At Halloween, people enjoy a good scare. It’s fear for fun. What’s unusual is not everyone is afraid of the same things. Human beings have a long list of things that frighten the bejeebers out of them. Some of them ...

Anthropologist Johnnetta Cole said, “You cannot fully understand your own life without knowing and thinking beyond your life, your own neighborhood, and even your own nation.” When you look at the LGBT community as a whole, perhaps the one true ...

“The public is wonderfully tolerant. It forgives everything except genius” Oscar Wilde An apt quote for the Rage of the Stage (ROTS) Players and their upcoming production of The Picture of Dorian Gray. Now entering its thirteenth season, ROTS has ...

My cousin Graham and his partner, Francis, were deep in the planning stages for their wedding when the United States Supreme Court issued its June ruling legalizing federal benefits for couples in same-sex marriages. For them, the court’s decision was ...

Nyxon is a professional fetish model based in Pittsburgh. Starting out her career path in the beauty industry, she quickly became one of the hottest stars in the fetish modeling world. Her journey has taken her from film to pin-up ...

Sometimes real life is scarier than the movies for gays and lesbians, so it’s no surprise that many find solace and escape in horror films & thrillers. Classics like A Nightmare on Elm Street or Carrie resonate with the coming ...

When it’s quiet at the Rusty Dory Pub in Avalon, owner Joanne Teti says she hears some of the longtime residents of the building moving chairs, arranging silverware, closing doors or leaving pennies on the bar. “They’re good ghosts,” says ...

Fall has arrived and so has Pumpkin season. As one of the most popular crops in the United States, 1.5 billion pounds of pumpkins are produced each year in the top pumpkin-producing states of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, California, and Pennsylvania. ...

National Coming Out Day (NCOD) is turning twenty-five this year! This internationally observed civil awareness day has been helping to promote a safe world for the LGBT community as well as their allies since October 11, 1988. According to the ...

A wise woman once said, “Life isn’t all diamonds and rosé, but it should be.” That woman was Lisa Vanderpump from the “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” and she was 100% correct. Life can be diamonds and rosé, if you ...

“That’s so gay!” A comment heard in many schools that is meant to be derisive and insulting. Many of those who say it consider the phrase innocuous, not meant to harm. But to many LGBT youths and their allies, it ...

THE FESTIVAL OF FIRSTS BRINGS TO PITTSBURGH WORLD CLASS MUSIC, VISUAL & PERFORMANCE ART, AND ONE VERY LARGE DUCK. When a 40-foot-tall rubber duck takes a dip in the Allegheny River, it will be a first among firsts, in a ...

It’s never a bad idea to have someone with as large of a presence as John Fetterman on your side. The Mayor of Braddock — who has made nationwide headlines for his radical ideas about revitalizing the steel town — ...

Gay by God! This is the message that comes across the pulpit of Rev. Shanea D. Leonard, pastor of Judah Fellowshow Christian Church on the North Side. It’s the idea that people are born being exactly who God intended them ...

“Vogue” magazine recently referred to Pittsburgh as a “city with an emerging art scene which has superseded its industrial identity.” One of those emerging talents is Sam Thorp, a painter hailing from Brackenridge, Pa. “I’ve spent my life living on ...

Pilots, professors and those newly transplanted to the Steel City have been seeking out Pittsburgh Frontrunners since 1989. The club, one of 100, is an international organization for LGBT runners and walkers. The Pittsburgh club sees visitors to the city ...

Founded in 1972 with the simple act of a mother publicly supporting her gay son, PFLAG is the original ally organization. Made up of parents, families, and friends of LGBT people, PFLAG is committed to advancing equality through its mission ...

Dr. Michael Madden is a new grandfather, and just like any new grandfather, he wants to tell all his co-workers about his grandson. But if Madden, chief medical officer at Gateway Health Plan, wasn’t openly out at work, he wouldn’t ...

Once upon a time, Facebook was a different land. It was a place meant for college students to connect with out-of-town friends and fellow students in a less obnoxious arena than other places (looking at you Myspace). Facebook back then ...

The University of Pittsburgh Health Sciences Diversity office fosters an inclusive environment for students, trainees, and faculty within the health professions schools through recruitment and retention in order to increase the number of well-trained professionals who reflect different cultures, ethnicities, ...

Imagine leaving your favorite bar or club in the wee hours of the morning only to be greeted by a police raid. Imagine being assaulted, arrested, or even molested by an officer just for being in a gay club. This ...

Like most good ideas, they start in diners or bars, with a group people looking to start something great. That is how the Pittsburgh Dykes on Bikes chapter was born. “The concept of DOB for Pittsburgh came out of a ...

The Rainbow Flag, Pride Flag, also known as the Freedom flag, flies at every Pride celebration, every Equality event, and at almost every LGBT event around the world. It is a symbol of diversity and unity. Though it is a ...

“But am I really welcome here?” may be the question often in minds when visiting a new faith community. LGBT persons who grew up practicing religious observance often discover a wide range of attitudes that may range from unconditionally welcoming ...

A young man from Texas with an eloquent voice and articulate thinking gave that to us. And it will be seen in “Second Class Citizens”, the documentary. The title is poignant in the irony: I am not, and you are ...

“Will you marry me?” A question asked daily all over our country. Currently there are thirty-eight states that have banned same-sex marriage, either through legislation or constitutional amendments. The only states (as of this writing) where same-sex marriage is legal ...

One of the great benefits of my job is to know the ins and outs of my fair city and connect people with the best venues, happenings and hotspots in town. Pittsburgh is a city with deep history and roots, ...

A vacation is reason to get away, but a celebration is a reason to travel! As June rapidly approaches I realize I am not only thankful of the fact that I can live in a city where I am proud ...

It was a watershed moment in the fight for marriage equality when, in March, the United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments in two major cases involving same-sex marriage. Unsurprisingly, social media buzzed with activity. On the one hand, there ...

Monday, January 21, 2013 will go down in history as not only the Martin Luther King holiday but also the Inauguration of President Barack Obama to his second term. The crisp Washington DC morning brought us the swearing in of ...

When did you realize you wanted to be a performer? I used to come home from school and watch The Carol Burnett Show in re-runs. She was so hysterically funny. But my best memory of the show, was a skit ...

I went to a lot of events this month, but one had a large impact on me. It was a rally in support of several LGBTQ community members who were beat up in the South Side, and targeted for non ...

Even though Kerri Angeletti has worked at Dancer’s Pointe in the Strip District for 11 years, she sees most of the silk ballet shoes go out the door with women. “Dancing on pointe really works different muscle groups than what ...

March is officially the Month of Pudge. Old Man Winter has taken its toll, leaving a flabby, unsightly version of us behind to deal with. If the thought of shedding clothes for the warmer weather terrifies you, you’re not alone. ...

Dancer Robert Carter had only half-finished his make-up by the time he was able to speak on the phone before a performance in England. Since 1995, he has prepared for shows with Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo by applying ...

‘Kinky Boots’ is a film based on the story of Charlie Price, a shoemaker in Northampton England trying to save the family business after the death of his father. Help comes in the form of a drag queen called Lola ...

First Class seats, a private car with a driver, and a luxurious suite in the most opulent hotel…these are all things that comprise a fabulous vacation and NONE of the things that I had when I went cage diving with ...

Politics. Wait! Don’t turn the page. This is about the good side of politics. Yes, it exists. There are those in the political world that use their powers for the benefit of mankind and, in this case, man-on-mankind. People like ...

Does your boyfriend watch the Twilight movies religiously? Is your “roommate” obsessed with the Transformers series? Before you drive a sparkly stake through your eye or jump in front of an 18 wheeler, you may want to consider an option ...

Coors Brewing Company is the biggest brewery supporting the LGBTQ community, and has been since 1993. Coors encouraged the organization of its gay and lesbian employees into the Lesbian and Gay Employee Resource (LAGER) in 1993. In May 1995, Coors ...

UPDATE: On February 6, 2013, the Boys Scouts released the following statement: “After careful consideration and extensive dialogue within the Scouting family, along with comments from those outside the organization, the volunteer officers of the Boy Scouts of American’s Executive ...

We all know the names of the more mainstream sexualities — gay, lesbian, straight, bisexual. But there are a few other sexual orientations which aren’t as well known, let alone recognized, by the socalled “mainstream LGBTQ” community. For example, if ...

“Get into the snow” is what I heard every year during ski season. Growing up in Pittsburgh, most of us remember that catchy phrase from the Seven Springs commercials. As a skier, this was my signal to get my skies ...

Slam Mamns By most accounts, the style of spoken word poetry known as “slam” was started by a working-class poet in a Chicago jazz club in the 1980s. So it’s fitting that our own city of industrial roots is home ...

Why are people so surprised when men in power become involved in sex scandals? It seems to happen so often that we should be used to it. But the latest is one of the biggest surprises: It involved General David ...

Today, she’s chair of a group that provides legal advice to domestic partners, but when she first moved to Pittsburgh 16 years ago, the plight of same-sex couples was relatively foreign to Baltimore lawyer Maureen Cohon. “There were so many ...

When I first met Alex, he was Allison. We went to the same school, and my only thought whenever I would see him was, “She is just like me.” Being an open lesbian in a small town has more than ...

“I feel fine… so why do I need to regularly see a doctor?!” First of all, I admit my bias. I’m a physician, so o f course I’m gonna tell you to make time for a check-up, right?! But there ...

Drag queens. Belly dancers. Boa constrictors. Drummers. Flamenco dancers. Jazz songs. Circus acts. What do these things have in common? They could be part of a Phat Man Dee show. Mandee has gone from circus performer to cosmic jazz chanteuse; ...