Sue

Sue is the founder of Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents blog, established in 2005.. She has an MSW from the University in Pittsburgh and a BA in Political Science from Marymount University. Her undergraduate claim to fame is a six month stint as an intern with then Congressman Rick Santorum in 1991. Born and raised in West Mifflin, Sue attended college in Washington DC, then graduate school in Louisiana and ended up in Kentucky doing social service ministry. She returned to Pittsburgh in 1997. She now lives on Pittsburgh’s Northside with her wife, Laura. She was among the first out LGBTQ people named to Pittsburgh’s 40 Under 40 in 2004 and is a graduate of Leadership Development Initiative Class VII. After being fully and permanently disabled in 2010, Sue has continued to serve the community. She founded the Pittsburgh Tote Bag Project to address hunger and environmental issues. In 2015, she launched the #AMPLIFY LGBTQ archive in conjunction with a two-year artist in residence stint with Most Wanted Fine Art. Sue and her wife have fostered over 25 kittens through Pittsburgh CAT and Homeless Cat Management Team, and now manage multiple community cat colonies in their neighborhood. In 2020, Sue cofounded the Pittsburgh MasQUe ProjecT to support the queer and trans community during the pandemic, distributing tens of thousands of face masks and other supplies throughout the region. In 2021, Sue created the #PghCatFolx projects to support neighbors working with community cats. Under that heading came the Dr. John P. Ruffing DVM Pet Food Projects, memorializing one of her very best friends who died in 2007. In 2021, Sue worked with community leaders to develop and establish a 501c3 nonprofit organization, Pittsburgh LGBTQ Charities (PLC) where she currently serves as Board President. PLC absorbed the #PghCatFolx projects. Also in 2021, Sue was the first person in history appointed to the City of Pittsburgh LGBTQIA+ Commission and was unanimously elected as one of three inaugural co-chairs. Her blogging has garnered numerous awards Favorite GLBT Media Publication - 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016 (Keystone Alliance Gaylife Newsletter Reader’s Poll) Favorite GLBT Social Media - 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 (Keystone Alliance Gaylife Newsletter Reader’s Poll) Best Local Blogger - 2016, 2019 (Pittsburgh City Paper Reader’s Poll) LGBTQIA Pittsburgh’s Best Blogger - 2020 (SisTersPgh, People’s Pride of Pittsburgh) Outstanding Blog - 2019, 2022 (GLAAD Media Awards) Sue has also personally been honored Person of the Year - The Advocate Magazine, 2022 15 Lesbian Icons - LGBTQ Nation, 2023 LGBTQIA Pittsburgh’s Best Lesbian Activist - SisTersPgh, People’s Pride of Pittsburgh 2022 Sue believes in identifying and filling gaps in supports & services rather than recreating the wheel. She uses both her undergraduate and graduate degrees on a regular basis as a blogger and activist and regularly circulates her 1991 internship photo just to shake things up on her social media feeds. Her own experiences with cPTSD, bipolar disorder, anxiety, and other health challenges have fueled her health blogging and activism. She also writes extensively about her family history, drawing on her amateur genealogy hobby. The blog regularly reviews arts and cultural events as well as exploring restaurants, soap opera storylines, and hyper-local news. Sue and her wife Laura have been together since 2003. They were married on a very cold February 2, 2021 in their backyard at a very small ceremony co-officiated by their pagan priestess friend, Anne, and then-Mayor Bill Peduto. They have six niblings, four in Pittsburgh and two in Philadelphia.

Posts by Sue:

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I just joined WDUQ

February 26, 2010 by

They had me when I saw this …   Partner/Spouse!  We even get top billing. 

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The Candidate Who Notices Important Steps Toward Equality

February 25, 2010 by

    @JoeHoeffel

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I know, I know …

February 25, 2010 by

I promise I will post about the Mayor's LGBT Advisory Council meeting.  I can't promise to be particularly witty.  I've been debriefed by no less than five people about this meeting, including someone from the Mayor's team, so I'm already a little over it.  However, I spent more than 12 months pushing for this Council […]

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PG Stuff N That

February 25, 2010 by

Some good news from the PA Supreme  Superior Court … In an opinion that at once awarded homosexual parents equal custody rights and criticized a Dauphin County Common Pleas judge for potential gender bias, the state Superior Court overturned a 25-year-old precedent. The previous precedent, the court wrote in a 7-1 opinion, set a presumption […]

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Live Tweeting Mayor's LGBT Advisory Meeting Tonight

February 24, 2010 by

Tonight, the Mayor's LGBT Advisory Committee will be holding its first meeting with representatives of the community.  I will be live tweeting the meeting so you can be there, too!  The invitation asked us to bring along our top three concerns/issues related to the LGBT community in Pittsburgh.  I have one very concrete, easy to address […]

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WV House keeps "marriage protection" amendment from floor vote

February 24, 2010 by

Good news from West Virginia. (h/t Fairness West Virginia) GOP delegates unsuccessfully tried to force a floor vote on a bipartisan resolution (HJR5) called the “Marriage Protection Amendment.” The proposal calls for a statewide referendum on whether to amend West Virginia's constitution to define marriage as between one man and one woman. This week, Republicans […]

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Joe Hoeffel ad

February 24, 2010 by

This was posted as a DailyKOS diary yesterday. Thoughtful people are not buying into the idea that we must capitulate on equality to run a viable candidate in the general election.  [T]here's also a need to be bold enough that if you win, you have a mandate to actually pass laws that address the problems […]

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A Poll

February 24, 2010 by
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Thumbs on the Keyboard, Dems!

February 23, 2010 by

My list of PA and Pgh politician tweeps continues to grow. I”m up to 87 accounts now.  http://twitter.com/PghLesbian24/politicians-pgh-and-pa Republicans are jumping on board the social media wagon at a much faster rate than Democrats.  I did add the PA House Democratic Campaign Committee and Dan Keller who is running for the House seat in the […]

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CMU grad studet shares her experience under Don't Ask, Don't Tell in PG

February 22, 2010 by

I caught this op/ed piece in Sunday's Forum section of the Post-Gazette a little later in the afternoon.  I'm glad I held off writing about it because some interesting contextual information on DADT has since been released.  CMU graduate student Karen Mesko shared her painful journey as a member of the Reserves which she entered […]