UPMC v Highmark: Chapter 897689

Highmark UPMC

For the past several months, I have been interviewed by reporter Carolyn Johnson for a Washington Post piece on the Pittsburgh healthcare scene. More specifically, she was writing about the impact of two companies ‘stacking’ healthcare insurance with healthcare providers into what we know as UPMC and Highmark/Allegheny Health Network. I think vertical integration is the […]

Humane Action Pittsburgh Defends Collaboration with State Senator Guy Reschenthaler

Last week, I blogged about the plans by Animal Friends and Humane Action Pittsburgh to host State Senator Guy Reschenthaler – R for a conversation about animal rights at a meeting scheduled for Tuesday, February 13 at the Animal Friends campus on Camp Horne Road.  Here is the response of Humane Action Pittsburgh as posted […]

Celine Walker, 36, is the 4th Trans Woman Murdered in the US in 2018

Celine Walker

Celine Walker was 36 years old when she died in a Florida motel room from a gunshot wound. She died on Sunday, February 4, 2018. She is the 4th transgender woman, the 3rd trans woman of color, and the second Black trans woman that we know of to be killed in 2018 in the United […]

Local LGBTQ Links We’re Reading – February 9, 2018

Here are the LGBTQ related links we’ve been reading this past week. Let us know what we missed. I’m just getting restarted on this feature so I am sure I’ve missed some pieces. Please leave a comment if you know something I should include. A local business owner’s gay son is making an impact in […]

Tonya ‘Kita’ Harvey is 3rd Trans Person Murdered in 2018 #RIP

  Tonya Harvey was a 35-year-old Black trans woman living in Buffalo, New York. According to the Buffalo News, she was fatally shot on a dead-end street around 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday and declared dead at the scene. (References to misgendering and deadnaming at the link.) At 5:30 in the afternoon. She was killed in the […]

#Hysterecovery and Mental Health

lesbian hysterectomy

It is hard to ask for what you need when your requests are denied. I keep asking people to drop off Turners Iced Tea and coffee creamer, but no one has because they think I’m joking. So asking your surgeon to please call you on a Friday afternoon because you think something is wrong? Asking your boss for just a few more minutes on your break because your body feels like hell? Asking your insurance provider to reconsider your appeal about coverage? Asking your preschooler not to cuddle because your entire abdomen is inflamed? Asking your partner to please do this one more thing on top of everything else extra they are doing? 

Regarding State Senator Guy Reschenthaler and Animal Friends, Humane Action Pittsburgh

Just to be very clear – no one has suggested that Animal Friends or Humane Action Pittsburgh are endorsing Guy Reschenthaler. I have stated that they are giving him a platform by inviting him to speak at their meeting – this is the problem. This is how spin works. People pick up fragments of a […]

Animal Friends, Humane Action Pittsburgh Give State Senator Guy Reschenthaler Platform

The animal rights world has its own rules and intersectionality is not often among them. But even I was shocked to see two local animal welfare/rights organization create a platform for State Senator Guy Reschenthaler (State Senator Guy) to talk about his strong commitment to critters. Who is this State Senator Guy? He’s very pro-fracking […]

Nominate Your Favs for the Pittsburgh Magazine Readers’ Poll

I’m not a glossy magazine type of person, but I’ve noticed Pittsburgh Magazine stepping away from the frou-frou and toward more actual journalism recently. That’s encouraging. It is the time of year for their annual Readers’ Poll. So I’m going to make a list of all the folks I think deserve your vote. This sort […]