If I Grew Up In Allentown. With a Fast Car.

Today’s blogging prompt asked me to explain the socioeconomic class structure in the neighborhood where I grew up. That would be West Mifflin, PA. I have six attempts in my drafts folder. All devolved from thoughtful class analysis of a working class suburb into various rants. Clearly, I have some unresolved issues with my hometown. […]

Pittsburgh Based “This Week In Gender” Debuts on YouTube

A new YouTube show debuted this week produced by the Gender Dances Project, based right here in Pittsburgh. The show is called “This Week in Gender” and features several local familiar faces who aren’t often given a platform. The video is NSFW because of language, but it is rather engaging. I was particularly struck by […]

The Book I’ll Write About The Peduto Administration

Sue Kerr Bill Peduto

Write the blurb for the book jacket of the book you’d write, if only you had the time and inclination. The Rise of the Working Class Queer Poverty is a queer value as long as we tout the myth of ‘gay affluence’ as a selling point for marketing. Pittsburgh is at a crossroads – somewhere […]

I’d Rather Remember My 39th Birthday

Do you still feel pressure of conform? If no, what age did it stop? Also, Write a post inspired by your sixteenth birthday. Oh, my dear question generator, you are obviously not part of a subculture or a subculture within a subculture. The “pressure to conform” to being straight is all around you. Open the newspaper […]

If I Could Guarantee These People Read My Blog

Pittsburgh Lesbian

If you could have a guarantee that one, specific person was reading your blog, who would you want that person to be? Why? What do you want to say to them? I have a list. It is not in order of preference. First, Mayor Bill Peduto’s deputy chief of staff, John Fournier. It would be […]

That Time When Dan Onorato Didn’t Make Me Cry

Pittsburgh politics

Eleanor Roosevelt said: “A woman is like a tea bag – you can’t tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water.” Tell us about a time you felt your strength. First of all, Eleanor Roosevelt probably didn’t say this. Many other people have said it, including Phyllis Schlafley and Hillary Clinton, […]

She’s My Partner, Not My Sidekick

Pittsburgh Lesbian LGBT

One disadvantage to blogging is that I get “the glory” while Laura (Ledcat) often gets overlooked. And when I get the beat down side of a stick, she gets that, too. Unfair. Let me be clear – we are a family, a team, a partnership even if we are not married. She goes to work […]

Mr. Rogers Was My Hero

When you were five years old, who was your hero? What do you think of that person today? My hero at the tender age of five was Mr. Fred Rogers. I started kindergarten at 4, turning 5 in late October. According to my mother, I would rush home from my half-day of education to flop […]

Pittsburgh City Council Elects First Openly Gay President

Bruce Kraus Pittsburgh

January 6, 2014 ushers in the much-anticipated progressive Peduto Administration to the Mayors Office, but also marks another significant milestone for the City with the election of the first openly gay man as President of City Council. In 2008, Bruce Kraus became the first openly LGBTQ person elected to City Council. He was reelected in […]

How Many Winter Hats Do You Own?

winter gear

This weekend, we enter the coldest spell of the season, so far, with temperatures forecast to hit zero degrees on Tuesday. And sadly there are people who will spend the hours when it is zero degrees being cold. They may live outside and “sleep rough” under a bridge or in an alley. They may be […]