Autoimmune Dysmotility and Me: Part Five Subtitled “Allegheny Health Network is Not Doing So Great”

Autoimmune Dysmotility and Me: Part Five Subtitled “Allegheny Health Network is Not Doing So Great”

Tomorrow morning, I’m heading in for my second endoscopy in about eight months. This one is supposed to attach a ph monitoring device called a Bravo to my esophagus. My procedure is scheduled with Dr. Blair Jobe at the Allegheny Health Network Esophageal Institute in West Penn Hospital. The Esophageal Institute is supposedly among the […]

25-Year-Old Trans Latina Jenny De Leon Killed in Tampa, Florida

Jenny De Leon was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico. She grew up in in Town ‘n Country, Florida and most recently moved to Tampa. Jenny was 25-years-old and in her sister’s words “beginning her life as Jenny.” On Tuesday, November 2, 2021, her body was discovered by Tampa police around 6 AM. They are actively […]

Let the record show that I spoke up for Susan Kerr and said that what she endured was not okay

Sue Kerr

Content note: trauma, child abuse, generational dysfunction, childhood sexual violence So I’m not attaching or bonding with my parents, I’m developing a ridiculously unhealthy dependency on a horrific abuser. And no one talks about any of this because they don’t have the skills to do so. Welcome to 1972. “How much do you love me?” […]

50 Plus 1 To Grow On: Pandemic Birthdays, Milestones, and Community Cats

I turned 50 years old on October 22, 2020. Our big plan to celebrate with a weekend spa trip – something I would ordinarily never do – were postponed. And I was bummed, but resigned. I had hoped to ‘make it up’ this year before 50 slipped further away from me, but that’s not going […]

Sharing (Part of) My Mental Health Journey on #WorldMentalHealthDay

WOrld-Mental-Health-Day

Sponsored by World Health Organization (the day, not the post) The overall objective of World Mental Health Day is to raise awareness of mental health issues around the world and to mobilize efforts in support of mental health. The Day provides an opportunity for all stakeholders working on mental health issues to talk about their […]

Guest Post for International Lesbian Day: A Boomer’s Bar Life in Pittsburgh

I first met Sue B. a few years ago on social media. She and my wife had mutual friends so we began corresponding and dining out together back when we did those thing. I begged and pleaded with her to put her recollections of queer women’s history into writing. There’s very little first person documentarian […]

Losing weight is not the eternal magic fat girl solution

When you’ve undergone test after test to figure out why you are sick, there is a moment – a moment when a test turns up information. Not quite a diagnosis, not quite a precise answer. But still, it is something to cling to in a landscape colored by bias, insurance industries, and sexism, of people […]

UPDATED: Placing 2nd in the Best of Pittsburgh Local Blog Category

The results are in in (print) and this blog was voted 2nd place by the readers voting in the City Paper Best of Pittsburgh poll for 2021. That’s not shabby. I was debating posting about it because I wanted to give the City Paper a shout-out for being an important media source especially on queer […]

2014 – In Memoriam

Trans lives

Our list from 2014 June 3rd :  the body of Kandy Hall was discovered in a field in northeast Baltimore in what local police believe to be a homicide. June 12th: Zoraida Reyes’s body was discovered behind a Dairy Queen in Anaheim, California. Her death has been ruled suspicious by investigators because it is believed her body was moved to […]

In Memoriam

In Memoriam

This page is an index to the In Memoriam posts honoring the lives and mourning the deaths of our transgender, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming neighbors, what I describe as an epidemic and others as a campaign of terror. This reality has disproportionately impacted trans women of color, especially Black trans women. The most recent example […]