Pgh Lesbian Correspondents

Do you remember in July 2015 when a local gay white cis man was harassing two of the Roots Pride organizers (a Black woman, Joy KMT, and a Black trans man, Michael David Battle) with fake profiles, nasty comments, etc?

Joy was direct with identifying and calling out this man’s very bad behavior. She and Michael both ended up in FB jail for several days. I was in FB jail for 24 hours (gee, I wonder why the difference) when I shared her content in solidarity. It was ugly, nasty, racist LGBTQ Pittsburgh at its stellar best, grasping and clinging to a worldview that has now taken over the White House.

Anyway, time marched on. It was one of those things that I didn’t so much forget as just not think about, except the racial disparity in Facebook’s response.

Earlier this month, I receieved an email from the man who got this particular soiree of racism started – Dennis Mowrey. Apparently, when you google his name, my blog post comes up in the images section – go ahead, see for yourself and then come back to read the rest of my post.

That’s some irony. My guess is that Dennis Mowrey doesn’t want this coming up when someone googles his name.

After my last post calling out the Peduto administration for their rudeness, I thought it only fair that I do the same with a member of my own community. So here’s the image, again:

Dennis told me that he was going to ask nicely and one time only that I remove the image. I love a good veiled threat. Funny how after all of these years people like to open with a threat rather than any semblance of humility, apologyy, or reconciliation. Dennis Mowrey is angry with me. He has zero remorse for the very real harm he caused not only me, but even more so – Joy and Michael.

This is what Dennis posted about Joy on Facebook.

So I am not taking down the photo. I’m not responding to his email. I am suggesting you do the Google search yourself. Let’s help Dennis achieve fame for his racist, sexist, and transphobic behavior and his unapologetic misogeny an misogynoir.

Documenting our LGBTQ community history includes the racist and transphobic parts. Dennis Mowrey and his husband and friends at the Burgh Bears chose their path in 2015. I fully expect they will unleash more legal gibberish on me, hurl some invectives, make some threats, and the usual way racists behave when someone doesn’t give in to their bullying. Being partners with a licensed attorney does save me a lot of headaches when these sort of threats come in, as they do more often than you might think. She went to law school, passed the bar on the first try, and has kept her license sharp for nearly 25 years. But its cool if you want to use Google as your lawyer.

Remind me to tell you about the time the white gay cis man called my cell phone repeatedly screaming that the FBI were in his apartment with a warrant because I had blocked him from my FB page. After Laura answered the phone and calmly asked him to put the agent on the line so he could read the warrant in order to determine how we should comply, he stopped calling.

I did check with Joy when I received the email and she was fine with my blogging about it. So do a little google search, my friends, and help shine a light on racism. Those lights are the only consequences for gay white cisgender men who move with impunity throughout most of our community. What he said and did to Joy and Michael is unforgiveable. He’s had nearly four years to make amends and he simply makes more threats.

Enough.