87 Trans Stories From Western Pennsylvania Honor Trans Awareness Week 2020

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. Since 2015, the #AMPLIFY project has curated first person Q&A’s with members of the region’s LGBTQ community. The archive is meant to be a permanent resource to understand […]

318 Coming Out Stories from Western Pennsylvania

National Coming Out Day Pittsburgh

Happy National Coming Out Day! Today is the day we celebrate coming out – being more open about our LGBTQIA+ identities AND encouraging folx still “in the closet” to take their own steps. Sharing our own unique stories is an essential tool to offer support. In honor of that reality, I am offering this list […]

84 Trans Stories from Western Pennsylvania on the Trans Day of Visibility

Transgender Awareness Week

March 31 is the International Transgender Day of Visibility, devoted to raising the visibility of transgender and gender nonconforming (GNC) neighbors both in terms of their resiliency and successes as well as the realities of transphobic bias and violence. I’ve curated 84 stories from our #AMPLIFY project to illustrate the multi-faceted experiences of transgender neighbors […]

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 […]

Celebrating International Lesbian Day 2019 with 64 Lesbians

Lesbian Day of Visibility

So, this is an unusual day of observance. I get a little skittish around the concept because I am suspicious that TERF’s are behind most contemporary “all things lesbian” these days.  There’s also a Lesbian Visibility Day, Don’t get me wrong – more visibility is a good thing, but it is a truth universally understood […]

Q&A with Deb Gross, Candidate for Pittsburgh City Council District 7

Deb Gross for City Council

We are revisiting our Political Q&A series for the upcoming elections of 2019. We’ve reached out to candidates who are pro-choice and pro-LGBTQ, asking them a series of questions about their campaigns. We’ve sent out about a dozen Q&A’s to folks who agreed to participate. Candidates can be anywhere in Pennsylvania running for any level of […]

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 […]

The Misinformation of Mayor Peduto’s LGBTQIA Advisory Group

Those of you who have been reading along since 2005 or know how to use Google probably know that I’ve been paying attention to this group since the Ravenstahl era. I was at meetings, I read minutes, I pushed and pulled, I resisted – basically, I showed up and paid attention more consistently than any […]

My Family Story: The Hidden Legacy of Caroline Feil (1858-1936)

Welcome to the next installment of My Family Story focusing on my 2x great-grandmothers. This is the story of Caroline Feil Bliss (1858-1936) who is my maternal grandmother’s mother’s mother. Caroline was born in New Baltimore, Somerset County in 1858. The story of Grandma Caroline is itself quite a tale, as is the story of finding […]

52 Trans Stories from Western Pennsylvania Honor the Lost Voices on this #TDOR

November 20 is the Trans Day of Remembrance.  If you read our blog regularly, you know that we try very hard to honor the lives and acknowledge the deaths of our trans neighbors who have been lost to violence. We encourage you to participate in local TDOR events. This is the list of neighbors lost […]