Pgh Lesbian Correspondents

Pittsburgh’s LGBTQIA+ Commission worked with Pittsburgh City Council and Mayor Ed Gainey’s office to draft the official City Proclamation recognizing LGBTQIA+ Pride in the City of Pittsburgh. A copy of this will be on display at Eons in Shadyside and a larger poster sized version in the lobby of the City County Building.

WHEREAS, LGBTQ Pride Month is celebrated each year in the month of June to honor the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in Manhattan; and, 

WHEREAS, on June 17, 1973, Gay Alternatives Pittsburgh organized the first Gay Pride Parade and Gay Pride Week events in Pittsburgh’s history under the tagline “Gay Pittsburgh is Coming Out!”; and, 

WHEREAS, 50 years later, the Pittsburgh region is now home to more than 30 Pride activities including 12 Pride community level festivals and marches. The legacy of Pittsburgh Pride belongs to thousands of volunteers, vendors, performers, and thousands more who attended these events, big and small, never measuring Pride by population or participation; and, 

WHEREAS, Black LGBTQIA+ Pittsburghers are an integral force within Pittsburgh’s LGBTQIA+ community, celebrating and participating in the Wylie Avenue Day parades in the Hill District since the 1940s and founding the Pittsburgh Black Pride in 1995, which continues to advance its mission by empowering Black LGBTQ communities to live safe and healthy lives free of discrimination and racism; and, 

WHEREAS, in July, 2020, the City of Pittsburgh created an LGBTQIA+ Commission, comprised of individuals from various institutions and communities, who advocates for and represents the interests of the LGBTQIA+ community; and, 

WHEREAS, by creating the Commission, the City of Pittsburgh will continue to be a welcoming place for all persons of good will regardless of age, color, disability, ethnicity, family or marital status, gender identity or expression, language, national origin, physical and mental ability, political affiliation, race, religion, sexual orientation, and identity or socio-economic status; and, 

NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Council of the City of Pittsburgh does hereby celebrate LGBTQIA+ Pride Month, and the diversity of community events, parades, and activities for all; and, 

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Council of the City of Pittsburgh does hereby declare, the month of June 2023 to be “PRIDE MONTH” in the City of Pittsburgh. 

Passed in Council on Wednesday, May 31, 2023. 

Theresa Kail Smith 

President of Council 

Attest: Kimberly Clark-Baskin, CMC 

City Clerk 

SPONSORED BY: COUNCIL PRESIDENT THERESA KAIL SMITH and COUNCILMAN BRUCE A. KRAUS 

CO-SPONSORED BY COUNCIL MEMBERS: 

Rev. Ricky V. Burgess, Anthony Coghill, Deborah Gross, 

R. Daniel Lavelle, Erika Strassburger, Barb Warwick and Bobby Wilson