Xtra Weekly

Topline: Coming outs and clarifications

Coming out is a process. It’s okay to do a little beta testing first

By Mel Woods

Politics

What an election could mean for Canada’s LGBTQ2S+ communities

Spoiler alert: If past elections are any indication, expect broken promises

By Dale Smith

Sports

Non-binary skateboarder brings joy and pronouns to Olympics

U.S. skateboarder Alana Smith proudly showed off their pronoun pin and they/them board during their event

By Mel Woods

Identity

I came out later in life. I’ve never felt more free—nor more alone

Before I could find belonging among fellow queers, I first needed to learn how to belong to myself

By Alena Papayanis

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

Sports

Your big queer and trans guide to the Tokyo Olympics

Despite controversies, coronavirus and cancellations, the Olympics are happening. Here’s what you need to know.

By Mel Woods

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

My Safe Space

How queer-friendly Shabbat helped me fully embrace my Jewish heritage

When I bring in Shabbat, I get to do so with other queer Jews—not because I have to, but because I choose to

By Emily Zinkin

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

Music

How on earth does Elle Barbara, a celebrated mother of Montreal’s ballroom scene, make music while doing so much mentoring?

Never mind the inter-house rivalries, vogue still has the power to bring people together

By Jesse Locke

Power

When investigations into the deaths of trans women go unsolved

A veteran journalist explores what the Bruce McArthur case can teach us about other unsolved murder investigations and the policing of sex work

By Nour Abi-Nakhoul

Identity

How ‘Legally Blonde’ made me a bad bitch

“Reese Witherspoon’s character was so impactful it made me want to be a fiercely fab lawyer, too,” writes editor-at-large Tre’vell Anderson

By Tre’vell Anderson

Books

First Lady Nancy Reagan befriended gay men, then betrayed them

The legacy of the Reagan presidency’s callous handling of the early HIV/AIDS crisis still haunts us today

By Daniel Sanchez Torres

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

Identity

How to not be weird about pronouns

How to be chill, cool and a good ally when talking about peoples’ pronouns

By Mel Woods

Xtra Weekly

Topline: The delightful mess of offline human interaction

I’ve been finding myself feeling both socially anxious and desperate for company—and Zoom isn’t helping

By Zaina Arafat

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

Tik Talk

In these trying times, thank goodness for the TikTok butches in bikinis

How fun and sexy queer TikTok trends are a blessed balm for the hell of the world

By Mel Woods