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Since 2015, we have been collecting stories from LGBTQ folks with ties to Western Pennsylvania. Some live here now, others grew up in this region. Others still attended college or had a job that brought them here or spent summers with their grandparents in an outlying community. Here includes 26 counties in Western Pennsylvania, from […]
On Friday we were at Carnegie Stage for the debut of Grist From the Mill, the first piece of a storytelling trilogy from local playwright and creator, Lissa Brennan. The trilogy boasted infusing Irish murder ballads with the steel industry. This piece was set in 1902 Pittsburgh. This performance was not what I expected, but […]
The week before Transgender Day of Remembrance on November 20, we have Transgender Awareness Week to help raise the visibility of transgender people and address issues the community faces. I’ve curated 82 stories from our #AMPLIFY project to illustrate the multi-faceted experiences of transgender neighbors in Western Pennsylvania. Our project asks people to describe their […]
I still don’t know how to tell them I legally changed my name. Maybe they’ll see this and find out. Hi mom, hi dad. I love you. I wish I could tell you how incandescently happy changing my name made me. A weight has been lifted. I hope you can respect that. Name: Bob Rudenborg […]
This little fundraiser was an experiment. There are many, many folks in our community who value the #AMPLIFY project, but for all sorts of reasons – they won’t make time to sit down and type our their responses. Ed Pinto is one of those people. I’m not going to analyze his emotional reaction to the […]
I was very comforted by seeing stories of women like me. Those who came out later in their lives, those who had families and marriages. If my story can help even one person to feel seen, then I’m grateful to have participated. Name: Jessica Age: 38 County of Residence: Allegheny County, formerly Lancaster County, Dauphin County Pronouns: […]
Name: Priya Age: 24 County of Residence: Allegheny Pronouns: She/her How do you describe your identity? Aromantic asexual Indian American Please describe your coming out experience. Where did you find support? What challenges did you face? I came out through a video on facebook to friends. It was generally positive, although some of my female friends asked very intrusive […]
This is the second installment of our new blogging Q&A project: Flip the Script. I have invited a group of friends and acquaintances to design a Q&A for me to answer. As we near #AMPLIFY 300, I thought it would be a good opportunity to ‘flip the script’ and put myself on the opposite side of the question, to walk […]
This is Ed Pinto aka Eduardo Pienta aka Eddie the Jagoff. I met Ed in January 2017 at a fundraiser organized by Viva Valezz to support the ACLU. His body was covered in ink, the ‘script’ of a performance spoken word piece. I was impressed that he could do a backbend and had very pretty […]
Welcome to another year of LGBTQ Families Day, a ‘day of blogging (and more)’ about LGBTQ families, sponsored by the blog Mombian and the Family Equality Council. Once again, I’ve decided to share #AMPLIFY posts highlighting the voices of parents, step-parents and grandparents and other caretakers of children. If you are a LGBTQ person with ties […]
