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Weekly Lesbian Round Up: Pittsburgh Style

October 8, 2009 by

This weekend boasts National Coming Out Day on Sunday, October 11, 2009.

There's this big march you may have heard about … this is a great rallying cry in the video above.  The march has been contentious as has been much of the “gay agenda” as we grow and groups emerge and differing opinions take leadership roles.  It isn't much different than Pittsburgh.  As we grow, people grow into different directions.  There really are multiple gay agendas which reflect the varying priorities of our community. That seems to be somewhat of a stumbling point in our growth — finding ways to coordinate leadership, share information and move forward (sorry, Luke). 

Still, there are times when we need to come together. Many of the national organizations jumped on board The March.  I've love to be in DC for a day; it is where I attended college and just lovely this time of year.  But with pets and commitments and so forth, we can't make a day trip work as easil as back in the “jump in the car and let's go” days.  So I hope whomever attends has a great time and brings some of the energy back to Pittsburgh.

Equality Advocates are working on a new board.  This is just phase one of plans to roll out a new board that is more representative of Pennsylvania's LGBTQ community.  I spoke with their Western PA main guy, Jake Kaskey, who assured me that there will be more appointments from our region.  We have one already, which is good news.  I am kind of sad that we are a region, because there are clear differences between those that live in the City and those who live outside, particularly in outlying counties.  Still, hopefully the board members will bring a holistic perspective on the local LGBTQ community.  I am especially hopeful that they strive for some socio-economic diversity, even though board members typically skew higher by nature of needing to raise money.  Still, an often overlooked group are the working class queers.  This is exciting news and let's hope we can build a statewide organization that gives us access as a collective group, even if we have different things to say.

Speaking of gay factions, the President is speaking at the HRC Dinner.  Barney Frank says we shouldn't expect anything earthshattering.  Pam Spaulding is pretty much in the same frame of mind.  There are those who think babysteps are better than nothing and many of them are supporting Ravenstahl and Onorato.  There are those who think we need to heave ho the whole status quo and many of them are focused on health care reform (important issues for many of us).  Then there are those who fall somewhere in the middle and are trying to balance being strategic about issues/candidates without selling out to the white upper middle class male powers that be.  <insert finger wagging from the white upper middle class males who read this and fail to understand why I don't believe they have my best interests at heart>

This is also where people will say the nomination of an openly gay ambassador has anything to do with my life.  It is great in the way that casting an openly gay man to play BD Wong on Law and Order SUV (ha ha ha) is great.  I'm glad, but it seems sort of like “what took so long?”  Come on, Obama. Stop taking credit for things that aren't exactly groundbreaking and do something concrete. 

Here's something exceedingly dull from Page One Q.  Mary Cheney is pregnant again.  Yawn.  I doubt a second child is going to help her see past her incredibly privileged life to actually give a freakin damn about the average gay person. Maybe she'll campaign for Dan.

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  • OH MY GOD. Unregistered futons are just as deadly as poppers in the wrong hands. Divans! Lamps! He's a Councilman with a checkered past and we aren't talking antique gaming boards. OH NOOOOOOOOOO ….. run before the Ottomans take over the Southside!
    Be warned. If he can impose control and order on the Southside, gay people might start hanging out over there. GASP! In Bars. With straight people wearing all of their clothing. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

  • OH MY GOD. Unregistered futons are just as deadly as poppers in the wrong hands. Divans! Lamps! He's a Councilman with a checkered past and we aren't talking antique gaming boards. OH NOOOOOOOOOO ….. run before the Ottomans take over the Southside!
    Be warned. If he can impose control and order on the Southside, gay people might start hanging out over there. GASP! In Bars. With straight people wearing all of their clothing. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

  • Cleaning up the Southside would be a good thing. I'm sorry, but there are too many bars and that is the cause of the problem. It is a skeezy part of town and I feel much sympathy for the home owners. Bruce Kraus inherited this problem so let's give the guy some credit for tackling a real issue.

  • Cleaning up the Southside would be a good thing. I'm sorry, but there are too many bars and that is the cause of the problem. It is a skeezy part of town and I feel much sympathy for the home owners. Bruce Kraus inherited this problem so let's give the guy some credit for tackling a real issue.

  • You are still an outcast on Carson Street, if that makes your feel better. A side effect of Kraus' clean up fetish could be a few more bars on Carson that welcome the gay community.

  • You are still an outcast on Carson Street, if that makes your feel better. A side effect of Kraus' clean up fetish could be a few more bars on Carson that welcome the gay community.

  • The southside is an engine that runs tourism and creates a fun environment for young people in this city. Kill it and you kill any hope you have of attracting young professionals. It is not sleezy, it's a fun place. Get out of Pittsburgh once in a while and you'll find out that other cities have these kinds of areas too. No one forced you to buy a house there, and even if you lived there before, I can tell you that before the bars it WAS a sleezy place (I lived there myself in the 80s; what a dump it was). Bruce Kraus is trying to kill the goose that lays the golden egg.

  • The southside is an engine that runs tourism and creates a fun environment for young people in this city. Kill it and you kill any hope you have of attracting young professionals. It is not sleezy, it's a fun place. Get out of Pittsburgh once in a while and you'll find out that other cities have these kinds of areas too. No one forced you to buy a house there, and even if you lived there before, I can tell you that before the bars it WAS a sleezy place (I lived there myself in the 80s; what a dump it was). Bruce Kraus is trying to kill the goose that lays the golden egg.

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