Long live the radical brown queerness of Freddie Mercury

Despite its coyness, the biopic Bohemian Rhapsody can’t erase the legacy of the Queen frontman who taught the world to rock

By Eternity Martis

People Like Me

Everything Sucks! stared into my bisexual soul

With the look between Emaline and Kate, everything made sense to me

By Rachel Chen

People Like Me

He clawed his way to my gay heart — a cartoon tiger

Discovering myself with the Thundercats

By Andrew Wheeler

People Like Me

Celebrating being Black and gay with The Wire

I began to see the possibility of loving and being loved by women who look like me

By Tobi Abdul

People Like Me

Escaping suburbia with The Kids in The Hall

Buddy Cole was the fearless queer impresario I longed to be

By EC Marcon

Culture

Four short films to look out for at ImagineNATIVE 2018

Here are some of the films you don’t want to miss in this year’s film and media arts festival

By Xtra Staff

People Like Me

How Mashrou’ Leila helped me celebrate my queer Arab identity

Mashrou’ Leila’s music reflects ways in which I, like other queer Arabs, am allowed to exist

By Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch

People Like Me

Slaying heteronormativity with Buffy the Vampire Slayer

While Buffy took on vampires, I took down heteronormativity with Willow

By Brianna Sharpe

People Like Me

Why LGBT representation in pop culture matters

By Natalie Wee

Video

Colette is the queer period drama we’ve been waiting for

By Xtra Video

M/M is a queer psycho-sexual thriller that explores alienation from a new environment

Director Drew Lint’s feature debut puts a queer twist on a familiar story

Created for Vancouver International Film Festival

HIV/AIDS

This film explores the legacy of HIV/AIDS stigma

By Xtra Video

It shouldn’t be this hard to find trans women on screen

VQFF artistic directors are committed to showing trans actors in trans roles

Created for Vancouver Queer Film Festival

Power

I was a metaphor until I wasn’t

Being Asian, queer and a woman meant there were a myriad of ways I could vanish, and I saw it each time I watched a movie

By Natalie Wee

These local BC filmmakers put stories of queer youth on the big screen

New program at VQFF features local queer stories from emerging creators

Created for Vancouver Queer Film Festival

Adrian Stimson’s gender bending Buffalo Boy takes aim at colonialism

The artist celebrates two-spirit identity on screen

Created for Fairy Tales Queer Film Festival

Remember the thrill of your first gay romance?

As Call Me By Your Name opens in theatres, we ask a few people to reflect on the lessons they learned and the love they found

Created for Mongrel Media

Arts

How Thor: Ragnarok promised a bisexual character, then erased it altogether

Why is it so hard for Hollywood to show openly queer characters on screen?

By Frederick Blichert