Friends, family remember late Pitt graduate’s activism

Lyndsey Sickler said people who met Peter Mastracci knew how he felt about social issues as soon as they met him.

They could tell because of the two black horizontal bars tattooed on the back of his hand. In socially progressive circles, the bars symbolize equality.

“You knew, talking to him, he was going to be reasonable, open and compassionate with you,” Sickler said.

Sickler, director of the Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Pittsburgh, described Mastracci, a 25-year-old Pitt graduatewho died Dec. 9, as a “true community advocate in every sense of the word.” Mastracci died after his vehicle crashed into a barrier at the bottom of a steep hill in Bethel Park, located in the South Hills of Pittsburgh, where he also lived.

The day following his death, authorities determined that Mastracci committed suicide, according to Marty Coyne, a supervisor at the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Mastracci completed a bachelor’s degree in communication and English writing in the spring of 2010, according to Pitt spokesman John Fedele.

Crystal Cristophe worked with Mastracci in Pitt’s Language Media Center until she finished her master’s degree in linguistics in 2009. She said they became friends after she saw a Facebook “note” he posted. 

In the note, he “opened up about a lot of things,” including how he had recently come out to his family as a gay man. 

After she read the note Mastracci posted, Cristophe felt that she could talk to him honestly about her own life.

“Even though we didn’t know each other well, I felt like I could trust him,” Cristophe said.

Cristophe said Mastracci’s openness about his sexuality and other aspects of his life inspired her not to worry what others thought about her.

The two grew closer after that.

She attended Pittsburgh Pride, an annual LGBT community festival and parade, with Mastracci in 2010 and 2011.

Cristophe said demonstrators came to the festival’s Downtown location to carry anti-gay signs and megaphones from which they broadcasted what she described as “hate speech” that was critical of the LGBT community.

Cristophe said she was impressed by how Mastracci and other attendees faced demonstrators critical of the festival.

“I saw so much hatred toward [the LGBT community],” she said. “It was so brave of them.”

At one point, Mastracci approached a demonstrator on the sidelines of the parade and placed a pro-LGBT pamphlet in his pocket before he returned to the crowd.

Janet Owens, Mastracci’s mother, said her son cared about social issues because decency was so important to him. 

Generosity was another part of his concern for others.

“He never made much money, but he still gave to UNICEF,” Owens said.

Like Cristophe, other friends remember Mastracci for his activism.

Drew Wallner, who graduated from Pitt in 2009, also worked with Mastracci in the Language Media Center.

Wallner and Mastracci attended the 2009 National Equality March in Washington, D.C., together.

Wallner described his friend’s mood at the rally as “exuberant,” talking to everyone. Mastracci and another friend of Wallner’s who was at the rally quickly became friends.

“The two of them were making friends, helping people carry bags and signs, even helping push strollers,” Wallner said in an email. “The sense of instant community, safety and support among that crowd was inspiring.”

When Lady Gaga took the stage to speak at the rally, “Pete had to explain to me who she was,” Wallner said.

Wallner said he held a video camera for most of the rally, but still hasn’t edited the hours of footage from the rally.

“When I do someday, Pete is gonna be everywhere throughout [the video],” he said. “That’s gonna be tough.”

Pictures from the rally show Mastracci in a red T-shirt. “Some people are gay. Get over it,” is printed on the front of the shirt in white and black capital letters.

“Peter loved that shirt,” Wallner said, who added that the shirt’s design came from an anti-bullying campaign in the United Kingdom.

Wallner described Mastracci as an “anglophile,” or someone who is fond of British culture. 

Owens said Mastracci studied in England during his fall 2008 semester at Pitt. While there, he corresponded with friends and loved ones through letters.

Writing letters was part of a lifelong hobby for Mastracci. 

Owens said he met a woman in a London restaurant on a family trip when he was 7 years old and maintained communication with her. He sent her his last letter only a few weeks before his death.

Mastracci’s penchant for connecting with strangers inclined him to get a job as a taxi driver for a local company after he graduated.

Owens said her son enjoyed the work, at first, because he could connect with visitors to the city and act as a tour guide.

“He met people from all over the world,” she said.

But driving a cab has its downsides. Drivers often encounter unruly customers and are vulnerable to robbery.

Mastracci quit about eight months after he encountered a drunk man who became belligerent with him and pulled him out of the taxi.

Owens said her son was still trying to decide what he wanted to do with his life, and moving from one job to another was part of that search. He was more interested in finding a rewarding job than making money.

Mastracci also worked in the shoe department at a Macy’s store for about a year, according to Owens. His last job was a sales-associate position at Kards Unlimited, a gift store in Shadyside.

Carly Moroski, a manager at Kards Unlimited, said that while Mastracci worked at the store as a sales associate, he was always friendly and popular with other employees.

Others noticed that Mastracci used to draw Keith Haring’s “Barking Dog,” a distinctive, geometric design, on pieces of paper lying around the store, Moroski said.

As a sort of inside workplace joke, employees started drawing cats and rabbits in the same style on the whiteboard in the break room under the store, according to Moroski.

Mastracci also volunteered at the Gay and Lesbian Community Center.

Sickler said Mastracci volunteered for two years as the secretary of the organization’s executive board, leaving the position last June.

Mastracci wrote several articles about social issues for the GLCC.

One post that Mastracci wrote for the GLCC’s blog about the group’s history is one of the most popular posts on the site, according to Sickler. 

Mastracci also wrote an article for the organization’s fall 2012 newsletter about lesser-known health issues that affect gay men.

“His quest for knowledge is what made him write for us,” she said.

Sickler added that Mastracci also saw writing as a way to put social issues into a broader context and to explain their importance.

In addition to his writing for activist causes, Mastracci wrote several columns for The Pitt News while he was a student. 

In his columns, he commented on local and national issues in a skeptical, laid-back tone. 

In a 2007 column, Mastracci expressed his regret that residents of a gentrified South Side were losing some of their individuality.

“Across the street from the South Side’s Goodwill is a new community that has no need for such a place, complete with loft apartments that are going for no less than $1,100 a month for a one-bedroom, one-bath,” he wrote.

In another column he wrote the same year, he encouraged readers to use the $1 coin instead of paper money because coins can stay in circulation longer.

“Americans aren’t always keen to change, but it’s time to try something new,” Mastracci wrote. “In this case, a little can go a long way.”

Although Mastracci enjoyed intellectual humor and made dry observation in his columns, he could also laugh at himself.

Wallner once pointed out to Mastracci how he often ended sentences with the phrase, “know what I mean?” 

“He was like, ‘Oh I don’t, really. Okay, well maybe sometimes. But it’s just the way I talk, you know what I mean?’” Wallner said. “We both laughed.”

Emily Eisenberg, who also worked with Mastracci in the Language Media Center, described him as a “deep thinker.” She also remembers his sense of humor.

“If he had a good [joke], this big smile would come across his face,” Eisenberg said.

Cristophe said she received an email from Mastracci on Dec. 6. He never replied to the email she sent him the following day.

Although Mastracci deactivated his Facebook profile earlier this year, Cristophe said she and Mastracci had reconnected in the months leading up to his death. Getting back in touch with Mastracci so recently made his death “particularly jolting” for Cristophe.

“If he could hear me now, I would just say ‘thank you’ to him, because he was such an important part of my life,” she said.