Figuring Out How To Be A White Ally

White Silence White Consent

This I know – I cannot expect people of color to educate me. I cannot step into their space and demand that they meet my needs. Not in this time and not really in any time. Fortunately, that’s not an impediment to learning how to be an ally. Fortunately,  many people of color have created […]

Is Taylor Swift’s New Video Racist?

Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift’s new song “Shake It Off” is a catchy pop tune with more than a few sly references to how she copes with her critics. The video features Swift in multiple genres from ballet to a hip-hop setting being a slightly adorkable young woman who has fun with what she’s doing, but doesn’t quite […]

White People Invisibility, Part Two

White Racism

When was the last time you really wanted (or needed) to say something, but kept quiet? Write a post about what you should’ve said. Earlier in the week, I wrote about an experience in a local Northside business where a man used a slew of racial slurs in front of me just as casually as […]

White People Invisibility

White Racism

There are moments when I walk into a room and the other people don’t see a lesbian or a disabled woman. They see a white woman and they think this gives my tacit permission for them to use racist language. I was in the notary’s office today, completing paperwork for the Pittsburgh Dyke and Trans […]

Pittsburgh Meme FB Page Renews Transphobic, Racist Content

It is a little disheartening to realize that several more of my friends “liked” this page (although one told he is monitoring the enemy – ahem, okay.)  You can look at the page without liking it. I wonder if they realize this fact? But even more disheartening to see this transphobic meme moved back up […]

Britney Cosby, Crystal Jackson – Their Lives As Queer Women of Color Mattered

Crystal Jackson and Britney Crosbey

The tragic murders of 24-year-old lesbian couple Britney Cosby and Crystal Jackson continues to unfold with few leads. The police are circulating a sketch and believe that the women were killed and their bodies moved to the spot where they were discovered, next to a dumpster in Galveston, Texas. There’s no indication if this crime […]

Do Pgh Memes Inherently Have To Be Racist, Transphobic and Vicious?

Social Media Hate

This is why we can’t have nice things in Pittsburgh. Content Notes: lots of hate. And few allies calling it out. I pretty much think of any new “rah rah Pittsburgh” effort as a reflection on the #NextPgh concept. And this is not always good. There’s a new Facebook Page called “Pittsburgh Meme” that is […]

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 […]

UPDATED: Ani DiFranco Guest Starring on Duck Dynasty

You either laugh, smirk or roll your eyes, but it could happen. After all, a month ago, did you think one of the most beloved icons of feminist queer music folklore would organize a (really expensive) retreat on a plantation? Yes, a plantation as in Antebellum Louisiana South. I learned about this earlier in the […]

Guest Blog Post: The Enemy Is Us

Editor’s Note: This week, I’ll be sharing guest blog post from folks who identify as allies and what that means to them. Maria Lupinacci blogs at 2 Political Junkies” In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.  Most of us […]