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Name: Chris Rickert Age: 40 County of Residence: Allegheny County. Born in upstate NY, moved to Pittsburgh to attend CMU. Never left. Preferred Pronouns: she/her How do you describe your identity? I’m an Aspie. A queer girl with some kinks. Italian-Scottish-Irish-German. Please describe your coming out experience. Where did you find support? What challenges did you face? Coming out was definitely […]
Welcome to the second edition of our new feature – a signal boost to the efforts of our #AMPLIFY contributors to strengthen our communities. Our first post was well received! This list is not all-inclusive or comprehensive, but we’ll do our best to share the items our contributors ask us to promote. If you’d like […]
Describe your geographical community. Suburban. East of Pgh. Not especially QUILTBAG friendly, no. I wouldn’t talk about going to Pride around here, in Public. I grew up in Pgh, and lived through the ’70s where my mom would party at Pegasus with my godfather and his partner. I lived through the ’80s where my godfather went to too many funerals. I’ve seen the changes, but it still feels like not enough. I visit Canada regularly and it’s just… normal, there, to see businesses advertising to Same-sex couples. To see those couples represent an average family, because they do, numerically.
Describe your local or regional LGBTQ community. I have a fairly good group of friends and colleagues, but my home area is… Not great and I’ve had some negative experiences with the Pgh community being very white, very cis, very class privileged, very LG dominated and very trans exclusionist. I may be cis, but I’m not going to sit by and ignore that. It’s a little… Lonely. I commute into the city, but coming back in isn’t always easy just to socialize and I’m not in my 20s, clubbing is just not my thing.
Name: Caiolin Age: 56 County of Residence: Allegheny County Preferred Pronouns: She, her How do you describe your identity? Female, heterosexual, white, Irish German atheist. Please describe your coming out experience. Where did you find support? What challenges did you face? I am a trans-woman that transitioned after 30 years of marriage and two children. I had fooled myself for […]
We have a new feature that we hope will be a regular post on the blog – a signal boost to the efforts of our #AMPLIFY contributors to strengthen our communities. This list is not all-inclusive or comprehensive, but we’ll do our best to share the items our contributors ask us to promote. If you’d […]
I came out to my mom when I was 16. She is a compassionate and reasonably progressive person but I come from a fundamentalist Christian family. I really didn’t know how it would go.
I wrote out what I planned to say and rehearsed my rebuttals. When I finally got up the nerve all of those words drained from my mind and I simply said, “I’m gay. ” My mom responded just as simply with, “I know.”
I won’t say I didn’t run into any challenges as an openly gay high school student or since (coming out is constant) but I have the benefit of an extremely supportive family, church community, and group of friends. That gives me a lot of strength when folks aren’t so kind.
It began with a Facebook message around 9 pm the other night. A member of our community reached out to me because her high school aged son was helping to organize a student-led rally. The next morning at 7:30 AM. She wondered if I had or knew of someone who had a bullhorn for the […]
Name: Megan Age: 22 County of Residence: Allegheny County, formerly Indiana County Preferred Pronouns: Miss How do you describe your identity? Female, white, bisexual Please describe your coming out experience. Where did you find support? What challenges did you face? I haven’t fully come out to my family yet because I grew up being told that it wasn’t ok to be […]
Name: Ally Age: 20 County of Residence: Lawrence County. My parents house is in Lawrence county but I currently live in Allegheny for school with my girlfriend. Preferred Pronouns: She/her How do you describe your identity? That’s a good question. I do identify as a white female, but as for sexual orientation I don’t know. I don’t like to label […]
Name: Maddy Age: 23 County of Residence: Allegheny Preferred Pronouns: She/her and they/their How do you describe your identity? I identify predominantly as a queer woman and as gender non conforming. Please describe your coming out experience. Where did you find support? What challenges did you face? I remember coming out as an extremely difficult experience. I really […]
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