Today, as openness to non-monogamy grows, a number of people—queer and straight, cis and trans alike—are questioning whether monogamy is the ideal relationship structure and many have shifted towards non-monogamous relationships. While these relationships can be a source of joy, they also com with unique challenges, some exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. In this article we speak with Laurie Bissonette to find out how LGBTQ2S+ folks in open relationships can take care of their mental health during the pandemic and beyond.

This article is published in Xtra Magazine.

Breast implant surgery is one of the most popular cosmetic procedures around the world. For future moms-to-be it is fine to done, so long as potential complications are accounted for. Namely, long-term care will be needed including another surgery down the road, the impact of changes to one’s breasts arising from pregnancy, avoiding breast milk contamination via two to three year MRI scans to check for rupture, and placing the breast incision in a good spot, among other various points.

This article is published in Giddy.

The Biden administration released proposed regulations on July 25 that would enhance existing protections for the LGBTQ2S+ community. Specifically, the new rules reaffirm that discrimination against LGBTQ2S+ people, and people who have had abortions, is illegal in federally funded health settings and explicitly prohibits healthcare discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. However, the proposal also includes a religious exemption for healthcare providers with objections to certain procedures like abortion and gender-affirming surgery—although the exact breadth of the exemption isn’t clear.

This article is published in Xtra Magazine.

Treatment for body dysmorphic disorder is still failing queer people of colour. Stella, a pansexual Korean-Greek woman struggling with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), found that her therapists didn’t acknowledge her racialization and her queerness during her treatment, which limited its effectiveness. As Nyinawumuntu, the founder and director of the Black Healing Centre, has described it: “A lot of traditional mental health spaces are very white and cishetero-centred.” Nyinawumuntu also advises queer and trans people of colour with BDD to look for mental health professionals with similar lived experiences. Many queer and trans people of colour with BDD have also been able to find healing with non-traditional methods, including pole dancing and self-expression.

This article is published in Xtra Magazine.

In a landmark ruling for its LGBTQ+ community, anti-buggery laws were struck down in Antigua and Barbuda. Honourable Justice Marissa Robertson of the twin island nation’s High Court ruled on July 5 that sections 12 and 15 of the Sexual Offences Act of 1995 contravene its constitution. The Sexual Offences Act states that a person who commits “buggery,” which is defined as either sexual intercourse between two male persons or acts of anal sex between male person and a female person, is guilty of a criminal offence. While this news has been celebrated as a step forward, it has been noted that queer and trans people in Antigua and Barbuda have no protections against discrimination in areas like housing, employment and public accommodations at the federal level.

This article is published in Xtra Magazine.

A recent study found that long-acting injectable pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is effective and safe for trans women in preventing HIV/AIDS. The new research presented at the 24th International AIDS Conference in Montreal on July 31 showed that PrEP works just as well for trans women as the treatment does for bisexual and gay men. Additionally, the report also indicated that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) had no effect on the effectiveness of PrEP, which itself has been found to reduce the risk of HIV by up to 99 percent. This has led to calls for making the drug more affordable and accessible for members of the LGBTQ+ community, notably by Grinzstejn, head of the STD/AIDS clinical research laboratory at the National Institute of Infectious Diseases in Brazil.

This article is published in Xtra Magazine.

In Ghana LGBTQ+ advocates are banding together to sue the state for human rights violations against its queer community as the country experiences a rise in anti-LGBTQ+ violence. On June 14, two separate lawsuits were filed in the Ghana High Court against the inspector general of police and the attorney general of Ghana for violating the claimants’ human rights at an LGBTQ+ human rights training workshop in Ho in May 2021. These suits follow the introduction of legislation targeting LGBTQ+ Ghanians and advocates. Under a law proposed in August 2021, same-sex intercourse, “crossdressing”, and distributing material promoting LGBTQ+ activities would be banned while intersex people would be asked by the state to undergo “corrective surgery.”

This article is published in Xtra Magazine.

A new study published by Northwestern Medicine researchers in peer-reviewed journal JAMA Pediatrics, has discovered that top surgery improves quality of life in trans youth. It compared two groups of patients aged 14 to 24: one group of 36 patients received top surgery, while a control group of 34 patients received gender-affirming care without top surgery. Three months later those with top surgery experienced much less chest dysphoria than before while the control group had no change. Additionally, an analysis by What We Know Project found that 93 percent of studies on gender transition concluded that the process improved the overall well-being of trans respondents.

This article is published in Xtra Magazine.