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 […]

82 Trans Stories from Western Pennsylvania Honor Trans Awareness Week

Transgender Awareness Week

The week before Transgender Day of Remembrance on November 20, we have Transgender Awareness Week to help raise the visibility of transgender people and address issues the community faces. I’ve curated 82 stories from our #AMPLIFY project to illustrate the multi-faceted experiences of transgender neighbors in Western Pennsylvania. Our project asks people to describe their […]

A History of My Friendship With Mayor Bill Peduto

One of the longest running relationships has been with Mayor Bill Peduto. Our friendship is a very loose use of the word; we aren’t personal friends and have rarely had a lot of face-to-face contact. What we’ve shared has been our investment in LGBTQ and other progressive issues, even though we haven’t always been on the exact same side every time.

Rural Pennsylvania Group Hosts First Local LGBTQ Pride Gathering in Elk County

Elk County LGBT Pride

This is how it works – or it should work. A group of local folks create a safe space to celebrate and affirm their LGBTQ neighbors. In this case, a 40-year-old pansexual mother of two set up a visibility event in a park in St. Mary’s, Pennsylvania. People came, made connections, joined the Facebook group. […]

Thank You for Voting Us ‘Best Local Blog’ in Best of Pittsburgh Reader’s Poll 2019

Best of Pittsburgh Best Local Blog

We are in our 14th year of blogging and it has been an amazing year indeed, for good and for not so good sometimes. Being named the OUTstanding LGBTQ Blog in the nation by GLAAD during their 30th annual media awards was pretty damn exciting. It was also one of those moments where you are […]

Ed Pinto, Phat Man Dee Drop Bubble Bath Video This Weekend with Rubber Duckie Cameo

Ed Pinto Pittsburgh

Ed Pinto has upped his investment in the “How much would you pay to hear Ed Pinto’s life story?” fundraiser for #AMPLIFY with this video that dropped over the weekend. Quick Recap – Ed is offering up chronicling his life story for the AMPLIFY archive as a fun fundraiser. We are trying to raise $2,000 […]

How and Why to Invest in This Blog: Pride Edition

Every so often, I put up a post to encourage you to invest in this blog and our assorted projects. Winning a national award for this blog from GLAADseems like a good moment to consider what resources it takes to produce and how you can help. As you can probably see, we’ve recently joined the […]

Flip the Script: a Q&A for Sue Created by Anne Lynch

Flip the Script

This is the first installment of our new blogging Q&A project: Flip the Script. I have invited a group of friends and acquaintances to design a Q&A for me to answer. As we near #AMPLIFY 300, I thought it would be a good opportunity to ‘flip the script’ and put myself on the opposite side […]

Call To Action: Peters Township, Washington County Might Consider Non-Discrimination Ordinance

Peters Towsnship Non-Discrimination Ordinance

A friend of mine read about the lack of non-discrimination protections in Pennsylvania. So she took action in her community and contacted the Peters Township Council, asking them to consider introducing the ordinance. She is amazing and brave.  Peters Township is in Washington County and this would be the first such ordinance in the entire […]

Celebrating #TDOV with 64 Trans Stories from Western Pennsylvania

Transgender Day of Visibility Pennsylvania

In honor of the Day of Trans Visibility, here are 64 stories from neighbors who live in Pittsburgh, Erie, Johnstown, Greensburg, New Castle, Bradford and beyond. These stories have been curated from the #AMPLIFY archive which has 290 stories total to date. Some are in their early 20s while others are closer to 60. Some […]