I’ve Been Hacked by Russians and Quarantined By COVID-19

Are you kidding me? When we came back from our trip to Western New York and Erie, I tested positive for COVID-19. I wasn’t terribly sick just felt cruddy. Then I was better for a week until I twisted my knee. That sucked. Then my Facebook account was hacked by a Russian based email address […]

I’ve Been Hacked: Day Two

My story is sad to tell. A Facebook ne’er do well. That mixed up Russian hacker from the Urals My future’s so unclear now What’s left of my career now? Can’t even get a trade in on my URL. At least I still have my blog. Sigh. Since Friday evening, I have reached out to […]

If you walk away, I will follow

Pittsburgh Famous

Today is #FollowFriday which is something I just made up last week. I’ll post a video with some riff on “follow’ and you will return the favor by following me on social media. It is where I post tons and tons of cool links to all sorts of great reads. Plus, I have a dream […]

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 […]

Coping with Four Facebook Bans over Eight Days, Personally and Professionally

Social media bans silence political bloggers

  This morning, I was notified that I have a 24-hour ban from Facebook. It is my fourth ban in an eight day span. There’s no explanation, there’s no clarity on exactly which Community Standards I violated, there’s no information. And there’s no way to compel Facebook to do anything. So I’m not going to […]

More on the Murder of Bianca Devins

Bianca Devins homicide

  Content Note: misogyny, graphic violence,   The fallout of the murder of 17-year-old Bianca Devins continues as brutal, graphic images of her dead body continue to make their way across social media channels. Mainstream media outlets report that Instagram, 4chan, discord and possibly more are unable to keep up with the viral nature of […]

Jodi Hirsh: “I started this fundraiser as a response to the terrible actions of the federal government. And people stepped up in a massive way.”

On October 21, 2018, a friend of mine named Jodi Hirsh decided to use the Facebook birthday fundraiser tool to resist the announcement by the Federal Government that they plan to roll back acknowledgements of gender identity. She chose the Transgender Law Center as the recipient. She wrote “I wasn’t going to do one of […]

Can We Find 11 New #AMPLIFY Donors to Celebrate 11 Years on Facebook?

Tuesday, July 19 will mark 11 years since I joined Facebook. This past May, I celebrated 10 years on Twitter. That’s a lot of content created and shared.  In that time, I’ve gone through three laptops, a tablet, and six phones. I took a closer look at the OP I shared and was (not) surprised […]

Lissa, 28, Identifies as Genderfluid, Grey Ace, and Poly #AMPLIFY

What motivated you to take part in this project? Maybe my answers will help someone else. I didn’t have anyone to say these things to me and I wish I had.

Pastor Reed, 48, Puts a Face and Name to Being a Gay Christian #AMPLIFY

Gay Wilmerding

Name: Pastor Reed Age: 48 County of Residence: Westmoreland County.  Formerly, Dauphin, Snyder, and Adams counties Pronouns: He, him, his How do you describe your identity? Pastor, teacher, son, gay, loving, accepting Please describe your coming out experience. Where did you find support? What challenges did you face? I came out over years of time. I found support from my closest friends. […]