Persad Staff Vote to Unionize Their LGBTQ Mental Health Agency in Pittsburgh

The workers at Persad Center, the LGBTQ mental health and community center founded in 1972, voted affirmatively to unionize with the United Steelworkers (USW) on Thursday, December 5, 2019. The Persad Staff Union now joins the ranks of other white collar workers including the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh employees. That’s an interesting aside given that […]

We need just $390 to buy TNR cat lady supplies for Pittsburgh #GivingTuesday

Fundraiser for homeless cats

In October, we created a crowdfund to benefit the Homeless Cat Management Team. Our goal is to raise $2500 to purchase trap/neuter/return (TNR) supplies including a drop trap kit, humane traps, carriers, gloves, nets and so forth to have available for Northsiders rescuing cats. The gear will be the property of HCMT, but live with […]

Trauma and Tough Love Do Not Mix

Trauma Tough Love

Content Note: trauma, friends with good intentions, tough love   I did not have a particularly pleasant or peaceful holiday. Turkey Day itself passed relatively benignly until I got home. That’s when an overwhelming sadness swept over me as I realized I had spent the entire day with extended family, but not a single person […]

Rural PA LGBTQ&A with OutIndiana from Indiana County, Pennsylvania

This is part of a new occasional series exploring LGBTQ organizing in rural Pennsylvania communities. After our recent driving trip through the PA Wilds communities, I was impressed that after an almost complete lack of queer visibility, a slew of new LGBTQ projects unfolded in my feed – a Pride event in Elk County, a Pride parade […]

Five Ways for White Folx to Change the Narrative of Thanksgiving

Giving Thanks Indigenous

It is an old township, and early in the history of this county it embraced an extended area. It derived its name from the fact that when the early settlers came in from Westmoreland County and elsewhere as early as 1794, they discovered, much to their surprise, a large square of cleared land. From its […]

The Post Where I Ask For Help

Pittsburgh's Charlie Brown Tree

Saturday evening, we had dinner at Eat n Park with our niblings, ages 12 and 8. Elijah, the 8-year-old, was talking to me about our house; the boys were coming to visit our kittens after dinner. He looked at me thoughtfully and said “What do you do for work, Aunt Sue?” I told him I […]

The Persad Staff Union Q&A

The overworked, underpaid staff who have repeatedly resisted the board and consistently shown that have zero faith in their board leadership. They’ve posted open letters to the board. They have demands. They organized a door decorating contest to demonstrate their cohesion. They value and respect their current Executive Director, Carlos Torres, and seem to believe […]

Transgender Day of Remembrance