by Michael Lyons My father has a saying about our hometown: “It’s a nice place to be from.” In But I’m a Cheerleader and Itty Bitty Titty Committee director Jamie Babbit’s latest, Fresno, sisters Shannon (Judy Greer) and Martha (Natasha Lyonne) want nothing more than to escape their hopeless, banal...
Latest Stories
Transfixed offers an intimate glimpse into a complicated life
by Michael Lyons As the saying often goes in the queer and trans community, it’s a small world. If you don’t know someone personally, you know someone who does, or you’ve probably seen them at a local event. Martine Stonehouse, the central figure of the new documentary Transfixed, is one of those...
John Barton, Victoria
“I came upon Ian Young’s Year of the Quiet Sun in the mid-seventies, either on the bottom shelf of the poetry section in a Calgary bookstore or, worse, in the remainder bin. I’m not sure if I realized then that it explored themes of love between men but, decades later, research revealed it to...
A short history of my writing career
Alex Leslie We’ve changed You said to me “your assorted minority identities” I misheard it, my sordid minority identities I routinely mishear labels as compliments this is a survival skill I don’t remember not noticing acquiring this skill You are so articulate have you considered being a...
Overwriting Erasure: Nia King’s Queer and Trans Artists of Color
by Jules Bentley We live in a world where resources, including those intended for the queer community, are overwhelmingly in the hands of upper-class white men. Queer and trans people of colour are forced to contend not only with the regime of heteronormativity that all queerness exists in contrast...
Tamai Kobayashi, Toronto
“I love young adult fiction. It is at its best when it asks the reader to go beyond the expectations of the category of ‘young adult’ while embracing the limitations of the genre. Darkest Light, the companion book to Hiromi Goto’s Half World, is a remarkable book, unusual in that...
Virgins in Time
Neve Be The best sex I’ve ever had was with a sixteen-year-old boy. The thing is, at the time, I was also sixteen. And no, I’m not saying that my literal high school experience was full of good body feels and good sex, because it wasn’t. This hot, affirming sexual experience took place in May of...
Alex Leslie, Vancouver
“Casey Plett’s A Safe Girl To Love (Topside Press) is a book of stories about friendship, parenthood, celebrating and fearing your identity, and the rough road to finding community. “I love Plett’s book for the brave sweep of relationships—a parent/child bond between two trans women; a...
Message in a Bottle
Justin Karcher Sam, we have to clear our mental garbage. It will take work to mend these holes. If we don’t, We’ll end up marooned on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch spanning waters from the West Coast Of North America to Japan. Garbage is magnetic. It flocks to other garbage, like blood...
