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
“ Kevin looked at him and said, ‘Your tears add no value to this deal.’ It was just a great fucking moment.” -Stuart Coxe, Dragons’ Den Producer
July 20, 2026
“In the corner in the room there was a screen and there I could see the numbers going up. Then I figured that this is the amount of eggs that they're retrieving and it felt like a scoreboard in the operating room.” - Sana Al-Badri (IVF egg donor)
July 13, 2026
 It was an awful time. And to also be told, “You were unethical by using this facilitation letter." It was, it was like I was in some kind of nightmare. -Investigative Reporter Laura Robinson
July 6, 2026
The Theresa Kielburger lawsuit, Jesse’s union negotiating tactics, a new JSP.
July 2, 2026
Today, we’re headed to “Bovine University” to figure out what’s at the heart of an Ontario law, and why animal rights activists are unhappy about it.
June 29, 2026
 Things that are misleading, like “mystery illness,” I hope are lost from the general vocabulary in the public media sooner rather than later. -Dr. Michael Coulthart
June 22, 2026
“Nothing about this World Cup is uniting the world. If anything, it's dividing it further.” -Karim Zidan
June 15, 2026
“ If you don't know who Cohere is, you will.” -Mark Carney
June 8, 2026
all podcasts arrow All Podcasts
CANADALAND