A Tale of Two Birthday Parties – Not All Endings Are Happy

Saturday evening, a group of friends joined Ledcat and me to celebrate her 50th birthday. We had dinner at Cambod-Ican Kitchen, a Cambodian fusion restaurant on the South Side of Pittsburgh. It is one of our favorites and we consider the owners to be very dear to us. We had champagne, we had birthday cake, […]

ACLU in PA: LGBT Same-Sex Couples Survey

If you are a same-sex couple in Pennsylvania interested in discussing your relationship publicly as part of an advocacy project for marriage equality, please consider taking this survey. Tell us your story: It is the most powerful weapon to create change. Real couples with real stories will convince America that all relationships deserve equal protection […]

You May Be Fitch to be Tied But Don’t Use Homeless People As Props

By now, you’ve read about the assinine comments from Abercrombie & Fitch about their desire to remain “pure” by not selling clothes to plus-sized people (like me!) or donate excess. God forbid poor or fat people wear their brand? It is not an appropriate response to take large amounts of “gently used” A&F clothing and […]

On Our Way to San Jose … Hurrah!

Thank you for patiently supporting my quest to earn a scholarship to the Netroots Nation 2013 Conference – We did it! Yesterday, I learned that I was awarded one of the merit scholarships from Democracy for America’s NN13 competition. Five scholarships were awarded based on social media votes (I finished in 12th place out of […]

Why Can’t I Use “Nice” Words When I Ask For Help? ALL THE VULGAR WORDS!

I’m circulating a petition asking a local business owner to meet and discuss a situation where an employee used the word “tranny.” I’m encountering resistance from people who would prefer I not include the word “tranny” (even in quotes) because it offends them. It is vulgar. Or its so in their face. It is not […]

Native Pittsburgh Sportswriter Comes Out, Interviewed by WESA FM

Kudos to WESA 90.5 FM and Essential Pittsburgh for so quickly offsetting their previous coverage of Jason Collins’ coming out by highlighting an essay from sportscolumnists Tony Jovenitti. Jovenittis has Pgh ties and was an intern with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Jovenetti’s first-person essay was published by OUTsports on April 30. Full text here. Guggenheim interviewed […]

How Many Social Workers Does It Take –

Funeral Plans/Memorial Events for Cemia Dove (Cemia Acoff) on Monday May 6, 2013

Jacob Nash of the Cleveland Transgender Community Outreach Committee  has graciously kept our blog in the loop on the community’s response to Cemia Acoff’s death.  Ce Ce’s funeral will be at Temple Baptist Church 1862 Noble Rd., East Cleveland, Ohio with calling hours at 10 with the funeral to follow at 10:30am. This all happens […]

Arrest Made in Cemia Acoff Murder; Media Continues Transphobic Coverage

Cleveland Transgender

It is my understanding that the Cleveland Plain Dealer has agreed to meet with GLAAD and local trans activists to discuss their coverage of the murder of Cemia Acoff. Then, last night, I saw this piece which actually has some good news – the FBI working with local police have made an arrest in the […]

Update from Cleveland – Rally for Cemia Acoff

I am simply horrified to report that the Cleveland Plains Dealer has yet to eliminate the transphobic and hateful content in their reporting on the murder of 20 year old Cemia Acoff (also known as Ce Ce Dove.)  It is simply unbelievable, but it is important to take note of this degree of institutionalized hate. […]