Vance. He practised law in Toronto, became a conservative media darling and eventually headed up the Canada Strong and Free Network, which is the rebrand of the Manning Centre, and along the way, became increasingly skeptical of COVID-19 measures, and was fired from a radio gig in part for misgendering people such as Demi Lovato.
Since the last election, he has tried to fashion himself into Canada’s answer to Charlie Kirk, touring university campuses across Canada under the banner of “Restore the North,” meeting with primarily disaffected young white men and arguing that they deserve affirmative action-like considerations from government—because of course, they are so oppressed and at the “bottom rung of identities,” and someone needs to help them to not be quite so disaffected—but along the way, also stoking the scapegoating of immigrants.
Part of Jivani’s message is anti-Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), and he has lately taken that up a notch to call it “Liberal racism.” He recently held an event in Ottawa where he invited Liberal MPs to debate him on the topic, and ensured that the event stocked Bud Light, referring of course to the Dylan Mulvaney tempest in the American culture war. Unsurprisingly, no Liberals showed up to the event, but several Conservatives did, as denouncing DEI is one of their latest American imports. Jivani described DEI as “open discrimination against Canadians of European descent and their children,” and also got racialized Conservative MPs to denounce it.
There is speculation that Jivani is building a political machine for a future leadership challenge once Pierre Poilievre has his inevitable fall from grace, whether that’s after his leadership review in January, or following the next election if he does poorly a second time, because he has proven to be personally unlikeable to voters. If this is the direction the party goes in, it could mean a further radicalization of the party and importing more MAGA views into the mainstream.
—Dale Smith, columnist
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