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

Identity

Why Carl Nassib’s coming out is such a big deal

The NFL has its first openly gay active player. But is the historically problematic league ready?

By Mel Woods

Identity

More than 1 million Canadians identify as LGBTQ2S+

New Statistics Canada data show the diversity of Canada’s queer community

By Mel Woods

Books

Poet jaye simpson isn’t interested in being relatable. Maybe that makes them even more relatable

The Two-Spirit Oji-Cree Saulteaux writer’s debut collection was nominated for three literary awards

By Jas Morgan

TV & Film

Mae Martin talks ‘Feel Good,’ comedy and John Wick as gender

The Canadian comedian shares their thoughts on standup, queerness and the second season of their acclaimed Netflix show

By Mel Woods

Relationships

The amazing aunties and uncles of Desi Rainbow

Why this support network for South Asian families took off last year during the pandemic

By Krishna Rau

Xtra Weekly

Topline: Strength in numbers

In the face of increased violence, LGBTQ2S+ folks must come together

By Ziya Jones

Identity

After transitioning during the pandemic, trans people return to the unknown of real-world interactions

The awkwardness of a transition is a lot easier to negotiate when there’s no one to impress. But what happens when we go back to our pre-COVID-19 ways?

By Jude Ellison S. Doyle

Identity

Please let Billie Eilish do what she wants

The singer was accused of queerbaiting in a recent music video, but it’s a lot more complicated than that

By Mel Woods

The Xtra Long Read

Inside Canada’s chronically underfunded trans-affirming clinics

Despite more outward support for the community, legal protections and greater visibility, trans and other LGBTQ2S+ care isn’t being prioritized in the country. And when it is, financial barriers abound

By Sarah Ratchford

Books

When a right-winger in Hungary ripped up a book of inclusive fairy tales, she sent it straight up the bestsellers list

As the government’s anti-LGBTQ+ policies grow harsher, progressives have rallied around the book’s lesbian publishers

By Paul Gallant

My Safe Space

Amid canned foods and dishes, I found pandemic solitude in my pantry

I needed a place to ground myself, a place of solitude, of familiarity, of nourishment. I needed the pantry

By Allyson Darling

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

Hate Watch

Here’s what we know so far about the attack on a Toronto gay man

A 24-year-old man sustained injuries after an aggravated assault at a popular Toronto LGBTQ2S+ meeting space

By Krishna Rau

Identity

What’s so good about being natural?

By arguing against allegations of trans unnaturalness with proof of our naturalness, we’re agreeing with our vilifiers’ idea that being natural is somehow significant in the first place

By Nour Abi-Nakhoul