A revolution led by sex workers

In the final installment of the “Protest and Pleasure” series: why trans women of colour sex workers are the thot leaders we need

By Chanelle Gallant

Queer Culture Catch-Up

Communing butch voices, dance documentaries and writers on writing

Our recommendations for what’s up and what’s on, beginning Aug. 12

By S. Bear Bergman

Xtra Weekly

Topline: Things need to get better for everybody, not just some people

It’s hard to watch crackdowns on LGBTQ+ people in China and other countries

By Paul Gallant

Protest and Pleasure

Screw capitalism: For love to actually win, we need a revolution

In the fifth installment of the “Protest and Pleasure” series, why marriage equality isn’t the key to our liberation and how capitalism is bad for sex lives

By Chanelle Gallant

HIV/AIDS

Coming of age during the AIDS crisis: A dialogue

Authors Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore and Alexander McClelland discuss how a lost generation of queers came out, grieved and thrived through the height of the epidemic

By Alexander McClelland, Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore

Dispatch

Despite ongoing homophobia, Kenya forms an LGBTQ+ state agency

The agency will report back to the government on discrimination faced by marginalized queer and trans Kenyans

By Gitonga Njeru

Excerpt

How the fight to legalize gay marriage in the U.S. was kickstarted by a PR stunt in Hawaii

Bill Woods thought his plot to procure marriage licences for gay couples would make news on the islands. He didn’t think, 25 years later, it would make history

By Sasha Issenberg

Dispatch

How I survived lockdown with my parents after coming out to them as trans

As India battled through yet another wave of COVID-19 outbreaks and I couldn’t leave home, I told my family who I really am

By Urmi Bhattacheryya

Activism

How small towns are celebrating Pride Month

Xtra catches up with the folks from our “Small Town Pride” documentary to see what Pride is like during a pandemic

By Riley Sparks

Protest and Pleasure

The future is Indigiqueer

In the fourth installment of the “‘Protest and Pleasure”’ series, how Indigenous peoples and nations are building the pathway to sexual and gender liberation

By Chanelle Gallant

The Xtra Long Read

What does Pride look like in a post-pandemic world?

Pride festivals around the world are grappling with the aftermath of COVID-19, a global racial reckoning and corporate criticisms. At Pride Toronto, managing the future of the event means tackling it all head-on

By Cameron Perrier

Politics

This Canadian senator wants your porn habits tracked

An Independent senator’s proposed legislation would use facial recognition to keep kids away from sexually explicit content—privacy be damned

By Dale Smith

Protest and Pleasure

Up against the wall: Queer and trans migrants prove that no body is illegal

In the third installment of the “Protest and Pleasure” series: How state borders constrain a nation’s residents just as much as they control who gets let in

By Chanelle Gallant

TV & Film

Meet Evie Macdonald. At 13, she took TV by storm and became national figure in trans activism

The star of “First Day” has called out Australia’s prime minister

By V.S. Wells

Dispatch

Despair and resistance in Sheikh Jarrah

A queer Palestinian pop star reflects on how the fight for freedom is a feminist issue, an LGBTQ+ issue and an issue of racial justice

By Bashar Murad

Xtra Weekly

Topline: Looking back at the AIDS crisis’s beginnings as we (hopefully) end the COVID-19 crisis

Forty years after the first report about AIDS, what have we learned about taking care of ourselves and each other?

By Paul Gallant

Protest and Pleasure

More WAPs, less cops

In the second installment of the “Protest and Pleasure” series, we explore why defunding the police is the best protection against sexual violence

By Chanelle Gallant

Dispatch

The Turkish government is targeting LGBTQ+ communities, but activists refuse to back down

Despite increased police presence and the derision of LGBTQ+ people by government officials, queer and trans Turks are making themselves even more visible through Pride and protest

By Clare Busch