20 Year Old Londonn Moore is the 20th Reported Trans Person Murdered in the US in 2018

Londonn Moore

  She was 20 years old. Her name was Londonn Moore Kinnard and she was a Black trans woman living in North Port, Florida which is near Charlotte County. On Saturday September 8, her body was found face down shot to death at the intersection of Sawyer Circle and Red Oak Road at 7:30 AM in […]

When The Ceiling Comes Tumbling Down

Last week started out tough. I was recovering from an asthma attack, trying to schedule carpal tunnel surgery, gearing up for the chaos of our roof being replaced and it was 89 bazillion degrees. That was Tuesday. Thursday night at 8:30 pm, I got a wake-up call about the challenges of the slow-moving state of […]

Ray Zaborney is the Real Republican Threat to LGBTQ People in Pennsylvania

Ray Zaborney Caitlyn Jenner joke

From Billy Penn comes this (not) shocking transphobic move by Republicans On Thursday morning, Ray Zaborney, a well-known political consultant whose GOP-leaning firm was recently retained to handle Wagner’s media operations, texted a meme of television personality Caitlyn Jenner next to a statement that seemingly mocks the celebrity’s gender transition. Zaborney sent the meme to four people: Jason High, […]

Shantee Tucker 19th Trans Person Reported Murdered in the US This Year

Shantee Tucker Philadelphia

Shantee Tucker had just celebrated her 31st birthday earlier this week on September 2. Today, we mourn her untimely death shot in the back in Philadelphia, making her the 19th trans neighbor whose violent death we report on this year. From Philly.mag According to a police report, at 1:05 a.m. on Wednesday morning officers responded […]

Frank Stickman, a boy 12 years old, was killed by an elevator in February 1890 in Downtown Pittsburgh

Content Note: description of industrial accident When I think of Labor Day and other hallmarks of organized labor, I now think of a 12-year-old boy. His name was Frank Stickman. I met him during my family tree research. Frankie was born in 1878 to a poor working family living in Duquesne Heights. His parents, Herman […]

Vontashia Bell, 18, is the 18th Trans Neighbor Reported Murdered in the US in 2018

Vontasia Bell

Of course it is just 24 hours after I wrote about the murder of De’Janay Stanton that I am back at the keyboard blogging about another murder of a Black trans woman, this time an 18-year-old Vontashia Bell in Shreveport, Louisiana.  And my heart is broken for a second time in two days. She was […]

That Time When @VerizonSupport Transferred Me to a Fake ‘Loyalty Department’ to Resolve a Problem

Laura and I have been Verizon wireless customers since 2005. While we aren’t upgrading our phones every few years, we are a consistent part of their customer base. It is a conservative guesstimate that we’ve spent over $20,280 to be part of the Verizon network for all of these years. That doesn’t include phones. I’ve […]

WESA Revamped Daily ‘Confluence’ News Program Misses the Point

Most Liveable Boosterism

I heard a long time ago that local NPR affiliate WESA 90.5 FM was planning to launch a daily newsprogram. It seemed like a good idea. We need daily news here in Pittsburgh. I wasn’t particularly thrilled that existing program The Confluence would be expanded rather than create a new program. The Confluence was originally […]

Today I Learned My Then-80-Year-Old 5th Great-Grandfather was Recruiting Newspaper Subscribers in 1858 for the Pittsburgh Gazette

My whole life long, I’ve had a connection to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette through my great-grandfather, Gilbert Remley. Gil had a long history as a newspaperman, starting as a copy boy for the Pittsburgh Sun in 1906 and retiring in August 1958 as the Executive Sports Editor for the Post-Gazette. Today, I learned something astonishing about […]

Not in Kerryville Anymore

Mick Jagger flower

Grief is a tricky bastard. You are doing the most benign task, have a casual or sweet or amusing thought, and reach for the phone to share the moment. Then, you remember. The other person, in this case my friend Kerry S. Kennedy, isn’t there to read the text or answer the phone or listen […]