Q&A with Therapist Matthew Reinhart About Trauma During a Pandemic

Trauma

How are you doing? I feel the weight of the world so I reached out to some experts on trauma to offer some insight into navigating our personal challenges, our encounters with the anti-maskers, and more as queer people. These are really long reads because the topics are intense and novel (couldn’t resist.) I hope […]

Is it really Day 178?

At some point, I screwed up counting the days so I have no clue if its Day 178 or not. At some point, does it matter? We’ve been held captive by a virus and federal incompetency for a fucking long time. My days are defined by therapy on Monday, housekeeper Shanon on Tuesdays so I […]

Day 177: Not Much To Say, I Guess

There’s certainly a lot going on, things to discuss and unpack. But I’m struggling to condense information into any semblance of a blog post. We took the evening off from the news to go pick up a leather elephant for our youngest nibling. Then we curled up in bed while foster cat Spencer had his […]

This Will Get Better for Some of Us: Day 174

CN: depression, suicide I woke up this morning from that thick fog of nightmares, the sort you have to physically wade yourself free from without succumbing to the false awakenings. I pulled my groggy subconscious free from traumatic images and experiences and sat up in bed with a start. As I sat there reorienting myself […]

On Day 171, Our Dog Died

My dog died

At 3 AM this morning, we rushed our dog to the ER vet office and had to put her to sleep. She was 14 or thereabouts. We adopted Ana from a rescue in May 2008. She was about two years old and had been removed from an abusive home with a broken pelvis. Her foster […]

On Day 170, I am missing Eat n’ Park

Eat'nPark

Today marks 170 days of quarantining here in Pittsburgh. At first, I didn’t track this particular statistic, it would only be sad to watch the number climb. That was in March. By the time August rolled around, I wanted to be conscious of that number so I started posting to my Instagram daily, a photo […]

About the Delta Foundation and Pittsburgh Pridefest 2020

Delta Foundation Pittsburgh Pride

By now, you have likely heard this news – the Delta Foundation is dissolving and a new coalition has emerged to pick up the Pride mantle moving forward. UPDATE –> there are now two coalitions planning Pride 2021 events. Plus, People’s Pride. I’ve been expecting this decision, really since 2015 when Roots Pride challenged us […]

Dear David, August 20, 2020.

David DeAngelo Pittsburgh

Dear David, Thanks for your letter. Ah, music. On Sunday evenings, Laura and I listen to 3WS (94.5) the local oldies station for the rebroadcast of Casey Kasem’s American Top 40. In the morning, they air an 80’s version and in the evenings, a 70’s edition. Laura is seven years older than me so she […]

Q&A with Blogger Mark S. King about Awards, HIV Storytelling, and Finding Hope in a Pandemic

Mark S. King GLAAD Award

As the reigning GLAAD OUTstanding LGBTQ Blog from 2019, it has been my duty to to pass the title and tiara to the 2020 winner, Mark S. King from My Fabulous Disease. While he’s been getting a lot of mileage from his Susan Lucci status as ‘always a bridesmaid, never a bride’ these past years, […]

Q&A with Matt Merriman-Preston about Voting by Mail in November’s Election

Earlier this year, I published two Q&A’s about the rapid changes to the Pennsylvania primary voting process, one with Kris Rust and one with Matt Merriman-Preston. In late July, I approached them about updating for the General Election. Then Trump swooped down on the United States Post Office and tried to break it. He literally […]