Svend Robinson on being Canada’s first out gay MP

A new biography about Robinson was released last year

Svend Robinson talks about his experiences as Canada’s first out member of Parliament.

Seven-term MP Svend Robinson recently spoke to Xtra about the new authorized biography Svend Robinson: A Life in Politics and the challenges of coming out as gay in the late 1980s.

“It was not always easy, I got incredible volumes of hate mail, death threats. The day after the Toronto Star ran a front page story saying that I was going to be coming out . . . my office was destroyed.”

Robinson, who now lives in Switzerland, was in Toronto as a the keynote speaker at Awards for Action, a benefit for the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network.

Read more about Robinson and his new biography here.

Keep Reading

7 charts that highlight Chappell Roan’s rise

The "Good Luck, Babe!" singer's popularity has exploded in recent months

How AI image generators fail queer and trans people

The "Cass Review" and its use of AI-generated images highlight some of the key issues with depicting queer and trans people using artificial intelligence

Reneé Rapp’s Coachella set introduced by original ‘The L Word’ stars

Leisha Hailey, Kate Moennig, Jennifer Beals and original series creator Ilene Chaiken gave fans a super queer throwback

NAIA bans trans women from women’s sports

The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics has passed a new policy that effectively bans trans women from competing