Pride Week celebrates Pittsburgh’s LGBT community

Students, politicians and activists holding rainbow flags crowded City Council’s steps Friday… Students, politicians and activists holding rainbow flags crowded City Council’s steps Friday evening to kick off Pittsburgh’s annual Pride Week.

Pittsburgh Pride, launched the celebration with rally attended by more than 100 people. The event featured appearances by U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Pa., legendary activist Harvey Milk’s nephew Stuart Milk and Zack Wahls of YouTube fame.

The Pittsburgh Pride Week celebration — which began in 1970 — is a festival produced by the Delta Foundation of Pittsburgh. According to its website, Delta’s mission is “to increase awareness and understanding of and improve the quality of life for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community in Western Pennsylvania.”

Pittsburgh Pride, which runs from June 3-12, has events planned throughout the week. These include a pool party in Mt. Washington on Thursday, a pub crawl and youth dance event on Friday, a street party on Saturday and a parade on Sunday.

Even though school is out for the summer. Pitt’s Rainbow Alliance is still taking part in many of the events.Rainbow Alliance President Tricia Dougherty has been participating in Ohio’s Pride Week since she was 16, but this year marks her first time partaking in the Steel City’s iteration.

“Pride is a good way of showing the numbers of LGBTQ people and their allies who would be able to mobilize on an issue. It is an event that contains a great deal of political power, not just for marriage equality but also for many issues,” Dougherty said in an email.

She said that Rainbow Alliance will have a table on Saturday at Pride in the Streets, Pittsburgh’s largest outdoor street party, featuring acclaimed R&B singer-songwriter Patti LaBelle. The organization will also be getting a group together to walk in Sunday’s Pride Awareness March on Liberty Avenue.

For Dougherty, the most important part of Pride Week is that it gives her the opportunity to feel connected to the Pittsburgh community.

“My favorite thing about Pride is being in a place where being LGBTQ is the norm,” Dougherty said.

Cody Dickerson, a junior Religious Studies and Chinese major who attended the rally, said that Pride Week has a great effect on him as a Pitt student.

“It adds something to being a gay Pitt student. Pitt has pretty clear policies and pretty good policies, and Pittsburgh is one of the cities in Pennsylvnia that has sexual orientation protection, so it’s not something I ever have to be concerned about,” Dickerson said.

University of Missouri senior Caleb Washburn, who attended the rally with Dickerson, said the same is not true of all universities.

“You have a lot of rural kids that come into Missouri with very different opinions. There isn’t really an out-atmosphere,” Washburn said.

Pittsburgh was ranked the fifth gayest city in America in terms of population, according to Advocate.com, which markets itself as the world’s leading source for LGBT news, but Dougherty believes the community still has room to improve.

“Being LGBTQ at Pitt is a mixed bag. At some points the environment is supportive, but at other points it is clear that there is still work to be done,” Dougherty said. “For me, the issue is making sure that students have a place where they feel safe on campus.”

Doyle, who represents the state’s 14th district, of which Pittsburgh is a part, announced his support of the LGBT community in Pittsburgh at the rally.

“I have the privilege to represent Pittsburgh in the United States Congress, and I am a strong supporter of LGTB rights,” Doyle said. “Let’s celebrate today, and let’s redouble our efforts tomorrow and the days and weeks and months after that to keep pushing for marriage equality, workplace equality and equality in our Armed Forces.”

Max Garber, Rainbow Alliance Community Outreach officer, believes that events like Pittsburgh Pride will help the community understand what LGBT supporters are fighting for.

“When you gather and demonstrate in a group, it lets people know that there are a lot of us — there are many of us, and we aren’t necessarily what you thought of us,” Garber said.