Pittsburgh Celebrates First ‘Protect Trans Kids Day’ With Proclamation

Protect Trans Kids Day Pittsburgh

“To be properly recognized by the city is essentially a beautiful moment for me knowing that it’s a stepping stone for kids to not ever have to feel how I felt or how other kids around me kind of felt like growing up,” they said. “No one was teaching or sharing trans joy around me […]

Donate a Candle to Support Trans Neighbors

Trans deaths

Pittsburgh LGBTQ Charities (PLC) is creating a project to honor trans neighbors whose lives have been lost to the terror campaign sweeping the nation. As of today, there are 26 individuals on that list. We will be creating a memorial at our booth at Netroots Nation to honor their lives and acknowledge their deaths. This […]

What a local Black trans woman has taught me about the Trans Day of Remembrance

People often ask me, especially around this time of year, why I write blog posts memorializing neighbors who have been killed by the anti-trans terror in our nation. That is actually the wrong question and I’m not the person to ask. Instead we should ask why mainstream media outlets are not creating the same content. […]

LGBTQIA+ Commission statement re: TDOR and Transgender Awareness Week UPDATED

Statement on Transgender Awareness Week and Transgender Day of Remembrance 2021  The City of Pittsburgh LGBTQIA+ Commission recognizes our beautiful, vibrant, and talented  trans and nonbinary neighbors this year during Transgender Awareness Week. We hope this  week finds you happy and healthy. Regardless of your age, your profession, or your race;  regardless of whether or […]

Body of 19-year-old Chicago Black Trans Woman Found in June 2020, Finally Identified in April 2021

On June 6, 2020, the body of an unidentified young Black trans person was found in an abandoned building at 7908 S Laflin in Chicago. Koko Nia Labeija was born 29 May 2001 in Chicago where she grew up. She attended Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos High School The school held a memorial event this past […]

Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) 2020 Honors 37 Trans Neighbors Lost

TDOR Transgender Collage

“It may be a sad song but we’re gonna sing it again. I will continue to fight and push for the voices of black transgender women to be uplifted until the day I die. We deserve to be heard, to be loved, and for our very existence to be acknowledged.” —Riah Milton’s sister, Ariel Mary […]

Read This –> Op-Ed: Cleveland is an Epicenter for America’s Trans Murder Crisis

Transgender Murder Cleveland

It is both an honor and horrifying to be cited in an essay like this one, exploring the realities of the pandemic of violence Transgender American experience. I have only been documenting through my ‘In Memoriam’ series since 2013, but you can find much more data and personal details on the TDOR website, going back […]

Honoring the Lives and Deaths of Our Trans Neighbors on TDOR 2018

Transgender Day of Remembrance 2018 Pittsburgh

The Transgender Day of Remembrance of 2018 has a new degree of poignancy to me because of the additional layers of transphobia that are on display and thread through the lives of our transgender neighbors. It is also the first year I’m blogging about a trans woman from Pittsburgh among those killed this past year. […]

Black Trans Woman Brandi Seals is the 25th Transgender Person Reported Murdered in 2017

Brandi Seals Transgender

  She was 26 years old. Her name was Brandi Seals. She lived in Houston, Texas. She was a black trans woman. And she is now the 25th transgender person to be murdered in the US during 2017. According to reports from Houston media, it was just around 6 a.m. Wednesday, December 13,  when neighbors […]

Local LGBTQ Links We’ve Been Reading This Week

Links you should read Chris Potter at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette covers the HRC response to a position paper from Republican gubernatorial candidate Paul Mango. Mango taps into the ‘lightning rod’ issue of bathroom access for the transgender and GNC communities. Cyd Zeigler at OUTSports explores the lack of public statement from Steelers Coach Mike Tomlin on […]