Pgh Lesbian Correspondents

This ran in Thursday's PG.  Kudso to Lee Marcuzzi of Shaler for noting a LGBTQ positive story. 

What a wonderful article. (“Taking center stage,” Oct. 23.) It is so refreshing to see an article about drag queens and kings that is not biased and discusses the true talent and work that these performances require.

As a female, and concerned member of the community, I think that positive coverage like this will help people see that GLBT people are not threatening. Unfortunately, the bullying and harassment of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered youth in our schools is a huge problem. It is a fact that nine out of 10 gay kids are victims of name-calling in the schools and four times as many gay kids attempt suicide as straight kids. Our schools should be safe and welcoming for all students, regardless of gender identity. We are all different! Let's embrace and enjoy our diversity as your writer has.

Here's a link to the original story about the Miss Tri-State All Star pageant. 

Lee hits the nail on the head.  Our community has been pretty fortunate that the majority of local coverage has been gay-positive, even in the Tribune Review.  The worst sin seems to be a tendency to rely on cliches, even if they are alleged to be “positive” by a predominantly hetero media (Mike Seate is a classic example).  But the vile tends to come from the columnists and most of that from the syndicated ones.  The local reporters tend to “get it” and I'm optimistic that this coverage has helped promote positive representations of our community. 

We are actually fortunate that the issues are being covered at all.  We have a lot of political balls up in the air, on the state and local levels so it is important that our straight allies speak up and speak out. 

Keep looking for opportunities to write letters.  Call the talk shows.  Be vocal and make sure the media continues to be aware that we are paying attention.