That Time (almost) No One Came to my High School Graduation Party

On Wednesday, May 25, 1988, I received my diploma from West Mifflin Area High School, a blue-collar suburb of Pittsburgh. A few weeks later, my parents had a graduation party for me as thousands of parents had done before. We had lots of food, tons of canned pop, and almost no guests. I don’t have […]

Pittsburgh Trans and Queer Face Mask Project Receives Donation of 3000 Masks

Lots of big news from the Pittsburgh MasQUe ProjecT Donation of 1,000 masks from City of Pittsburgh Donation of 2,000 masks through Global Links Partnering with Pittsburgh Equality Center as our fiscal sponsor Partnering with Center for Creative Reuse as fabric sponsor Working with Garden of Peace, SisTers PGH, Shepherd Wellness Community, True T PGH […]

Video: First person view of Pittsburgh rally to reopen small business and support Trump

Lorenzo does outreach to people experiencing homelessness, neighbors who are incredibly overlooked right now. he’s been making excellent points that are not on our radar. Did you know street meals have been limited to 3 days a week? I’m appalled to realize I haven’t been thinking about this. Lorenzo went Downtown on Monday to continue […]

Braddock Sandwich Shop Owner Spews Transphobic Content on Facebook Targeting Dr. Rachel Levine

Portogalla Peppers N'at Transphobia

Content Note: transphobia, sandwich, Braddock, complicity, homicide Until this afternoon, I had never heard of Robert Portogallo. He’s a Swissvale High School graduate, alumni of Point Park, and owner of Portogallo’s Peppers N’at, a sandwich shop in Braddock. He’s also a transphobic jagoff who decided to target Dr. Rachel Levine, Pennsylvania’s Secretary of Health who […]

Day 32

KDKA kittens

It is clear from this series of diary posts that my ability to county is not on-point. We started our quarantine/self-isolating on March 17, 2020. That’s when Laura was told to work from home and when the City and County orders were in effect. So today is day 32. Our fifth week of hunkering down […]

Update on the Pittsburgh MasQUe ProjecT – Connecting Facemasks with LGBTQ Neighbors

Pittsburgh Face Masks

Things are going along pretty busily. As of tonight, we have request for 98 individual masks and 250-350 by organizations including SisTers Pgh, Garden of Peace, and Shepherd Wellness Community. We want to make sure LGBTQ community has access to facemasks, especially that trans and queer folks feel safe and dignified. We are acutely aware […]

Day 21

Man, this is exhausting. I slept decently last night (thanks, psych medication) and struggled to get going today. The days start the same as usual – get washed, dressed, let the dog out, feed the cats, feed the other cats, feed the original cats again, feed the dog, make the coffee, eat something. Laura gets […]

How to Keep House During a Pandemic: Sanity v Sanitization

How to clean during a pandemic

When this began, we had on hand the following:  two bottles of bleach, six bottles of white vinegar, four bottles of Murphys Oil Soap, rags, spray bottles, and half a refill bottle of hand soap. We also had about eight rolls of paper towels, a package of napkins, and lots of rags. After week one, […]

My Friend Was Admitted to ICU for COVID-19 Testing; She Found a Simple Way to Make It Easier for Health Care Staff

Cell Phones in ICU Covid-19

My lifelong friend, A, is a 49-year-old, white woman with a 16-year-old daughter. She grew up in Pittsburgh, earned a Bachelor’s degree in chemistry and graduated from the Temple University School of Podiatric Medicine. She worked until she was fully disabled in 2011 by chronic health problems. She had to turn in her medical license, […]

Daily Dose of #QuarantineCats Wednesday, March 23, 2020

Pittsburgh Cats and Dogs

These are difficult times. Our crew wants to help so I’m going to try to regularly post brief video snippets from the assorted four-footed residents of our house including our pets, fosters, the ferals, our dog, and occasional guests. Today’s clip again features Maisel and Lennon playing on the sofa with guest appearances from Kinzua […]