The Pittsburgh pride of today ignores its roots
By Anaïs Foss | For The Pitt News
June 13, 2018
Filed under Columns, Opinions, Top Stories
As a member of a community under constant attack, attending pride celebrations used to feel like a breath of fresh air for me. Pride was always a space to be out safely and celebrate myself with other queer people. But things have changed. Pittsburgh Pride has been sponsored by natural gas compa...
Pittsburgh packs the streets for Pride 2018
By Madeline Gavatorta | Staff Writer
June 13, 2018
Filed under City, News, Top Stories
Red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple lit up downtown Pittsburgh over the weekend as members of the LGBTQ+ community and their allies united to celebrate their differences and show support for the community. They danced, sang and kissed under rainbow flags. This was Pittsburgh PrideFest 2018. ...
Column: Hosting World Cup in Russia is dangerous for LGBTQ+ fans
By Hannah Schneider | Sports Editor
June 13, 2018
Filed under Sports, Sports Columns
Professional sports environments aren’t traditionally safe spaces for LGBTQ+ athletes and fans — especially in Russia, where policies outlawing “gay propaganda” have been condemned by the European Court of Human Rights as “discriminatory.” With the 2018 World Cup games quickly approachin...
Editorial: Supreme Court’s decision hurts LGBTQ+ community
By The Pitt News Editorial Board
June 6, 2018
The Supreme Court ruled Monday that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission showed “hostility” toward a local baker when it decided he had discriminated against gay couple by refusing to bake a cake for their wedding in 2012. The ruling avoided a larger question the case presented, which is whether Jack Phil...
Anjali Kumar: A journey into faith
By Mariam Shalaby | Senior Staff Writer
April 19, 2018
Anjali Kumar has an infectiously bright presence. The corners of her eyes crinkle when she smiles and her curly teal hair bounces in rhythm with her steps. She said she has a lot to be happy about these days. She just joined a sorority and is making friends in her new faith community. Plus, she j...
Drag queens and kings strut past boundaries
By Madeline Gavatorta | Staff Writer
April 9, 2018
Filed under 2. Featured, Campus, News
Performers lip-synched, danced and seductively plucked money from people’s hands with their mouths while pop song remixes played in the William Pitt Union Assembly Room Friday evening. “Drag is about pushing boundaries,” the emcee for the first half of the night, drag queen Anne T. Christ, ...
Cecile Richards reflects on life of activism
By Hannah Schneider | Staff Writer
April 5, 2018
Filed under Campus, Health, News
Cecile Richards has been politically active since seventh grade, when she wore a black armband to school to protest the Vietnam War. When she was called to the principal’s office and asked if her mother knew what she was doing, she replied, “Probably.” Since then, she’s grown to become a lea...
Lance Bass in sync with LGBTQ+ community
By Sam Weber | For The Pitt News
April 4, 2018
Filed under Campus, News, Top Stories
When Lance Bass looks back on his time in NSYNC, he can’t help but laugh — both at his antics and the crowds often confused by them. “I found it funny,” Bass said. “Before anyone knew I was gay, I was just Lance from NSYNC and I just humped the stage a lot.” Bass, a 38-year-old mus...
Seeking out safe sex in the LGBTQ+ community
By Shahum Ajmal and Abigail Tesfay | Pitt News Staff
February 14, 2018
Filed under Culture
The average human being can only be so comfortable with openly discussing how to insert an internal condom, which is why organizations like the Rainbow Alliance come prepared with a prosthetic vagina. “You have to overcome that hurdle of talking about it at all in order to talk about safe sex prac...
Students reconcile religion, identity
By Sid Lingala | Staff Writer
December 1, 2017
Filed under Campus, News, Top Stories
Bridget Duffy felt uncomfortable practicing her family religion of Catholicism when she found out same-sex couples could not get married in Catholic churches and infants of same-sex couples were not allowed to be baptized. “I’m a traditional person. But I need someone else to tell me that God does...
Student scores scholarship to start LGBTQ+ on campus
By Remy Samuels | Staff Writer
November 9, 2017
Filed under Campus, News, Top Stories
Amy Kelley said she was “living the life.” Why? Because she got to hear Hillary Clinton speak and had people drive her around the nation’s capital as part of her invitation to attend the Human Rights Campaign’s National Dinner in Washington, D.C. Oct. 28. “It was really awesome,” Ke...
Students drown out bigotry in counter protest outside Towers
By Janine Faust and Amanda Finney / TPN Staff
September 18, 2017
Filed under 2. Featured, Campus, News
A crowd of Pitt students jammed the stairway leading up to Towers Patio on Monday, waving rainbow flags and sporting “I [heart] the female orgasm” t-shirts. Others stood on nearby trashcans and benches and leaned over the patio rails, fervently chanting “God loves everyone” and “shame on you...
Pittsburgh celebrates two controversial Prides
By Henry Glitz | News Editor
June 14, 2017
Filed under 2. Featured, City, News
When Pittsburghers gathered for the city’s annual LGBTQ+ Pride parade Sunday, they probably expected the marchers to toss candy and wave rainbow flags — but they got their fair share of political chants slung their way as well. The circumstance of two parades came as the result of fundamental disagree...
GALLERY: Pittsburgh LGBTQ+ Pride 2017
By The Pitt News Staff
June 11, 2017
Filed under City, News, Visual
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March mayhem: Delta’s Pride draws criticism
By Madeline Barber / Staff Writer
June 6, 2017
Filed under Culture, Top Stories
Pittsburgh gears up for its annual Pride celebration every June by filling the streets downtown with dozens upon dozens of rainbow flags and banners that promote equality and stand out against the monochromatic buildings and oft-dreary skies. Pride week finishes the weekend of June 11 with PrideFest — a ...
Embracing Queer: Pitt’s LGBTQ+ Community
By Madeline Barber / Staff Writer
May 31, 2017
Filed under Culture
Queer pride is everywhere in Pittsburgh — Bloomfield storefronts sell queer-friendly merchandise, rainbow flags dance in the winds of Lawrenceville homes and banners adorned with local drag performers hang from streetlights Downtown, advertising the upcoming Pittsburgh Pride Festival. The queer co...
In light of Trump, Pitt students can take heart in LGBTQ+ resources
By Christian Snyder | Columnist
March 29, 2017
American universities have been at the forefront of cultural change for decades. From free speech movements at Berkeley in the 1960s to a student carrying her mattress around campus to raise awareness of sexual assault, many of our country’s biggest social movements have started at the collegi...
Sojourning exhibit shares LGBTQ+ journeys
By Jack Shelly / Staff Writer
March 23, 2016
A new exhibit is flipping the script on LGBTQ+ awareness — letters and photos of encouragement will come not from the accepted, but from the accepting. The exhibit, titled “Acceptance Journeys Pittsburgh,” is on display around campus, with two to four narratives stopping in Posvar Hall, Parran Hall...
Wigging out: student drag show bends gender norms
By Jack Shelly / Staff Writer
September 18, 2015
Filed under Culture
Picture nearly 200 students crammed into Nordy’s Place singing along to Nikki Minaj’s “The Night Is Still Young” and cheering wildly for a drag queen sporting a wild blonde wig and denim jacket. That was the scene Thursday night at one of the Rainbow Alliance’s first events of the year,...
LGBTQ visual activist discusses ‘curative rape’ in South Africa
By John Lavanga / A&E Editor
October 9, 2013
Filed under Archives
As South African photographer and LGBTQ visual activist Zanele Muholi — joined on the stage by Lerato Dumse, a participant in Muholi’s photography and member of her activist group, Inkanyiso — stared out at the modest audience from the stage of the Carnegie Lecture Hall on Tuesday night as a part of ...