I wish I had someone around like me when I was younger. I remember being in 6th grade and the teachers separating the boys and the girls into different rooms to talk about “sex.” For us girls it was more ...
At my first Gay Pride parade, it rained in Pittsburgh. The whole city was one muddy, gray, pig’s pen and the rain vacillated from torrential downpour to a slow, miserable dribble all day long. I wore flannel because I had ...
As a queer non-binary human, I face a lot of challenges daily that cisgender folks have the privilege of not worrying about. I have to fight for the validity of my gender, as well as respect, when it comes to ...
I took my first yoga class over 20 years ago. I had started working out at a gym to try and lose some weight before singing at my cousin’s wedding. The gym and I never got along. I was the ...
Coming out stories are a badge of honor in the LGBT community. Some are tragically sad, some are funny, others are rather tame. Thankfully, mine falls in the latter category. I had just turned 23. One random day I came ...
Addiction is not a discriminating disease. It affects many across socio-economic barriers, of all ages, and races. It does not care whether the person is tall or short, black or white, gay or straight. For those within the LGBT community, ...
In her book “Kitchen Table Wisdom,” Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen tells the story of Yitzak, a Holocaust survivor. Liberated from a concentration camp in 1945, he had come to America, worked and studied hard, and was now a respected research ...
As one of the first owners of a gay bar in Pittsburgh in the mid-1970s, Charles Tierney offered the city’s LGBTQ community a safe place to meet and mingle. Much of America wasn’t exactly hospitable to gays at the time, ...
They run on drag time at Cruze Bar in the Strip District. This means that, anywhere between 11- 11:30 p.m. on the first Friday of each month you’ll hear a familiar call over the mic, “Whose house is this?!” A ...
As a (relatively) young gay man, I’ve dealt with a few stereotypes for a lot of my life: Apparently, we’re wildly promiscuous, fail at long-term relationships and can’t handle monogamy. Well, at least one of those applies to me. It ...
Small in size, but rich in history, culture, and natural beauty, Portugal offers landscapes that contrast with long beaches, lush vineyards, verdant valleys. You can find rolling hills dotted with tiny towns where old traditions still are a way of ...
One chilly Pittsburgh evening while sitting in a crowded restaurant I found myself withdrawn into a blanket of thoughts. My friends had long since dispersed and I was all alone at the table. Well, mostly alone. I was holding half ...