Five Essential Lessons From Pittsburgh Pridefest 2014

Pittsburgh Pridefest

I am breaking my silence on events that unfolded at Pittsburgh Pridefest. As some of you know, my partner of eleven years is an investigator with the City’s Office of Municipal Investigations so I do not comment publicly on active investigations of alleged police misconduct. But there are some serious problems with how the LGBTQ community is responding to this […]

Lunch with Randy Forrester

Randy Forrester

You can choose any person from history to teach you any topic you want. Who’s your teacher, and what do they teach you? Lately, I’ve been reading some LGBTQ memoir type books – learning about our history from the 1980’s, 1990’s and 2000’s through the eyes of Sean Strub (“Body Counts“) and Kelly Cogswell (“Eating […]

Five Articles about Pittsburgh’s LGBTQ History You Don’t Want To Miss (re)Reading

Pittsburgh Pride

I’ve been on this kick lately of reading archived media coverage of Pittsburgh’s LGBTQ history. I set up several “Scoop.It” sites to curate the information. One is specific to the Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Pittsburgh and the other is general LGBTQ Pittsburgh history. Scoop.It is a neat tool – you can follow my […]

Pgh Gay Men Assaulted in Alleged Gay Bashing Incident

Two local men, Ben Stoviak and his boyfriend Aaron , reported that they were physically assaulted by three unknown men around 2 AM Sunday morning. Stoviak posted this on his Facebook page: Last night, a group of men attacked me and my boyfriend on Butler Street in Lawrenceville. After yelling, from across the street, “Faggot!” […]

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Series on Mental Illness

This week, the Post-Gazette is running a series by the excellent Joe Smydo about the impact of the closure of Mayview State Hospital on people living with mental illness in this region. A special five-part series Sunday, Sept. 22: Overview and portrait of former Mayview State Hospital patients. Monday, Sept. 23: Community hospitals struggle with […]

LGBTQ&A: Ted Hoover – Activist, Father, Leader

An occasional series where we pose some questions to local LGBTQ folks (and Allies) to learn more about their personal experiences with LGBTQ culture. Ledcat has known Ted for many years, but I’ve gotten to know him through his work with Persad Center – Ted is currently coordinating “Safe Zones” projects in outlying counties. Ted […]

PERSAD CENTER, GLSEN, AND PFLAG TO HOST SAFE SCHOOLS SUMMIT

Contact: Leslie Fleisher FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Cell: 412.956.9120 Email: lfleisher@persadcenter.org  PERSAD CENTER, GLSEN, AND PFLAG TO HOST SAFE SCHOOLS SUMMIT Safe Schools Summit: Bridging the Gap Between Anti-Bullying Efforts And The Experience of LGBTQ Youth PITTSBURGH, PA – January 2, 2012. Persad Center, GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network), and PFLAG (Parents and Friends of […]