Culture

Meet the trans artist behind one of the internet’s favourite webcomics

Haus of Decline marries irreverent humour and bodily autonomy for hundreds of thousands of fans

By Kevin Hurren

Mental Health

Black queer artists share how they’re ‘holding on to joy’ in 2025

“Joy is in a life lived while you’re alive,” says dancer and choreographer Ravyn Wngz

By Syrus Marcus Ware

Censorship

Etsy crafts new puritanical policy

Opinion: Queer communities deserve platforms that won’t cast us off once they realize that queerness isn’t just rainbow pins and marketable slogans

By Noelle Perdue

Tech

Who does queer AI ‘art’ actually represent?

ANALYSIS: Accounts dedicated to queer AI art have popped off, but is there hope for anything beyond “boyfriend twins”?

By Jon Heggestad

TV & Film

‘Frida’ is a serviceable documentary that fails to engage with deeper topics

REVIEW: Despite its animated portraits, “Frida” captures its iconic subject in a stationary image

By Michelle Krasovitski

Mental Health

Transition selfies are broadly popular, but why?

How transition photos open up big questions about trauma, validity and safety for trans people

By Veronica Esposito

Art & Photography

Did AI ruin Keith Haring’s work?

ANALYSIS: Controversy surrounding the AI-altered version of Keith Haring’s “Unfinished Painting” stirred up now-familiar questions about the ethics of AI-generated art

By Jon Heggestad

Books

A deeply Cree and gloriously queer conversation with Kent Monkman and Gisèle Gordon

Get ready to love and laugh with Miss Chief Eagle Testickle

By Megan Scribe

Art & Photography

‘Renegades’ documents the queer history Chloe Sherman helped create

“Renegades: San Francisco, The 1990s” captures a vital and vibrant era of queer and trans life

By Cooper Lee Bombardier

Books

In the graphic novel ‘Roaming,’ a volatile trio of friends orbit and collide in New York City

REVIEW: Jillian and Mariko Tamaki’s latest collaboration explores the treacherous transitions of young adulthood

By H Felix Chau Bradley

Art & Photography

Meet the artist who turned over 500 drag performers into Lego minifigures

Drag and Lego superfan Brick Queens YVR has been sharing unique “Drag Race” fan art every day for over three years

By Phoebe Fuller

Art & Photography

Archive of intimacies: the photography of Wolfgang Tillmans

You might know his work via Frank Ocean, Douglas Stuart or Kate Moss, but Tillmans’ first major Canadian exhibition is a study in connection

By Owen Torrey

Pride 2022: Party & Protest

Announcing the winner of the Xtra Pride Photo Contest

Xtra readers submitted pups, parades, parties and more, but one photo won out

By Mel Woods

Art & Photography

Of course Isabel Okoro wants the world to end

The Toronto-based Nigerian photographer thinks we deserve better than the world we’ve inherited

By Connor Garel

London Calling

Queer Britain opens the U.K.’s first LGBTQ+ museum

“There’s just as great a diversity of sexuality and gender identities and experiences in the past as there is today”

By Gordon Bowness

Queer Culture Catch-Up

Fat trans mermen, lesbian erotica and Billy Porter

Our recommendations for what’s up and what’s on, beginning Dec. 16

By S. Bear Bergman

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

Identity

A trans man modelled nude for 150 photographers, and fell in love with his body

Xtra contributor Andy Bandyopadhyay wanted to see artful, intimate portraits of trans men, so he made his own

By Andy Bandyopadhyay