Sue is the founder of Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents blog, established in 2005.. She has an MSW from the University in Pittsburgh and a BA in Political Science from Marymount University. Her undergraduate claim to fame is a six month stint as an intern with then Congressman Rick Santorum in 1991. Born and raised in West Mifflin, Sue attended college in Washington DC, then graduate school in Louisiana and ended up in Kentucky doing social service ministry. She returned to Pittsburgh in 1997. She now lives on Pittsburgh’s Northside with her wife, Laura. She was among the first out LGBTQ people named to Pittsburgh’s 40 Under 40 in 2004 and is a graduate of Leadership Development Initiative Class VII. After being fully and permanently disabled in 2010, Sue has continued to serve the community. She founded the Pittsburgh Tote Bag Project to address hunger and environmental issues. In 2015, she launched the #AMPLIFY LGBTQ archive in conjunction with a two-year artist in residence stint with Most Wanted Fine Art. Sue and her wife have fostered over 25 kittens through Pittsburgh CAT and Homeless Cat Management Team, and now manage multiple community cat colonies in their neighborhood. In 2020, Sue cofounded the Pittsburgh MasQUe ProjecT to support the queer and trans community during the pandemic, distributing tens of thousands of face masks and other supplies throughout the region. In 2021, Sue created the #PghCatFolx projects to support neighbors working with community cats. Under that heading came the Dr. John P. Ruffing DVM Pet Food Projects, memorializing one of her very best friends who died in 2007. In 2021, Sue worked with community leaders to develop and establish a 501c3 nonprofit organization, Pittsburgh LGBTQ Charities (PLC) where she currently serves as Board President. PLC absorbed the #PghCatFolx projects. Also in 2021, Sue was the first person in history appointed to the City of Pittsburgh LGBTQIA+ Commission and was unanimously elected as one of three inaugural co-chairs. Her blogging has garnered numerous awards Favorite GLBT Media Publication - 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016 (Keystone Alliance Gaylife Newsletter Reader’s Poll) Favorite GLBT Social Media - 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 (Keystone Alliance Gaylife Newsletter Reader’s Poll) Best Local Blogger - 2016, 2019 (Pittsburgh City Paper Reader’s Poll) LGBTQIA Pittsburgh’s Best Blogger - 2020 (SisTersPgh, People’s Pride of Pittsburgh) Outstanding Blog - 2019, 2022 (GLAAD Media Awards) Sue has also personally been honored Person of the Year - The Advocate Magazine, 2022 15 Lesbian Icons - LGBTQ Nation, 2023 LGBTQIA Pittsburgh’s Best Lesbian Activist - SisTersPgh, People’s Pride of Pittsburgh 2022 Sue believes in identifying and filling gaps in supports & services rather than recreating the wheel. She uses both her undergraduate and graduate degrees on a regular basis as a blogger and activist and regularly circulates her 1991 internship photo just to shake things up on her social media feeds. Her own experiences with cPTSD, bipolar disorder, anxiety, and other health challenges have fueled her health blogging and activism. She also writes extensively about her family history, drawing on her amateur genealogy hobby. The blog regularly reviews arts and cultural events as well as exploring restaurants, soap opera storylines, and hyper-local news. Sue and her wife Laura have been together since 2003. They were married on a very cold February 2, 2021 in their backyard at a very small ceremony co-officiated by their pagan priestess friend, Anne, and then-Mayor Bill Peduto. They have six niblings, four in Pittsburgh and two in Philadelphia.

What’s Going On? Bingo. Not Much Otherwise

What’s Going On?  Bingo.  Not Much Otherwise

“That's a good thing, right?” responds Ledcat to my plaintive wail that there is nothing to blog about.  “No one is smearing local bar owners or other crap like that, right?” She's got a point.  OUTrageous Bingo is debuting at its new Oakland home of Rodef Shalom.  7 PM Saturday.  Be there or be (an […]

Former Mellon a good place for gays to work. Plus, other stuff.

Former Mellon a good place for gays to work.  Plus, other stuff.

From the Post-Gazette we learn: The former Mellon Financial Corp. was recognized by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, a gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization, as one of the “Best Places to Work for GLBT Equality.” Last year, Mellon merged with the Bank of New York, which did not make the list (http://www.hrc.org/issues/best_places_to_work_2008.asp). […]

Steel City Stonewall Democrats Statement on Hijacked Email

Steel City Stonewall Democrats Statement on Hijacked Email

Earlier today, someone apparently hacked into the website of the Steel City Stonewall Democrats and sent a very strange rumor out that a local LGBTQ businessowner is a rightwing Republican along with the thinly veiled suggestion that patronizing those businesses would fill the coffers of George Bush.  Something like that. It took me about two minutes […]

GLCC launches new email blast

GLCC launches new email blast

For those of you who want to stay in the loop of what's happening at Pittsburgh's Gay & Lesbian Community Center, check out the new GLCC email blast.  You can subscribe.  Another great email resource is the Queer Events List with over 500 subscribers.  Join both!  Sure, you'll get some duplication, but it is worth […]

Text of Bruce Kraus’ Address Upon His Swearing In

Text of Bruce Kraus’ Address Upon His Swearing In

Speech given by Bruce Kraus, Pittsburgh's first openly gay City Councilmember, upon his swearing in on January 7, 2008. “All of us might wish at times that we lived in a more tranquil world, but we don’t. And if our times are difficult and perplexing, so are they challenging and filled with opportunity.” Robert Kennedy  These […]

Peace be with you, but not you.

Peace be with you, but not you.

Dolores S. Jarrell of Peters takes umbrage with a PG Op/Ed critiquing Pope Benedict's priorities of peace. Michael Kerlin's “In Search of Peace?” (Dec. 30 Forum) was filled with more than its share of animus. He reported trembling at the “implications” of the pope's peace message, “The Human Family, A Community of Peace”; suggested parallels […]

Cat Specter: Different Picture, Same Beret

Cat Specter:  Different Picture, Same Beret

My good friend Cat Specter has photoshopped herself from girl-next-door-in-jaunty-beret to come-hither-girl-in-jaunty-beret.  It is like watching Betty Crocker's image change in fast-forward. Sigh. Her obsession with the 'go girl attitude' has mellowed a bit, but she still comes across as a woman trying to hard to be relevant, witty and wise without breaking a nail.  […]

Lift them and their loved-ones

Lift them and their loved-ones

Here's something.  Today, Bruce Kraus was sworn in along with other new City Council members Patrick Dowd and Ricky Burgress.  Doug Shields was reelected as City Council President without the vote of Tonya Payne.  Maria of 2 Political Junkies called Kraus' speech “very inspirational.” Mr. Kraus, who is openly gay, cited gay rights icon Harvey […]

There’s a new slur in town …

There’s a new <gay> slur in town …

From the PG's Morning File comes word <ahem> that the American Dialect Society has deemed the phrase “toe tapper” as a synonym for homosexual the most outrageous word usage of 2007. Cool.  Toe tapping, you might recall, references Larry Craig.  Chalk up another notch on the giant belt of American homophobia.  Larry Craig isn't even […]

Manchester Spawns Yet Another Proud Yinzer Moment

Manchester Spawns Yet Another Proud Yinzer Moment

If I could pick the one place even more politically ridiculous to live than West Mifflin (Jabbour, Olasz, Ruffing, Chief Diener…), it seems that I innocently have stumbled onto it ..ridiculous, thy name is Manchester. From the Post-Gazette, courtesy of 2 Political Junkies … A spot airing today on the city of Pittsburgh cable TV […]