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I hope the message of our zine is that safety and joy come first, and that you absolutely deserve both as an LGBTQ person. It’s not always easy to see that when the message you’re getting from your family is that you aren’t allowed to participate in holidays and family unless you censor your queerness to make others comfortable.
Happy Holidays! It has been a lovely season of giving in the midst of an ongoing series of blows targeting the LGBTQ community, both locally and nationally. And it is never too late to give and to invest in your LGBTQ neighbors. Here are some ways that remain open through the holidays and into 2019. […]
It is not a good week when you are comparing the poor customer service of both local grocery chain Giant Eagle and local healthcare giant, Allegheny Health Network. Note – if anyone chimes in with the word “Aldi’s” – you will be on my list. On Tuesday, I went to my PCP on Federal Street […]
We have published 279 Q&A’s to date. Western Pennsylvania has about 4 million residents and about 210,000 LGBTQ residents. How many have you read? And have you shared your story using our online Q&A? Below is a reverse chronological list of the AMPLIFY Q&A’s Maria Talks Lesbian Life in the North Hills of Pittsburgh Suzanne, […]
Name: Maria Vincenzia La Monica Age: 33 County of Residence: Allegheny Pronouns: she/her How do you describe your identity? Female, Lesbian, writer, cancer survivor, advocate, enthusiast. Please describe your coming out experience. Where did you find support? What challenges did you face? I was deeply closeted until I was 29, I walked out of the closet and into the […]
In a twist of irony that is just basically unfair, I find myself facing yet another round of the dreaded abdominal and transvaginal ultrasounds. Last January, I had a complete hysterectomy – complete means they removed my uterus and my cervix, leaving the ovaries. I was just 47 at the time of surgery so not […]
You are welcome, Rick. I’ve kept this since December 1991. Please feel free to circulate in place of the photo with Maria Butina. Even better, a friend of mine created this and sent it to me earlier today …
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I had a sort of NPR ‘driveway moment’ this weekend. Mine was in the parking lot of Walgreens where I was heading to pick up a medication for the dog. I flipped on WESA because I was a little weary of Christmas music. Listening to Lee Smith on The Moth Radio Hour reminisce about his […]
The phrase ‘a new low’ seems inadequate to describe the mean-spirited, churlish, vicious, nasty, hateful bitterness of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Editorial Board. But writing out that serious of descriptive words repeatedly is equally insufficient to capture the true evil this Board has embraced. This week, they published this scathing indictment of Twitter’s new speech policies […]
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