Pgh Lesbian Correspondents

Are you kidding me?

When we came back from our trip to Western New York and Erie, I tested positive for COVID-19. I wasn’t terribly sick just felt cruddy.

Then I was better for a week until I twisted my knee. That sucked. Then my Facebook account was hacked by a Russian based email address and my wife told me she had been exposed to COVID-19 at work. She was feeling fine until Sunday when she developed a fever and serious cold symptoms. I drove her to get a COVID test at our PCP. They said it was too soon to test me, I should wait until Wednesday.

But I have to quarantine with her for five days. Again.

Worst of all, this is the week of Netroots Nation and I am in charge of the LGBTQ community booth. Thankfully most of it is organized, but I’ve got to find people to do my part. And hope I don’t get sick. Or that my wife doesn’t get sicker.

And my capacity to ask for help has been taken away from me by the person who hacked my Facebook page.

I tried to use the FB tools to reclaim ownership to no avail. I’m stuck in a loop of entering my information, setting a password, submitting my photo ID and starting over again. I believe they did shut down my account at least. It seems the hacker also set the account to use a 2FA so when I reset, they reset.

I have contacted everyone I can think of to ask for a real person at facebook – journalists, activists, politicians, communication professionals, etc. Apparently there is not a single digital technology journalist in Western Pennsylvania – that’s very dangerous, I think. Facebook has over 100 employees in Pittsburgh. We are a tech center. How do we not have journalists who specialize in that? It seems like a lot of dangerous things could happen.

I know this is a crime, but the Pittsburgh Police do not have specialists to help me. It feels dangerous for Russian hackers to target queer Pennsylvanians.

Hopefully, I don’t get sick and Laura doesn’t get sicker. Besides bringing soup, you can continue scouring your contact lists for FB intel.