Diane, 56, Is Asexual With Lesbian Leanings and a Writer #AMPLIFY

Asexual Flag

Name: Diane Age: 56 County of Residence:  Allegheny Preferred Pronouns: she How do you describe your identity? I am asexual with lesbian leanings. I am white, never married and live with my sister. I also write GLBT romance novels. Please describe your coming out experience. Where did you find support? What challenges did you face? Did not realize I had […]

Pixie, 26, is Androgynous, Non-binary, Genderqueer and Lesbian, But Identifies as Pixie #AMPLIFY

Fayette County lesbian

Name: Pixie Colbert Age: 26 County of Residence:  Allegheny, grew up in Fayette County Preferred Pronouns: She/Her/They/Them How do you describe your identity? I am a strong-willed, sweet hearted, intelligent, extroverted introvert, androgynous, non-binary, genderqueer, lesbian. I perform drag as Mr. Ace Phoenix. I am not a fan of labels. Period. I feel I can identify as a lot […]

Tylor, 30, Is a Pansexual Trans Man Who Wants Better For Young People #AMPLIFY

Allegheny County Transgender

Name: Tylor Age: 30 County of Residence:  Allegheny, previously Crawford and Venango counties Preferred Pronouns:  he/his How do you describe your identity? I am a pansexual transman. Please describe your coming out experience. Where did you find support? What challenges did you face? My coming out experience was scary. My mom had found a note I had wrote to […]

Nayck, 50, Identifies As a Black Gay Domini-rican in Pittsburgh #AMPLIFY

Gay Pittsburgh

  Name: Nayck Age: 50 County of Residence: Allegheny County, previously Philadelphia Preferred Pronouns: he/him/his How do you describe your identity? That can be a loaded question. I was born in the US, of Dominican parents and grew up in Puerto Rico. I’m of African descent, and consider myself gay. I guess that makes me a black, gay Domini-rican. Please […]

We Asked #AMPLIFY Contributors About Their Favorite Characters

LGBTQ characters AMPLIFY

We are pulling out some of the responses to the AMPLIFY survey for a closer examination. These are open-ended questions and people take liberties with their interpretation. What I did here was use a word cloud program that eliminates common words like ‘the’ and generates word size in proportion to frequency. So the largest words […]

Jill, 49, Wants Young LGBTQ People To Have a Safe Place to Go In Cambria County #AMPLIFY

lesbian cambria county

  Name: Jill Age: 49 County of Residence:  Cambria, grew up in Somerset Preferred Pronouns: she/her How do you describe your identity? Woman, female, lesbian Please describe your coming out experience. Where did you find support? What challenges did you face? I was 23. Married to a man who very much understood me. Met a woman and spent the next […]

As A Gay Man, Ryan Wants More Scrutiny of Bath Houses and Non-Profits #AMPLIFY

Gay Allegheny County

Name: Ryan Age: 42 County of Residence: Allegheny.  I grew up in NE Ohio until the age of about 23. Preferred Pronouns: He, she, it, they, etc? How do you describe your identity? I’m an adult, white, gay, male, humanist, Democrat. Please describe your coming out experience. Where did you find support? What challenges did you face? It happened in stages, false […]

Dani Janae, 23, Identifies as a Black Femme Lesbian Poet & Trauma Survivor #AMPLIFY

Allegheny County lesbian

Name: Dani Janae Age: 23 County of Residence:  Allegheny, attended college in Crawford County Preferred Pronouns: she/her How do you describe your identity? I identify as a black femme lesbian, poet, trauma survivor. Please describe your coming out experience. Where did you find support? What challenges did you face? My coming out process was gradual. I started by self-identifying as […]

117 Ways to Describe LGBTQ Identity

We ask contributors this question “Please describe your identity.” No checkboxes. No drop down menu. No predetermined categories. Just an open-ended question and a text field for people to write their response. 117 people have responded thus far (110 published, the others in the ‘to be published’ queue.) As you can see, each person wrote […]

Jay, 54, Considers His Gay Identity Both Now and Then #AMPLIFY

Allegheny Gay

Name:  Jay Age: 54 County of Residence:  Allegheny Preferred Pronouns: he How do you describe your identity? father, gay male, spiritual and social worker Please describe your coming out experience. Where did you find support? What challenges did you face? I came out to friends and family my first year of college. The friends I hung around in high […]