84 Trans Stories from Western Pennsylvania on the Trans Day of Visibility

Transgender Awareness Week

March 31 is the International Transgender Day of Visibility, devoted to raising the visibility of transgender and gender nonconforming (GNC) neighbors both in terms of their resiliency and successes as well as the realities of transphobic bias and violence. I’ve curated 84 stories from our #AMPLIFY project to illustrate the multi-faceted experiences of transgender neighbors […]

Lexi, 33, was a Black Trans Woman Murdered in Harlem

I don’t have many details about the life of Lexi “Ebony” Sutton. She was 33. She has friends who mourn her. I’m not sure if Ebony was a nickname, a house affiliation, etc. There are far too many details about the horrific murder that took her life in Harlem in the early hours of Saturday […]

Monica Diamond, 34, Black Trans Woman Murdered in North Carolina

Monica Diamond

Monica Diamond was 34-years-old Black trans woman living in Charlotte, North Carolina. Monica was the co-owner and founder of NC Phyne Promotion Company LLC, an event promotion company. She also was the co-CEO of the International Mother of the Year Pageantry System — a pageant that honors LGBTQ mothers. On March 18. Monica became the […]

My Western Pennsylvania Snow Globe

Author’s note: My name is Rachel, and I consider myself to be the product of a typical Pennsylvanian upbringing. Fire hall marriages with cookie tables, going to Idlewild Park on a hot summer day, and eating home-made gobs on my back porch, are all things that I remember from my childhood. I am transgender, and […]

“This is What Happens When You Piss Off an Old Lesbian”

Lesbian Transgender Ally

My friend Joyce is a good person – great sense of humor, compassion that extends into forever, good storyteller, and a no bullshit kind of woman. She’s a lesbian, mother of one adult child, and has a cat. And she’s disabled to the point of being mostly housebound especially in bad weather. She lives in […]

Why does J.K. Rowling think her queer and trans fans don’t count?

(TW: transphobia, rape) I’m trying to figure out what’s motivating J.K. Rowling to defecate on her trans and queer fans from a great height, and I’m failing miserably. I’m also at a loss to figure out why the U.K. and Ireland seem to be a nexus for trans-exclusionary bullshit. I have some theories centering around […]

The Criminal Complaint Against Gary Van Horn Illustrates (Again) Divides in Pittsburgh’s LGBTQ Community

The local LGBTQ community is abuzz with the revelation that Delta Foundation President Gary Van Horn has started a Pittsburgh chapter of the Rosco P Coltrane fan club and “unofficially” brought Allegheny County Sheriff Mullen, a few notaries, and his friend “Timmy” along with him. (see images below to interpret that allusion.) Gary has been […]