Shadowcast screenings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show are a time-honored Pittsburgh tradition since the days at the King’s Court Theater in 1978, which carried through the heyday of the 80s and 90s and created the JCCP you see today. ...

You never forget your first time at The Rocky Horror Picture Show. For me, it was a chilly October night in 2019. I was a junior in college, and I didn’t have any friends who would want to travel an ...

Students at a high school near Erie, Pennsylvania, are standing firmly behind their homecoming queen after her election sparked a wave of anti-transgender backlash online. Sammi, a transgender student at Fairview High School, was crowned homecoming queen during the school’s ...

Doing nothing for an election is not enough if you or someone you care about are LGBTQ+. Casting your own ballot on Election Day is necessary, but at this moment all of us must do more. Across the nation and ...

“When it rains, it pours,” Kevin Deese said, leaving a vet’s office in upstate New York with his sick dog in late July. Not only had he just lost the Democratic primary election for a State Assembly seat representing the ...

State Rep. Aaron Bernstine has resigned from his Pennsylvania House committee assignments less than a week after PennLive reported allegations that the Western Pennsylvania Republican used racist and homophobic language about openly gay Black state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta. Bernstine, who ...

Updated October 7, 2026 at 4:10 PM. Voices of Mosaic Apartments On weekend nights in the 1970s, Beth Kukucka, then a high school senior in Cambria County, dodged rocks and bottles hurled at her when she left a gay bar ...

This story was originally reported by Brooke Migdon of The 19th. Speaking to a crowd of supporters in central Florida in August, U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds denounced his soon-to-be general election opponent for governor, Democrat David Jolly, as a “Trojan horse” for ...

Pittsburgh Police have determined that the October 3 shooting outside Lucky’s in the Strip District was not motivated by bias and that the longtime LGBTQ bar was not targeted because of its connection to the LGBTQIA+ community. Commander Eric Baker, ...

And a five, six, seven, eight… “Off The Record” returns to the Byham Theater on Thursday, October 15, with “Off The Record: One Single Yinzer Nation,” a parody of  “A Chorus Line.” The show, a benefit for the Greater Pittsburgh ...

advertisement Listen on Spotify It was a rough week for queer news. We know. We felt it, too. And if you spent some of the past few days angry, exhausted, worried, or wondering whether opening your phone was really necessary, ...

What happens when Pittsburgh chefs, fashion designers, and drag artists are told to make everything black? Dinner, apparently. But make it queer philanthropy. O’Noir: The Experience returns to the Grand Hall at The Priory on Friday, November 6, bringing together ...

Updated October 5, 2026 at 3:50 PM. Pittsburgh Police now say detectives have determined that the shooting was not motivated by bias and that Lucky’s was not targeted because of its connection to the LGBTQIA+ community. Commander Eric Baker, the ...

Oversexed teenagers, invincible killers and a deserted cabin – what could possibly go wrong? Slasher movies that focus on teenagers being picked off by a killer are a horror staple. The victims were typically white and heterosexual, with villains that seemed ...

Calls are growing for Western Pennsylvania state Rep. Aaron Bernstine to resign after PennLive reported that the Republican lawmaker directed racist and homophobic slurs at fellow state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta and falsely claimed the openly gay Black legislator had AIDS. ...

The Pittsburgh Commission on Human Relations is condemning UPMC’s settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice that will keep gender-affirming medical care unavailable to young transgender patients for the next decade. In a public statement issued September 29, the Commission’s ...

It’s officially Spooky Season, and if Halloween is your queer holiday of choice, you’ll be thrilled to learn that Cassandra Peterson, the queer actor who’s been playing the sexy comedy witch Elvira for well over 40 years, has a new ...

Updated on September 30, 2026 at 2:05 PM. An alleged blackface performance at Blue Moon Bar’s weekly Open Stage Wednesday has sparked anger, grief, and calls for accountability across Pittsburgh’s LGBTQ community, with Black performers asking not only how it ...

Mom always said to tell the truth. One lie leads to another and another and you have to remember them all until pretty soon, you’re caught. Fibs are hard, mistruths are messy, even little white social lies can destroy trust. ...

It’s been a long time since I thought about Lauren Boebert. I think the last time she was on my radar was when she was giving Beetlejuice handies to some guy and then crying that she was acting out while ...

Central Outreach Wellness Center has opened a new hepatitis C treatment center on Pittsburgh’s North Side, bringing hepatitis C care, sexual health services, harm reduction, and recovery support together at one location. The new HepCMyWay Center of Excellence is located ...

advertisement Listen on Spotify Well, babes. September is packing its bags. Somehow we’ve gone from sweating through Pride season to wondering whether it’s socially acceptable to put a decorative gourd on every available surface. It is. But the change of ...

We know him as Kumar in the “Harold & Kumar” movies, but Kal Penn has spent the past two decades happily refusing to stay in one lane: He left acting for a stint in the Obama administration, returned to Hollywood ...

This story was originally reported by Orion Rummler of The 19th. Penny Gautreaux has spent her career helping people in crisis. But facing her own took a village. A licensed social worker and therapist, Gautreaux struggled with an eating disorder for 24 ...

In 1990, Ian Charleson was the highest-profile British actor to die of AIDS and the first to publicly state that AIDS was his cause of death. Before that, he was one of the most acclaimed stage and film actors of ...

In journalism, we’re taught never to bury the lede. So here’s the lede: The LGBTQ+ community could be an important part of what happens in November’s midterm elections. We keep hearing predictions of a possible Democratic wave that could change ...

U=U. Those three characters stand for “undetectable equals untransmittable,” and when it comes to HIV, it’s a modern miracle. If you live with HIV and take your medication, you can achieve an undetectable viral load. When that happens, you are ...

Stop telling trans people they have to vote for anti-trans Democrats. Stop telling them they’ll be responsible for the fall of democracy unless they do. I’ve been thinking a lot about something @nome.bsky.social posted to Bluesky on Sept. 15: “I ...

For nine days this October, Pittsburgh is getting a whole lot queerer at the movies. Reel Q returns for its 41st season October 2 to 10, expanding across Pittsburgh with screenings at seven venues and a lineup stretching from lesbian ...

Disability Pride Pittsburgh is coming to Schenley Plaza to celebrate community, joy, andaccess. This year’s theme is “We Belong Here and We’re Here to Stay.” Now in its fifth year, the event centers people with disabilities and all their intersectingidentities. ...

advertisement Listen on Spotify Sometimes we talk about queer joy like it’s something you have to go looking for. Book the trip. Buy the ticket. Find the gay bar. Wait for Pride Month to roll around again. But this week’s ...

You try, and you try. Once, twice, you go back at that thorny issue, the dream you have, the punchline that’s not hitting quite right. Sometimes, time is all you need to make it better, or a new approach, or ...

UPMC has reached a $950,000 settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice that will keep gender-affirming medical care unavailable to young transgender patients across the Pittsburgh health system. The Justice Department announced the agreement Friday, September 18, saying it resolves ...

This story was originally reported by Amanda Becker of The 19th. How many women does your employer have in management positions compared to industry peers? Are a retail chain’s Black workers as likely to be in public-facing roles as its ...

Sapphic September is a month-long celebration of sapphic representation in books. Here are a few gems to add to your reading list! Bury Our Bones In the Midnight Soil Toxic lesbian vampires! Say less! I first heard about this book ...

I was at a concert recently and a person next to me was wearing a cross-body bag that read, “Speak Up for Your LGBTQ+ Friends.” This person appeared to be your average straight white guy.  The fact is, straight guys, ...

It’s always a pleasure to walk along Brookline Boulevard, and experiencing it festooned in Pride flags made it even more fun. The neighborhood’s inaugural Pride was on Saturday, September 12, and most of the open businesses, if not all, joined ...

You loved them in the ’90s — or you weren’t born in the ’90s but you still love them because you’re queer and it’s the law — and now Romy and Michele are set to return. In 1997, “Romy & ...

advertisement Listen on Spotify There’s something about September that feels like everybody is finding their places again. Students are settled back on campus. Fall leagues are underway. Calendars are filling up. The evenings arrive a little earlier, and summer already ...

The 2026 annual Backyard Docs Film Festival, formerly known as the Rust Belt & Appalachia Documentary Film Festival, celebrates documentary films and filmmakers directly connected to our region. Backyard Docs Film Festival has become an annual celebration of non-fiction cinema. ...

From the Brinton Road Overpass, Lucinda Beattie has only a few seconds to reach each driver passing below. So the message has to be big. Once a week, Beattie and a small group stand above the traffic holding banners that turn ...

Twenty-five years. For those old enough to remember September 11, 2001, that number can feel almost impossible. The television screens. The confusion. The silence that fell over classrooms and offices. The phone calls to people we loved. But September 11 ...

Twelve Pennsylvania organizations are calling on the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association to clarify its policies regarding transgender student-athletes, warning that confusion surrounding recent court decisions and federal actions could lead schools to unlawfully discriminate against trans students. The organizations sent ...

The Steel City Softball League’s own Gracie Lou Freebushes proudly represented Pittsburgh at the International Pride Softball (iPride) Gay Softball World Series in Columbus, Ohio. This year’s tournament made history, bringing together 56 cities, 256 teams, and 4,200 athletes competing ...

The Log Cabin Republicans is an absolutely worthless organization. Actually, they’re worse than worthless because they gleefully help to advance the Republican anti-queer agenda. So of course they’re anti-trans now.  In an Aug. 20 piece published on Town Hall, LCR President ...

At this point, performing on a national stage is second nature to Adam Lambert, who shot to fame 17 years ago during the eighth season of “American Idol” in 2009. Just six months later, Lambert went on to release his ...

There’s been something troubling me for the last couple of years about what the Trump administration has been doing. It affects me personally, but I’ve mostly kept it in the back of my mind. After all, there are so many ...

The City of Pittsburgh has dropped Prospect Drive in Schenley Park, the longtime queer gathering place known as the “Fruit Loop,” from consideration for a new Department of Public Works maintenance facility. Mayor Corey O’Connor’s administration announced the decision in ...

advertisement Listen on Spotify Well, here we are. Labor Day weekend has arrived, which means we’ve reached that unofficial little line between summer and whatever comes next. The pools are closing. The students are back. The sun is setting earlier. ...

Here’s the thing nobody’s obituary is going to lead with, so I will: Dolly Parton picked up the phone for queer press. Not just the glossies with the biggest circulation — she talked to a small LGBTQ+ paper the same way she ...