Pgh Lesbian Correspondents

Our federal government is attempting to erase the T(ransgender) and Q(ueer) and the + from our society. They erased T and Q from the historical plaque at Stonewall.

Webpages have been modified, monuments defaced, and databases scrubbed of references to T, Q, and +. By + I mean Questioning, Intersex, Pansexual, Two-Spirit, Androgynous, and Asexual.

Like you, I was outraged and horrified that organizations like RAINN and National Center for Missing and Exploited Children  complied to protect their funding. RAINN took on the Catholic Church, Penn State, USA Gymnastics, and the Boy Scouts. But they failed trans and queer and plus kids. Shame on them. As a survivor of childhood sexual violence at the hands of my grandmonster, I am deeply ashamed of RAINN and the others.

I’m just a lesbian blogger in Pittsburgh. I don’t have much money or any fame. I can’t have any impact on the National Parks Service or the State Department or cowardly nonprofits that protect cishet children only (probably only white, too, right?)

What I can do is add more T and Q and + to my blog. Our tagline has been “Pittsburgh’s LGBTQ Blog Since 2005” in part because I wanted to be very clear that there is no room here for TERFs.

I changed the tagline and I worked with a local artist to change the blog logo. They are Zero (Alicia) Niedbala of Kindness Solidarity Design (KSD)

There’s a compelling argument to be made that our blog has worked hard to include and uplift the trans, queer, and other communities. You can read our AMPLIFY archives or the In Memoriam posts we create to honor our deceased trans neighbors. We work tirelessly to amplify content from BIPOC, women, and queer creators. At least, I hope you know. We do the same on Instagram, Threads, Facebook, and BlueSky.

Now we just made it a little more permanent that we are ADDING the T and Q and + to this space. We will devote ourselves even more to that work. We will embrace any opportunity we can – we will partner, we will publish, we will seek funding, we will take in stray databases in need of a safe home.

I don’t honestly know what this will mean. Or if it will have a measurable impact.

I do know that it matters to my trans friend A, the first person I told about it. A left the United States because they are afraid. This is my sign to A that they matter to me, that I can’t tell them where they are safest, but that I will devote myself to adding the T and Q and + to this space.

So hit me up if you have ideas. Keep in mind I’m a one woman shop with no budget. I do have a few monthly donors. Maybe a foundation will say “let’s be the opposite of RAINN and promote the T and Q and +” Maybe not.

This is our twentieth year of blogging. Imperfectly, but always trying to learn from our impact.

We are certainly not the only Pittsburgh space bringing more T and Q and +, but know that these lesbians will show up.

PS: It was only during the design process that I realized our blog name contain LGB – pittsburGh LesbiAn. That’s humbling. I don’t want to limit our understanding of identity or demand a binary constructionist view of the world.

You are welcome here. Pull up a seat and tell us how we can add more T and Q and + to our site.

And please figure out where you can create room and defy erasure.