Rinaldo Walcott on how to build a better queer future

The writer and scholar weighs in on how a strong set of queer values can help us build a better world for everyone

Donna Summer’s ‘I Feel Love’ is the hit that keeps coming back

Reinterpretations by Bronski Beat, Underworld and Madonna reflect our changing world—and our unending love for dance music

By vivi hansen

Sex

What safer sex looks like in a post-pandemic world wildly in flux

Can we really have a “hot vax summer”?

By Bobby Box

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

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

Culture

‘I’m so much more than that diagnosis.’ Billy Porter comes out as HIV-positive

In an interview with “The Hollywood Reporter,” the “Pose” star spoke candidly about living with HIV

By Mel Woods

Books

What people got wrong—and what Sarah Schulman wants to get right—about the history of ACT UP and early AIDS activism

In her new book, the New York writer lays bare the achievements and embarrassments of an astonishingly successful social movement

By Paul Gallant

Health

Can HIV self-tests help counter Canada’s rising transmission rates?

At-home testing kits were greenlit in November 2020, but few Canadians have used them

By Kevin Hurren

Health

An HIV vaccine could be on the horizon thanks to COVID-19 research

New mRNA technology developed for the Moderna vaccine could fast-track HIV vaccine

By Mel Woods

TV & Film

‘It’s a Sin’ snatches ephemeral joy from the jaws of death

A Gen-Z skeptic reviews Russell T. Davies’ paean to ’80s hedonism and community

By KC Hoard

Health

Canada has every tool it needs to end the spread of HIV—but it hasn’t

Now, rates of transmission are up, especially among young Canadians

By Kevin Hurren

The Xtra Long Read

Inside the second wave of the HIV epidemic in the Philippines

Travel to the frontlines of the health crisis and meet a generation of young people trying to build a better future

By Arvin Joaquin

Health

It’s time to stop comparing COVID-19 to HIV

The two crises have affected marginalized populations at their worst. But suggestions of solidarity ignore the longstanding shame and stigma LGBTQ2 people with HIV/AIDS face

By Sam Moore