On World AIDS Day, The Pittsburgh LGBTQIA+ Commission Remembers and Honors Anthony Silvestre — Researcher and Activist Who Dedicated His Life’s Work to Ending AIDS

Since 1988 and every year thereafter on December 1, World AIDS Day has been an international  day for global health in the fight against AIDS. On this day, our communities remember those who  we lost to HIV/AIDS, cherish those who are living with HIV, and recognize the impact this disease   has had on families and […]

There is a Wrong Way to Celebrate Thanksgiving

This year, Thanksgiving is an empty space. Usually there is family. But several members of my extended family blame me for unrest and there is a very large gulf. So holidays are diced into rotating portions of time and energy. Sometimes there is good food, my favorite meal of the year. But I am rarely […]

Processing Trauma of Childhood Hunger

Last week, my therapist and I picked up with EMDR to process more trauma. We intentionally defined a period of my childhood that was brutal, 1979-1983, or the years of 4th to 8th grade. Historically, EMDR has been quite helpful with my lesser traumas and anxiety. The hard stuff hasn’t cooperated and we’ve respected that. […]

Fazing my therapist

My childhood sucked. I knew it then, I know it now. I’ve been working with my current therapist for over four years. She specializes in trauma processing and we’ve spoken at length about some of the atrocities in my life. But with all of her experience, it is hard to faze her. Until this week. […]

PA Senate Debate: Dr. Oz Says Abortion Decisions Should Be Between”a Woman, her Doctor, and Local Political Leaders”

“I don’t want the federal government involved with that at all. I want women, doctors, local political leaders, letting the democracy that’s always allowed our nation to thrive to put the best ideas forward so states can decide for themselves.” Dr. Mehmet Oz

My World Mental Health Day in 2022

World Mental Health Day

CN: childhood sexual violence, trauma This World Mental Health Day, I’m thinking ahead 12 days to my birthday (Oct 22.) I have a complicated relationship with my birthday because of the trauma I experienced during my childhood along with the neglect and abuse. There’s a lot of reasons – the inconsistent celebrations, the shame and […]

GI Sue: Part Seven in a Chronic Health Crisis

Sue Kerr Cats

When we left my little saga in the spring, I was waiting to see a rheumatologist, That was April. It took until late September to do so. Is it me or does it seem like appointments with specialists are even harder to secure now than before the pandemic? My dermatologist is booking nearly 18 months […]

Living With Birthday Anxiety

My birthday is October 22. This year, I turn 52. I’m not at all worried about aging because I was brought up to believe that our 50’s are a great time period. Not THE 50’s but our decade of being 50. To be clear. And that’s proving to be the case. I’m a better version […]

We Were Fired as a Nielsen Family Because We Had COVID-19

Neilsen Ratings Fired Our Family

We wanted to be a Nielsen Family because we know accurate ratings are important for the survival of quality programming. We are avid consumers of media and grieve the closure of stations and outlets and publications. We wanted to do our bit to help. This is the sort of blog post you just never see […]

Just To Be The Ally Who Raised $1000 To Lay Down at Your Door

Da da da (da da da)Da da da (da da da)Da Da Da Dun Diddle Un Diddle Un Diddle Uh Da Da My nickname for the group of queer and trans youth who developed the #ProtectTransKidsDay proclamation is “The Proclaimers” Already unhappy that trans kids reported (too) much misgendering and deadnaming in healthcare settings, they […]