Organizations Empower LGBTQ+ Lives Through Support and Advocacy

Photo courtesy Dreams of Hope

The LGBTQ+ community in Pittsburgh is a strong one, and there are many organizations that provide support and resources to help people thrive and obtain needed services. Though that is the overarching goal for many of these groups, another goal is to educate the larger community about why it is important to support this demographic and practical ways in which to do so.

Photo courtesy TransYOUniting

One such organization is TransYOUniting, a nonprofit that serves the transgender population in Pittsburgh with services ranging from housing, food, education, workforce development, and advocacy. Though it is open to everyone, it primarily serves the Black trans community and attempts to address a variety of needs, especially housing.

“Homelessness disproportionately affects the most vulnerable, marginalized groups of people, especially Black trans individuals. On top of the transphobia, you have racism, sexism, and everything in between. In order to have stability in the workplace, they need to have stability at home,” said Founder and Executive Director Dena Stanley.

Through a program called YOUr Haven, in partnership with Proud Haven, another organization with the mission of providing safe housing for LGBTQ+ youth, TransYOUniting offers three emergency short-term housing units—one for nonbinary and gender-conforming individuals and for LGBTQ+ individuals—as well as helps teach essential life skills.

The newest program within the TransYOUniting ecosystem is the QMNTY Center, which is also a collaborative project with Proud Haven. Located on the North Side, the QMNTY Center is a multiuse space, open for drop-in visits, that has a library, a computer lab, game consoles, and job workshops. Also on site is the QMNTY Closet, which offers free clothing, hygiene products, and shelf-stable goods to any LGBTQ+ person in need.

Currently, there is no other space like this in the city. “There was a need for us to have a space dedicated for all people where you can come in—a one-stop shop with wraparound, holistic care. We are in the process of opening up a small gym on the premises for people who need to exercise,” added Stanley. She added that TransYOUniting also runs the annual Pittsburgh Pride event.

“These organizations are 100% needed, and in the political atmosphere we’re in, we need community to show up to make sure we stay sustainable. That may be coming to volunteer, dropping off shelf-stable canned goods, clothing, or volunteering. We need the community. This won’t exist—and a lot of things won’t stand—if we don’t start banding together, uniting, helping one another, and uplifting each other,” said Stanley.

Another demographic with specific needs is older LGBTQ+ people. Jeff Miller and David McDougal are co-chairs of the Western PA LGBTQ+ Older Adult Advocacy Team. “We are a grassroots advocacy group working for safe and affordable housing options for older LGBTQ+ persons and legislative issues,” said McDougal.

Miller added the group started during COVID. “We brought together people hoping to work for the passage of the PA Fairness Act, which would provide comprehensive nondiscrimination laws statewide. We have those laws in Allegheny County, but they are nonexistent statewide; that was our first emphasis, and we are still working on that. We cooperate with other advocacy groups to look at what is happening at the state and national levels as it pertains to the welfare of the older adults’ LGBTQ+ community,” said Miller.

Photo courtesy Persad OWLS

The two are also participants in a group called OWLS (standing for ‘Older Wiser Leaders’), an outreach program of the Persad Center.

McDougal explained that the Persad Center is the country’s second-oldest nonprofit organization that for over 50 years has been providing mental health services to the LGBTQ+ community; OWLS is their primary outreach for older adults. 

“OWLS provides a place where older LGBTQ+ adults can come together in a safe environment and really socialize and talk openly to other people,” he said. “We have a weekly coffee and conversation meeting that is open to those in the LGBTQ+ community age 50+. The group will have guest speakers who could help with long-term care planning or other issues of concern to older LGBTQ+ adults.”

Miller added that many of the issues they deal with through their advocacy group—aging, housing, health, social issues—are universal needs for all people in this demographic, but they work with how they are specifically impactful to the LGBTQ+ community. “If you look at the statistics, older LGBTQ+ folks are much more likely to live alone, to not have biological family or children to rely on, and the economic status of a lot of older LGBTQ+ folks is not what the stereotype is: there is a lot of economic need in the community. So, we’re looking at it from that perspective. The need for housing is the same but, for example, if someone needs to go into a nursing home as a gay person, and they are not welcome, they’d have to go back in the closet, or deal with discriminatory, threatening, stressful environments that no one wants to live in,” he said, adding that there is still lots of advocacy work to be done on this front.

Dreams of Hope was founded in 2013 out of a need for queer youth to have a space to come together and express themselves through the arts. “The founder, Susan Hough, started bringing queer and trans young people together and would create songs and skits and stories to help educate the broader Pittsburgh community about the LGBTQIA+ issues and experiences. It’s been a journey of how queer and trans young people grow in leadership, and grow an intentional community of support,” said current Artistic Director, Bekezela Mguni.

Dreams of Hope serves youth from ages 13–26; its signature program is called TheatriQ where youth create an original full-length production, on a variety of topics, from writing the script to the music to the set design. “We work with teaching artists to facilitate the process,” said Mguni.

Other programs under the Dreams of Hope umbrella are sQool, an education program that helps devise curriculum tailored to queer and trans learners; speaQ, a space for queer and trans creative expression that started as a poetry and spoken word workshop and has evolved into an open mic night; and the newest program called Queerness & Nature. “It is a program for centering queerness and kinship with nature, remembering our relationship to the land and the inherent queerness in nature,” she said.

As for why it is important to have a safe space for queer and trans young people to express themselves in the arts, Mguni commented, “The arts are a space where they are encouraged to be creative; survival requires creativity and a vision to see past obstacles. I think the arts are a portal to understanding yourself, the world, and to finding universal languages that people can understand beyond the ones you might speak. And with community, many, many things are possible.”