TORONTO, Nov. 25, 2020 /CNW/ - Today, Xtra Magazine unveiled a new editorial platform for global LGBTQ2S+ audiences, xtramagazine.com. The site builds on Xtra's 35+ year legacy as a proud independent media producer. The launch coincides with a rebranding of Xtra, including an ambitious editorial direction, new visual identity and a focus on community engagement.
Xtra has continued to evolve and expand internationally since becoming an entirely digital publication in 2015. A global network of LGBTQ2S+ identifying writers contribute to Xtra around four key focus areas: Power, Health, Love & Sex, and Culture.
To date Xtra has worked with more than 150 contributors from 10 countries in 2020. Within Canada, Xtra contributors span the country—from Fredericton to Vancouver—and across all identities, representing the full diversity of our communities.
Toronto editorial design firm Studio Wyse drew inspiration from queer activism aesthetics from the 1980s and '90s, old newsprint editions of Xtra, and from The Body Politic, Xtra's predecessor, to develop Xtra's new visual identity. At the core of the brand's new design is a simple, familiar shape: the asterisk.
Traditionally, asterisks denote a footnote, omission or afterthought. They've also been used to sanitize curse words and to soften the blow of homophobic and transphobic slurs. However, the symbol has sometimes been used to censor proudly reclaimed identities such as g*y or qu**r, equating words we now embrace with profanities.
Xtra is embracing the asterisk as a symbol of power—a character that tells us there is more to say, more to learn, more to do. Across the top of every page of xtramagazine.com, readers will see an asterisk in the Xtra logo. The symbol is Xtra's promise to never let LGBTQ2S+ communities be an afterthought.
About Xtra
Xtra Magazine is one of the world's leading LGBTQ2S+ online publications. Founded in Toronto in 1984 by independent, queer-run media company Pink Triangle Press, Xtra is an award-winning digital magazine and community platform covering queer and trans politics, culture, sex, relationships and health.
Pink Triangle Press is a mission-guided organization with no shareholders. Profits earned by the business are reinvested to support its mission: daring together to set love free.
SOURCE Xtra Magazine
Rachel Giese, editorial director, Pronouns: she/her, Xtra Magazine, Email: [email protected], Phone: 416-708-7876
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