The 2025 Political Q&A Series: Erika Strassburger, Candidate For Pittsburgh City Council District 8

No one should be punished simply because they have found themself in an abusive relationship. Knowing how difficult it is for people to leave these relationships when the abuser has gained often emotional, financial, social, and physical power over them, I felt strongly that they should have every tool possible to gain their independence, freedom, […]

The 2025 Political Q&A Series: Amanda Neatrour for Pittsburgh City Council, District Two

Representation in government is extremely important. We haven’t had a Black woman on City Council since 2009, and there have never been more than two Black people on council at any given time. I also do not recall the last time we had a truly active disability rights advocate who was also disabled on City […]

Pgh LGBTQIA+ Commission Recommends City Officials Not Engage Radio Stations

Disclosure: I am a member of this Commission and currently serve as a co-chair. I also introduced this recommendation to the Commission. I am available for comment. ~ Sue Commissioners: Kathi Boyle • Nekia Burton Tucker • Denise DeSimone • Jam Hammond • Billy Hileman • Sue Kerr • Bruce Kraus • Maria MontañoLenny Orbovich […]

Q&A With Bethani Cameron, Candidate for City Council District 4

Bethani Cameron

Let’s re-imagine public safety with a heavy emphasis on mental health and substance use response teams who have many years of school to understand how to evaluate and de-escalate, and how to encourage ongoing treatment for those who need it.  We make police do this now. It doesn’t work. We will have more and more […]

Theresa Kail-Smith Named Pgh City Council President

After genuinely worrying about the potential to put a Christian pastor with a disturbing history into the role of President of Pittsburgh City Council, I am truly relieved even buoyed to share that they unanimously chose Theresa Kail-Smith From WESA Pittsburgh City Council unanimously voted to make District 2 Councilor Theresa Kail-Smith Council President on […]

Q&A with Deb Gross, Candidate for Pittsburgh City Council District 7

Deb Gross for City Council

We are revisiting our Political Q&A series for the upcoming elections of 2019. We’ve reached out to candidates who are pro-choice and pro-LGBTQ, asking them a series of questions about their campaigns. We’ve sent out about a dozen Q&A’s to folks who agreed to participate. Candidates can be anywhere in Pennsylvania running for any level of […]

UPDATED with Comment from Mayor Peduto – City Earns Perfect Score in LGBTQ Equality Index, Remains Mum on Chick-fil-A Sponsorship of Pittsburgh Marathon

This one hurts me on a personal level. When we learned that the Pittsburgh Marathon was teaming up with Chick-fil-A to sponsor the youth events, some of the first people contacted for support were City of Pittsburgh officials. They made a lot of promises about looking into things, standing with the LGBTQ community in a […]

Make Pittsburgh Great Again?

The Incline has an in-depth look at the contested race for City Council in District Four. You should really, really read it Each time I hear/read Coghill say “Back to Basics” – I hear/read “Make America Great Again.” Is it just me? Look at the key phrases in this quote. It is a bit eerie. […]

City of Butler Considers Expanding Non-Discrimination Protections to LGBTQ Community

Butler County Queer

This is a very important blog post about a very important decision taking place just a wee bit north of Downtown Pgh. Butler City Council is considering creating a Human Relations Authority that would be responsible for ensuring resident of the City are protected in areas of employment, housing and public accommodation from discrimination based […]

Pgh City Council President Will Not Participate in Pittsburgh Pride

Bruce Kraus Pittsburgh

A statement released by openly gay City Council President Bruce Kraus reads as follows: I have to add something here – Kraus has had conversations with former members of the foundation’s board. That’s a group from whom we have heard almost nothing. There’s a lot of unpacking to be done here.