A statement from Christian Carter’s family

You may recognize Christian from his tireless work on the frontlines of recent actions seeking #Justice4AntwonRose. On Wednesday afternoon, 18-year-old Christian was taken to a local hospital for what his mother thought was exhaustion, dehydration and malnourishment. It turns out he was having an appendicitis attack and is scheduled for immediate surgery. His family is […]

Concrete Ways to Support Pgh Protestors #AntwonRose #Justice4Antwon UPDATED AGAIN

SPECIAL NOTE – We’ve had a recent problem with Amazon deliveries. With the help of some great allies, we’ve worked it out. Your deliveries should be back on track. If you get a message from Amazon, please use their chat feature to make sure that is the case. We apologize for the confusion and REALLY […]

Three LGBTQ Black Voices Speak Out About the Shooting of Antwon Rose in Pittsburgh

Before our local Pride events, a friend contacted me – she’s a journalist and was working on a piece about the intersection of queer and Black identities. She wanted to know if any of our AMPLIFY contributors might be interested in talking with her (because she gets the point of AMPLIFY – to signal boost […]

Can We Find 11 New #AMPLIFY Donors to Celebrate 11 Years on Facebook?

Tuesday, July 19 will mark 11 years since I joined Facebook. This past May, I celebrated 10 years on Twitter. That’s a lot of content created and shared.  In that time, I’ve gone through three laptops, a tablet, and six phones. I took a closer look at the OP I shared and was (not) surprised […]

My Family Story: The Hidden Legacy of Caroline Feil (1858-1936)

Welcome to the next installment of My Family Story focusing on my 2x great-grandmothers. This is the story of Caroline Feil Bliss (1858-1936) who is my maternal grandmother’s mother’s mother. Caroline was born in New Baltimore, Somerset County in 1858. The story of Grandma Caroline is itself quite a tale, as is the story of finding […]

Amplify LGBTQ Voices from Pittsburgh’s Northside Because We Believe In Our Back Yards

We have a very special opportunity right now to receive a 100% match from the Buhl Foundation for a one-time hyperlocal AMPLIFY blitz. This is an extension of the One Northside project. A few weeks ago, I was asked to identify LGBTQ resources on the Northside – from any or all of the 18 neighborhoods. […]

Pride is in the Person, not the Parade: A Guest Blog Post by Billy Hileman

A guest post from longtime LGBTQ activist and former Pride committee member, Billy Hileman. This is in response to decisions by the Delta Foundation that excluded Richard Parsakian’s participation as curator of dance performances at the festival, and separately left him no choice but to withdraw the historic rainbow pride flag. For the first time in […]

Scoop: Charlie Deitch in Talks to Launch New Alt-Weekly?

In follow-up to my blog post about protesting the City Paper’s ‘Best of Pittsburgh’ awards, I heard an interesting snippet: recently dismissed editor Charlie Deitch is in talks with local folks (investors) to launch a new alt-weekly in Pittsburgh. I spoke with Charlie about this rumor and he responded I am working closely with Rick […]

Q&A: ‘Nomad Motel’ Playwright Carla Ching on Creating Responsible, Thoughtful, and Human Art

Carla Ching

A new play is debuting at the City Theatre this month, Nomad Motel written by Carla Ching.  This show also marks the debut of a ‘pay what you want’ option at City Theatre during select performances. Details at the end of this post. May 12 – June 3, 2018 In the not-so-sunny side of California, Alix […]

Joseph, 28, is a HIV+ queer and gay man in Pittsburgh #AMPLIFY

A HIV+ queer and gay man Pittsburgh

  Name: Joseph Onstott Age:  28 County of Residence:  Allegheny Pronouns: he/him/his they/their How do you describe your identity? A HIV+ queer and gay man Please describe your coming out experience. Where did you find support? What challenges did you face? I feel like straight people have this idea in their head that it’s an overnight process when it is anything […]