Daily Xtra’s 12 most read world stories of 2015

1. In May, Daily Xtra interviewed a cross section of Pakistani men to ask if Pakistan is a gay man’s paradise. Muhammad Moiz, above, thought his father would kill him if he came out. He was wrong.

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2. After a decade of smart sex advice, our Ask The Expert columnist Pega Ren, above, decided to retire in October — but not before answering a few more of your pressing questions, on topics such as average penis size, the need to pee after masturbating, and how best to clean an uncircumcised cock.

(J Group/iStock/ThinkStock)

3. In March, allegations surfaced that a supposedly all-gay dream cruise was anything but.

4. When Ta’Leon Goffney and his identical twin brother Keyontyli, above, starred in some gay porn together in 2004 they gained a bit of fame. That fame turned to infamy four years later when they got arrested for a string of robberies, and Keyontyli turned on his brother. In 2015, Ta’Leon got out of jail and released a book — which inspired the popular headline: Ex-twincest gay-for-pay star Ta’Leon Goffney bares all.

5. In May, we celebrated International Masturbation Month with a fond look back at the five best movie masturbation scenes ever, like this scene from Pleasantville, above.

(Predraze/iStock/Thinkstock)

6. Homeland Security’s raid of the US escort site Rentboy inspired some thoughtful analysis pieces in August, including this one on the real targets of the raid and this one on what made this raid unique.

7. Though actor Tom Hardy bristled at Daily Xtra’s questions about sexuality at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, other actors embraced our questions and even welcomed the opportunity to shine a spotlight on sexuality, on and off screen.

8. In January, we made headlines of our own when we announced our decision to fully embrace digital and go entirely online.

9. In August, our video team introduced us to the bears behind the web series Where the Bears Are (above).

(Squirt.org)

10. After some residents of Dallas and Miami proved less than hospitable to billboards for the gay hookup site Squirt (owned by Daily Xtra publisher Pink Triangle Press), we asked why ads showing gay guys embracing are more welcome in some US cities than in others. (We later asked Toronto’s Transit Commission exactly what transit users told them before they decided to pull Squirt’s ads from their subway cars too.)

(ISIS claims it has executed several men accused of homosexuality, including this man thrown to his death in Iraq in January./ISIS via Twitter)

11. When an Egyptian man arrested in a 2014 bathhouse raid set himself on fire in February against a regional backdrop of ISIS executions, increasing gay arrests and anal tests, Daily Xtra columnist Ahmed Danny Ramadan reflected that gay men are the biggest scapegoats of the Arab Spring.

(Windy City Times/Brenda Schumacher)

12. One month before the embattled Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival, above, announced 2015 would be its final year, Daily Xtra columnist Amy Fox told us why Michfest’s ongoing trans exclusion no longer matters.

Editor’s note, Oct 24, 2016: The photo for the top article has been changed.