John, 38, Is a Johnstown Based LGBTQ Activist #AMPLIFY

Johnstown Gay

John has the distinction of being the 100th person profiled in this series since May 2015. Thank you, John. Name: John DeBartola Age: 38 County of Residence: I hail from New Jersey. I lived in Susquehanna County, PA when I was finishing high school. I have lived in Cambria County, PA and the surrounding area since 1995. Preferred […]

Joe Was Dragged Out of The Closet As A Young Man #AMPLIFY

Name: Joe Age: 36 County of Residence:  Allegheny Preferred Pronouns: He How do you describe your identity? Gay male.  Please describe your coming out experience. Where did you find support? What challenges did you face? Everyone has a different story but for me, I was sort of dragged out of the closet as a young man. I think people […]

Jeff Hopes LGBTQ Community Will Embrace Common Queer Identity #AMPLIFY

Gay Pittsburgh

Name: Jeff Age:  66 County of Residence:  Allegheny Preferred Pronouns: he, him, his How do you describe your identity? I am a gay man. Please describe your coming out experience. Where did you find support? What challenges did you face? It took me many years to come out. I was 49 when I finally was able to be honest […]

Larry Traces His Coming Out to JFK and A Frat Brother #AMPLIFY

Larry Gay Pittsburgh

Read the entire AMPLIFY LGBTQ Q&A archive. AMPLIFY LGBTQ is a new occasional series of blog posts designed to give a “signal boost” to the voices of our LGBTQ neighbors throughout Western Pennsylvania. We are using a Q&A format and will minimize editing their responses. The questions, however, may change as we ask each participant to […]

Skip Believes The Act of Coming Out Is A Continuous Process #AMPLIFY

Read the entire AMPLIFY LGBTQ Q&A archive. AMPLIFY LGBTQ is a new occasional series of blog posts designed to give a “signal boost” to the voices of our LGBTQ neighbors throughout Western Pennsylvania. We are using a Q&A format and will mostly avoid editing their responses. The questions, however, may change as we ask each […]

Storyteller Staci Backauskus From Pittsburgh Pride Theater Festival

Pittsburgh Pride Theater

The Pittsburgh Pride Theater Festival returns for it’s sixth season this weekend. We caught up with Judy Meiksin yesterday to learn more about the event. Today, we’ll talk with one of the authors, Staci Backauskus. You can read our interview with director Ted Hoover from last year. The festival runs the first two weekends in June on the third floor of Bricolage Theater on Liberty Avenue. […]

Pittsburgh: Gay-friendly, or “anti gay” friendly?

I am very amused by all of the national (and international) media attention that has tabbed Pittsburgh as a hip, happening city. If we’re so hip and happening, why do we seem to breed crusaders against the “homosexual menace”? There are calls for the CEO of the Mozilla Foundation (developers of the Firefox web browser) […]