Q&A With Trans Neighbor About TERF/Transphobic Stickering in Pittsburgh’s East End

TERF stickers Pittsburgh

Content Note: transphobia, TERF, fascism, harassment, images I went back and forth on whether or not we should do this Q&A because I was worried about 1) unnecessarily freaking out other trans people who have been blissfully unaware of these stickers 2) giving this terf the attention they want, potentially leading others to their cause. […]

Q&A With John Fetterman, Candidate for US Senate

John Fetterman for Senate

I learned a great deal from the tour, and it helped build my understanding and knowledge of how a legal recreational marijuana system, which I have long strongly supported, could work in Pennsylvania. And some of what I heard on that tour helped change my opinion on a few issues relating to legal weed.  Lt. […]

Q&A with Giuseppe Rosselli, Candidate for the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas

[W]e do not acknowledge poverty and lack of opportunity as a significant  contributing cause worthy of diversion. I believe that poverty and lack of  opportunity are the greatest contributing causes to criminal behavior. Our  diversion programs need to be expanded to include individuals who are affected  by these significant underlying contributing causes. This is the […]

Q&A with Laura Pollanen, Candidate for Bellevue Borough Council

  LGBTQ folx are everywhere, and we’re not going away. By taking office, we can push not just legislation to ensure our legal rights are protected, but also push for normalizing what are seen as LGBTQ+ issues until your LGBTQ+ identity is as unremarkable as your hair color. I want to make it clear that […]

Q&A With Hilary Wheatley Taylor, Candidate for Magisterial District Judge for District 05-2-19

HIlary Wheatley Taylor

But from that experience comes a perspective that can only benefit those that might come before me as Magistrate: I’ll approach each person as more than their worst day or worst choice or most shameful story.  I know first hand that we are all more than any one of those things and we deserve a […]

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 […]

Video: Black Parade With Lyrics

In a post titled “Black Parade Route,” she wrote. “Happy Juneteenth. Being Black is your activism. Black excellence is a form of protest. Black joy is your right. ‘Black Parade’ benefits BeyGOOD’s Black Business Impact Fund, administered by the National Urban League, to support Black-owned small businesses in need.” Under that, she shared several Black-owned […]

316 Reasons to Add Your LGBTQ Story to the #AMPLIFY Archive

Since 2015, we have been collecting stories from LGBTQ folks with ties to Western Pennsylvania. Some live here now, others grew up in this region. Others still attended college or had a job that brought them here or spent summers with their grandparents in an outlying community. Here includes 26 counties in Western Pennsylvania, from […]

E! The Dragnificent Reviews Werq the World in Pittsburgh VIDEO

E! The Dragnificent

Our drag correspondent, E! The Dragnificent, went to the Werq the World show last night in Pittsburgh and shared her thoughts via Instagram (mama managed.)  You may remember that she was part of our Q&A with Aquaria and also wrote a powerful essay about drag culture. You can follow E (on mama managed accounts) Insta: […]

Visibility in Coming Out, Both Quietly and Publicly #NationalComingOutDay

Yep I'm Gay

I had an idea to explore an important question around coming out – the need for visibility and representation by publicly out folks in all industries, occupations, walks of life balanced against the very personal decisions we make to come out. I wrote about this in 2015 regarding the workforce of the City of Pittsburgh. […]