QBurgh

09/05/2026

Three q***r news stories you might’ve missed this week!

We’re back with another QBurgh Q***r News Update, and there’s a lot happening across our community:

Local activist Kits Blanc, aka the Endo King, is speaking openly about living with endometriosis as a trans man and pushing back against medical dismissal, transphobia, and the idea that conversations about reproductive health belong to only one gender.

Pittsburgh’s historic “Fruit Loop” on Prospect Drive in Schenley Park has been a q***r gathering place for generations. Now, the City is designing a new Department of Public Works maintenance facility for the area, putting renewed attention on a space deeply connected to Pittsburgh’s LGBTQ+ history.

And TODAY in Washington County: Gayer Than a Picnic Basket! The Washington County Gay Straight Alliance is sending summer off with an afternoon of live performances, music, community, and q***r joy while raising money for its year-round programming.

Follow QBurgh for more q***r Pittsburgh news, events, history, politics, and culture.

09/05/2026

Dolly Parton picked up the phone for q***r press when most of country music wouldn’t. She talked about her gay family, trans employees, drag name, and the radical simplicity of loving people as they are.

Here’s the thing nobody’s obituary is going to lead with, so I will: Dolly Parton picked up the phone for q***r press. Not just the glossies with the biggest circulation — she talked to…

09/05/2026

Why did Dolly Parton say she supported gay marriage? That’s just one clue in this week’s q***r-coded crossword.

Plus: Sapphic things, cruising, Golden Girls, and Billie Jean King.

Tap for more crosswords What else?

09/04/2026

6 in 10 LGBTQ+ adults say they skipped or delayed needed healthcare in the past year and nearly a third say their health got worse because of it. For trans adults, the disparities are even greater.

LGBTQ+ adults are more likely than other adults to miss healthcare appointments due to cost or other reasons — with a third reporting their health worsened as a result, according to a new survey by…

09/03/2026

The Pride display came down. The questions haven’t stopped. Monroeville residents are calling for resignations, a code of conduct, and an investigation into how officials handled the library controversy.

MONROEVILLE, Pa. — The controversy surrounding the removal of a Pride display from the Monroeville Public Library earlier this year is expanding beyond the display itself, as residents call for a f…

09/03/2026

“You can just sort of exist as you are.”

That’s how one student described the community Pitt’s Rainbow Alliance is working to create.

Q***r community doesn’t always have to mean a rally, a meeting, or a big moment of visibility. Sometimes it’s a room where you can study. Make bracelets. Paint. Take a nap. Meet somebody whose experience makes you realize something new about your own identity.

We visited the University of Pittsburgh to hear from Rainbow Alliance members about finding q***r community on campus, exploring s*xuality and gender without being locked into a label, and discovering just how big and diverse Pitt’s q***r student community really is.

To every q***r student still figuring things out, you don’t need to have all the answers before you find community.

09/02/2026

Pittsburgh’s self-proclaimed Endo King Kits Blanc is turning chronic pain, medical dismissal, and online hate into advocacy and reminding the world that endometriosis has no gender.

Local activist Kits Blanc, the Endo King and QMNTY Center’s Spark King, is waging a battle against endometriosis as an Endo Warrior. The trans man is fighting against a disease that is most often, …

08/31/2026

HIV stigma is stuck in the past. HIV care isn’t. U=U. PrEP works. People living with HIV can have s*x, build families & live long, full lives. We’re busting 7 persistent myths about HIV.

Today, a person living with HIV will have the same lifespan as someone without the virus if they start treatment early enough and stay on it. Yet pernicious myths hold sway about who HIV affects an…

08/31/2026

This week’s Slay Weekly celebrates peer support for people living with HIV, teachers helping trans students thrive, and one very good cat recovering in some extremely fashionable capri pants.

advertisement Listen on Spotify Well, babes. We made it to the last day of August. Summer isn’t technically over, but we all know what’s happening. Campuses are full again. The evenings…

08/30/2026

From Baron von Steuben to Stonewall, LGBTQ+ history IS American history and America’s 250th belongs to us, too.

What did your LGBTQ+ community — or your local or state government — do to recognize our community as part of America’s 250th birthday? That 250th birthday belongs to us as much as it belongs to an…