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Okay, Pittsburgh. Who turned on fall?
Students are back on campus, the mornings suddenly have a little chill to them, and for the first time in months, stepping outside doesn’t immediately feel like walking into soup.
Summer isn’t over yet. But you can feel things changing.
Maybe that’s appropriate, because this week’s Slay Weekly is all about progress.
Sometimes progress comes with a huge announcement. Sometimes it’s a number moving in the right direction after decades of work. Sometimes it’s a quick message reminding you that something you’re doing matters.
And sometimes progress is entirely personal: realizing that your life doesn’t need to look like anybody else’s to be moving forward.
We spend so much time racing toward the next milestone that we don’t always notice how far we’ve already come.
So on this suspiciously autumnal Monday morning, we’re taking a minute to notice.
Grab a coffee or tea and let’s slay the week.
SLAY OF THE WEEK: 53 and Still Counting Down
This week’s Slay of the Week goes to everyone who helped Allegheny County reach an extraordinary milestone:
In 2025, just 53 people were newly diagnosed with HIV, the lowest number ever recorded in the county.
That’s a 32% drop in a single year and a 54% decline since 2016. Those numbers deserve celebration. But they didn’t happen by accident.
They represent more than four decades of LGBTQ+ people demanding action, researchers advancing science, healthcare workers providing care, volunteers showing up when others wouldn’t, public-health professionals expanding testing and prevention, people taking PrEP, people getting tested, and people living with HIV fighting stigma simply by living their lives.
Pittsburgh’s response stretches back to some of the darkest years of the AIDS crisis, when volunteers with the Pittsburgh AIDS Task Force helped people find doctors willing to treat them, connected them to resources, operated an HIV/AIDS hotline, and provided companionship to people dying from AIDS.
HIV treatment has transformed. PrEP can prevent HIV acquisition. And people who achieve and maintain an undetectable viral load do not sexually transmit HIV. That’s what progress can look like.
53 isn’t zero. But it’s proof that prevention, testing, treatment, outreach, and public-health investment work.
So this Slay belongs to the generations who got us here and everyone determined to keep going.
Now that’s a slay.
READER JOY: Sometimes You Need to Hear It
This week’s Reader Joy comes from Briana, who sent us this message:
“Thank you for all of the great help that you provide.”
That’s it. One sentence. And Briana, you made our day. 💜
Sometimes you’re busy doing the work and already thinking about whatever comes next. Then someone stops for a second and says, “Hey, this matters to me.” Those little reminders matter more than people realize.
So here’s your Monday assignment. If somebody is making your life a little easier, brighter, funnier, safer, or more joyful, tell them. Send the text. Write the email. Give the compliment.
They might need to hear it.
And Briana? Thank you for taking the time to tell us.
SHARE YOUR JOY
One of our favorite parts of Slay Weekly is hearing from you.
Has something brought you joy recently? Maybe you made a new friend, started a new job, got engaged, finished a creative project, met an adorable dog, found an amazing queer-owned business, or simply had a moment that reminded you why you love this community.
Big or small, we’d love to celebrate it.
Send us an email and tell us what’s bringing you joy. Your story could be featured in an upcoming issue of Slay Weekly and help brighten someone else’s Monday.
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Queer Joy in the World: Your Life Has Already Started
At 22, Michelangelo Pellis has spent a lot of time thinking about being single. And after seeing an ex-boyfriend’s new relationship hard-launched on Instagram, a little question crept in:
He was moving forward. Was I?
That’s the question at the center of Michelangelo’s latest essay for QBurgh, “I’m 22, Single, and Not Waiting for My Life to Start.”
Because we’re taught to recognize a very particular kind of progress in our romantic lives.
Single. Dating. Relationship. Serious relationship. Marriage. Keep advancing through the levels and you’re doing life correctly. If a relationship ends along the way, we call it a failure.
But why?
A date that doesn’t become a relationship still happened. A relationship that doesn’t become a marriage can still matter. Being single doesn’t mean your life has stopped while everyone else races ahead.
Michelangelo argues for something much more interesting: letting your twenties be a time to figure out who the hell you actually are.
Go on dates. Meet people. Fall for somebody. Decide they’re absolutely not for you. Spend nights laughing with friends. Read books. Build a career. Change your mind. Be alone sometimes.
None of it is wasted time.
As Michelangelo writes, maybe the goal isn’t finding someone as quickly as possible. Maybe it’s about becoming someone you know how to live with.
And there’s one more reason we’re celebrating this story today.
It’s Michelangelo’s final piece for QBurgh as he heads off to New York City to attend the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
Talk about moving forward.
Michelangelo, thank you for bringing your curiosity, humor, perspective, and voice to QBurgh. We’re ridiculously excited to see where this next chapter takes you.
New York is getting a good one.
Go get ’em.
Progress is funny. When you’re living through it, you don’t always recognize it.
Forty years of activism eventually becomes the lowest number of new HIV diagnoses your county has ever recorded.
One week of work becomes a kind message in your inbox from someone you’ve never met.
A twenty-something trying to figure out his life suddenly finds himself packing for journalism school in New York.
And one scorching Pittsburgh summer morning becomes a cool one that makes you wonder whether you need a sweater.
Nothing stays exactly where it is. Neither do we. So maybe this week, don’t measure your progress entirely by how much farther you have to go. Look backward for a minute, too.
Notice what you’ve learned. Notice what has changed. Notice what you can do now that once seemed impossible. Notice the people who helped you get here.
Celebrate that. Then keep going.
We’ve still got work to do, stories to tell, people to meet, and, despite what this morning’s weather would have you believe, a little summer left to enjoy.
Have a beautiful week, Pittsburgh.
Talk soon.
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