****UPDATE ****

A big thanks to all the wonderful members of the Burghosphere who participated in this first ever Pgh Blog for Equality.  We had a few folks join in at the last minute.  Here are the links to the participating posts in no particular order.  Thanks also to those who promoted the event. 

this terrestial ball

eleventh stack

Pleasantly Furious

Progress Pittsburgh

toaster strumpet

2 Political Junkies - David

2 Political Junkies - Maria

Gab Bonesso

MacYapper

The Pittsburgh Comet

Teacher. Wordsmith. Madman.

Pittsburgh Pist-Gazette

Ms. Adventures on the Mon

Slag Heap

*******************************************************

March 31, 2008 is the day that the Burghosphere speaks out about attempts to amend the Pennsylvania Constitution to define marriage as between one man and one woman.

For all the details on the legislation, the co-sponsors, and the talking points, visit Equality Advocates.  Equality Advocates is not officially connected to Pittsburgh Blog for Equality.

Join the conversation. 

Wanna post our button on your blog?  Code is below:

<p><a href="http://www.pghlesbian.com/blog/_archives/2008/3/27/3606171.html"><img src="http://www.pghlesbian.com/PghBlogButton" /></a><p>

As we get 'em, we'll post a list of participating blogs.

2 Political Junkies

Pittsburgh Comet

The Burgh Report

after the bridge

Ms. Adventures on the Mon

Teacher. Wordsmith. Madman.

Mark Rauterkus

MacYapper

Gab Bonesso.  This is her blog.

Pittsburgh Pist-Gazette

"Web logging" for equality will be

Slag Heap

As we've mentioned, local eatery Dozen Bake Shop has launched an official Lesbian Night on Saturdays.  Your faithful correspondents suggested they take it up a notch by offering a Buy One, Get One Free cupcake deal to lesbians with a special code or something.

Owner James emailed us to discuss and that's when we remembered ... the dyke salute.

Created by lesbian-gal-about-town Ehrrin, author of Now That's Good Eatin, the dyke salute is a queerified version of the Girl Scout salute.  The only time I've seen it was courtesy of a certain local rocker at the Square Cafe.

But the dyke salute has risen again AND is irrevocably tied to cupcakes.  What could be better?   

So, the next time Saturday night finds you in the East End, swing down Butler Street, flash the salute and enjoy the yumminess.

I am lobbying James to create a thematic cupcake recipe in honor of Lesbian Night.  My favorite?  The Salute which tastes like Thin Mint cookies. That would be awesome.

It is really nice to end my week on something queer-positive, even if it is just a local business owner saying he wants to reach out to lesbians.  After all the hullabaloo with what's her name in Oklahoma and the onslaught of campaign workers here in Pittsburgh, I am grateful that someone wants to give me free cupcake just for being a dyke.  Nice.

Saturday night, we finally had a chance to stop by Cattivo for some conversation and dinner with our friends, Emilia and Jessi.  We braved the weather and headed for Lawrenceville where we were early enough to snag a good parking spot.  Cattivo is a fine place for a bar.  It was clean and the service is really good.  The owner waited on our table and he was friendly and attentive.  The food was great.  I had a chicken gyro with homemade fries which were delish.  Ledcat had the pizza, something she had been craving all week, and she pronounced it excellent (high praise indeed).  Jessi and Emilia shared a strombolli which they enjoyed.  Overall, I'd stop back for a casual bar meal. 

We hung out for a few hours until the smoke got the best of me.  I probably wouldn't go to Cattivo during prime bar hours because even a half dozen smokers were too much, but I'd go back early in the evening to shoot some pool and enjoy those homemade fries. 

When we left, Ledcat and I discovered that the locks on my CRV were frozen.  It was quite cold outside.  A random lesbian whose identity I'll never know (I'll call her Xena) came over and advised me to pour water on the locks.  So I sent Ledcat in to get warm and tromped back up the bar to ask for a cup of water.  The barkeep was nice and understanding  ... offered me hot water and told me to come back in if we had any other problems.  Meanwhile, the owner was distributing candy to his regulars. 

The water worked!  I've never had that happen to me before. I'm presuming that all the sloppy rain got into the lock and caused the problem.  However, we were off to our next stop -- Lesbian Night at Dozen Bake Shop, also in Lawrenceville.  When we arrived (lock-freeing-water-in hand), there were two occupied tables and no lesbians in sight.  We snagged a couple of chocolate cupcakes made with Stout (yummy) and some hot beverages then sat back to soak up the ambiance.  It is a cute space, the food options are good and there are plenty of tables. 

I chatted up with Shmuell who was staffing Lesbian Night.  He laughed and said that obviously the store had to do more than pronounce Saturday as Lesbian Night to actually have it *be* Lesbian Night.  I pointed out that we had specifically come because of that so it worked, at least to the tune of about $10.00 in revenue.  I assured him we didn't expect him to produce lesbians upon demand. 

Dozen has been open about 6 weeks and business looks good.  If they had a lunch menu, I'd roll down once in awhile and meet Ledcat there (it is like 6 blocks from her office).  However, I can see adding Lesbian Night at Dozen Bake Shop to any dinner evening out in the East End.  A cupcake and a cup of coffee are much less expensive than dessert in any restaurant, plus it is good to support a company that wants to have Lesbian Night. 

My suggestions for Lesbian Night?  Send out a secret code via lesbian email and anyone who comes in with the secret code, gets a 2 cupcakes for the price of 1 (so they'll bring a friend).  Advertise Lesbian Night in the GLCC newsletter (with the BOGO offer for a limited time).  Bring in a lesbian singer songwriter and her faithful listeners will follow, even for just one evening.  Hire lesbians.  I also like to patronize stores that employ my fellow homosexuals. 

All in all, it was a nice evening.  Earlier in the day, I had purchased a few issues of the Buffy: Season Eight graphic novels (apparently, grown ups don't read comic books).  There's a big deal about Buffy hooking up with a woman in the latest issue, but I am forcing myself to read them in order. I'm missing Issue 8.  Anyone have a copy of that?  This is a new fetish for me.  I loved Buffy so Ledcat orchestrated a Buffy holiday for me, bringing in her family and mine to purchase 4 seasons of Buffy on DVD and a whole slew of graphic novels and omnibus issues.  I was in heaven.  However, this was my first visit to Phantom of the Attic and it was a bit like entering a completely foreign cultural setting.  The narrow walkway isn't really what I'd think of as appropriate for a group of customers who tend to sit on their asses reading comic books all day.  Am I stereotyping?  Maybe I'm just peevish because I never appreciate when overly large men continually brush up against my ass as I'm looking at merchandise.  Or perhaps I'm just trying to dissociate because I can see going in there to and buying Wonder Woman comic books, too.  And maybe the Runaways.  Plus, there's Batman. 

To wrap up, we got into the car without any trouble the second time around and headed for home (and Buffy).  Now I'm up sans an hour of sleep and ready to get rolling.  Our renovations are almost complete so we can start moving the jillion tons of belongings out of the bedroom and actually be able to see the floor again.  Yippee!

We received our current issue of the GLCC News this past week after what seems like a long hiatus.  Is it just me or has it been awhile?  Maybe its just me.  I really look forward to this connection with the Community Center.  The professional quality just keeps getting better and I really like that.

Anyway, the organization is making strides in updating their use of technology with a brand new email list and they have posted some of the articles from the newsletter online here.  Still, I feel compelled to share.

Here's what I find most interesting ...

Ben Cook, GLCC Youth Program Coordinator has a nicely done piece about the GLCC's work with youth.  This program is, in my humble opinion, the hallmark of the organization.  Well, maybe second only to the Phone Line.  I think Ben is a great guy and does really good work.  Plus, he actively mentions kids who identify as queer or questioning.  This article also features the "Most Ironic Line" in the whole newsletter.  Tucked on page 3 after a feature on Celebrate the Night with absolutely no mention of any of the controversy surrounding probably THE most controversial gay happening of the entire year, Ben writes:

Unlike most GLCC programs that have careful planning periods leading up to large, publicized events (e.g., OUTrageous Bingo, PrideFest), the Youth Program is a mostly behind-the-scenes weekly commitment by the GLCC to the young people of our community.

Is it just me?  Do you see it?

There's a mention of PUMP's "40 Under 40" which includes Ben!  Go, Ben! 

The GLCC is hiring for two paid positions:  Community Resource & Information Specialist and a Grant Writer. 

Someone named Scott Itano (???) writes a nice piece about finding a LGBT-Friendly Physician.  He gives a shout out to two local practices.  I'm not a fan of one of them, so I'm going to instead give a shout out to my PCP for being so groovy.  I went to her simply because she replaced my former doctor who had left for greener pastures in Sewickley.  She was great -- she asked me a ton of LGBT sensitive questions.  Plus, she already knew the main side effects of the meds prescribed to me by other doctors.  Wow.  So if you need a great PCP, drop me a line and I'll give you her name.  Awesome.  Still, Scott's article is quite useful and one of the most neatest things in the newsletter.

I can't tell you how refreshing it is to have a PCP who is gay friendly and medically reliable.  Awesome.

An old friend, Gary McKillop, focuses on the importance of donations and volunteers to the work of the Community Center.  It is interesting to me, but I'm a professional human servicey type.  I think these "asks" could be more powerful if they included anecdotes or somehow the "voice" of the people served.  I know I was always impressed by *something* if I spent more than 30 minutes in that building ... a phone call, a drop in visitor, a listing on the bulletin board, a volunteer's story.  You should do that -- go spend some time there and just soak up how important this resource is to the community.

There's write up of the GLCC's strategic planning direction.  I was disappointed that there is no mention of diversity, at least thus far.  I think that's a significant issue in terms of those who hold power and decision-making authority and those who are served (or not served) by those folks.  Still, I know that any mention of diversity raises hackles on certain necks ... so keep reading.  Or go read something else. 

There's a new GLBT Corporate Network which is working with local corporations.  Awesome news.  If you have a GLBT group at your workplace, you can hook up with them.  There's only a telephone number contact so email me and I'll send it to you.

If you read this blog, you should be a GLCC News subscriber.  Hopefully, they will be able to move toward an online published edition (with ads!  the ads are great!).  Maybe YOU could volunteer to help them do that.  Or volunteer on the Phone Line.  Or the Youth Group.  Make a donation.  Go for it!