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 […]

Trayvon Martin and This Lesbian Perspective

Trayvon Martin and This Lesbian Perspective

Like you, I was horrified to learn about the death  murder of Trayvon Martin at the hands of a man who was way over the top in his zeal to be a quasi law enforcement officer, a zeal infused with racist attitudes that led to the death of a young man doing nothing wrong. I […]