Dating as an autistic person can be challenging—but it’s also joyful and hot

Reframing the way we view “autistic traits,” like directness and openness, can make dating better for just about everybody

By Cassandra Kislenko

Trans Health

Meet the ‘Lobster Claw’ and ‘Orange Crush’ of gender-affirming surgery

PERSONAL ESSAY: Writer Roz Milner reflects on the life-altering procedures she experienced alongside other trans people

By Roz Milner

Love & Sex

How a story about spanking helped me find myself

For queer and trans readers, erotica can provide a roadmap for realizing our truest selves

By Andy Bandyopadhyay

How fanfiction helped me fall in love with my fat, Black, queer self

PERSONAL ESSAY: My protagonists were the blueprint of an existence I wanted to build

By Cheyenne M. Davis

Culture

André Leon Talley was my possibility model

Xtra’s editor-at-large Tre’vell Anderson reflects on the life and legacy of the late, legendary fashion editor

By Tre’vell Anderson

Health

Am I the only gay guy who still finds condoms sexy?

Rolling on a condom is romantic, right on the precipice between foreplay to penetration, an intermission filled with sexual anticipation

By Sam Sferrazza

Power

To help trans sexual assault survivors, we have to understand power

Trans people are assaulted more often than cis women, yet we keep casting them as the problem

By Jude Ellison S. Doyle

Identity

The transmasculine community searching for a place in Bangladesh

The possibility of being Bangladeshi and transmasculine without any models to look up to frightened writer Mikail Khan. What they say trans folks need in the country to thrive

By Mikail Khan

Culture

The husband stays in the book

How queer authors who write about non-queer subjects are forced to be closeted, and why one author has had enough

By Michael Harris

Faith & Spirituality

Quakerism helped me realize I’m queer

Religion is often considered at odds with queerness, but Quakerism allowed me to accept the parts of myself that were at odds with society

By Katie Breslin

Identity

What does it mean to be a dad, anyway?

We spend so much time establishing that transmasculine people can be fathers that we almost never discuss what kind of fathers they might be

By Jude Ellison S. Doyle

Identity

Television made me want to be white. Now, it’s making me happy to be a queer Muslim

PERSONAL ESSAY: Inside one Palestinian American’s journey to self love

By Tariq Raouf

Queer View Mirror

Why ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’ keeps winning over new generations

Being in a dark room full of like-minded weirdos is a supremely liberating experience

By Mira Miller

Love Like Mine

Love at first lust

A young writer explores a lasting love denied… or is that deferred?

By Jamie Valentino

Photo Essay

A moving love letter to queer Indigenous folks

Artist Jenny Irene Miller discusses her and filmmaker Alexis Anoruk Sallee’s project “Dear Kin,” exhibiting in Anchorage, Alaska

By Jenny Irene Miller

Xtra Weekly

Topline: Lights! Masks! Guest list! Just do your best at TIFF, darling!

Covering the Toronto International Film Festival has reminded me of the power and beauty of being in a room with other LGBTQ2S+ people

By Paul Gallant

Love & Sex

Despite lockdowns, my queer friend group grew during COVID-19

I needed new queers in my life, and against the odds of the pandemic, I found them in abundance

By Russ Martin

My Safe Space

I figured out my IRL drama watching ‘Vanderpump Rules’

As my own life began to feel less real, I found myself needing a dose of reality during the pandemic

By Sadie Graham