July 3, 2017
SHARE
CANADALAND
#190 Queer Media
Canada was once home to a small, but mighty collective of gay and lesbian newspapers and magazines that made up a radical alternative media. Over the last few decades now-defunct publications like The Body Politic, Siren and Fab brought LGBTQ+ issues, interests and voices, to the fore. Daily Xtra, now the country’s only remaining national queer news source, ceased print in 2015 but continues publishing online. Despite queer people having more rights than ever before, queer media is all but disappearing. Is this solely a result of Canadian media’s general decline, or is the shift indicative of something more? It’s also been a year since Black Lives Matter Toronto (BLMTO) halted the country’s largest Pride parade in protest, with a list of demands in tow. The action sparked a harsh months-long backlash of editorials and hot takes by mostly white, straight columnists and pundits, ruthlessly condemning BLMTO. Has coverage of LGBTQ+ issues and news by legacy media changed or improved since BLMTO’s protest? Joining Jesse to dissect the ever-shrinking queer media and the state of representation in legacy media is Erica Lenti, editor-in-chief of THIS Magazine, Arshy Mann, reporter at Daily Xtra, and investigative crime reporter and Body Politic writer, James Dubro.
Jesse Brown
Host & Publisher

Canada was once home to a small, but mighty collective of gay and lesbian newspapers and magazines that made up a radical alternative media. Over the last few decades now-defunct publications like The Body PoliticSiren and Fab brought LGBTQ+ issues, interests and voices, to the fore. Daily Xtra, now the country’s only remaining national queer news source, ceased print in 2015 but continues publishing online.

Despite queer people having more rights than ever before, queer media is all but disappearing. Is this solely a result of Canadian media’s general decline, or is the shift indicative of something more?

It’s also been a year since Black Lives Matter Toronto (BLMTO) halted the country’s largest Pride parade in protest, with a list of demands in tow. The action sparked a harsh months-long backlash of editorials and hot takes by mostly white, straight columnists and pundits, ruthlessly condemning BLMTO. Has coverage of LGBTQ+ issues and news by legacy media changed or improved since BLMTO’s protest?

Joining Jesse to dissect the ever-shrinking queer media and the state of representation in legacy media is Erica Lenti, editor-in-chief of THIS MagazineArshy Mann, reporter at Daily Xtra, and investigative crime reporter and Body Politic writer, James Dubro.

More from this series
“In an effort to put everything into question, we run the danger of losing any kind of firm footing on which to build a more just and equitable society. So the logical end game of a certain project of questioning is total bafflement or the destruction of everything.” - Professor Mark Kingwell
October 28, 2024
Support us now at canadaland.com/join
October 21, 2024
How did a garbage company become the “best” source for news in this major Canadian city?
October 21, 2024
“Artificial intelligence was considered the realm of lunatics and wackos and eccentrics. So they couldn't get hired at really elite universities in the United States. [The] University of Toronto hired them, and then it turned out they were really right and all the elite people were really wrong.” - Stephen Marche, author of “Was Linguistic A.I. Created by Accident?”
October 14, 2024
Israel’s Ambassador to Canada, Iddo Moed, sits down with Jesse for a candid and intense discussion about how Israel’s actions during the war are impacting Canadians.
October 7, 2024
It was the largest art fraud in history. The sheer volume of rip-offs numbering in the thousands. And the scheme that shocked the art world sprang from, of all places, Thunder Bay. How did the fraudsters hatch such a plan from such an unlikely place? And what part did a cold case murder play in finally exposing their cultural crime?
September 30, 2024
1030
Cue the sad trombone sounds for Rebel Media, who just lost an appeal to qualify for federal journalism tax credits. Where will they get funding from now?
September 27, 2024
1029
Canada’s former ambassador to Israel, Norman Spector, joins to unpack the narratives and larger geopolitical context of the current conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.
September 25, 2024
all podcasts arrow All Podcasts
CANADALAND