Summary of Findings
In regards to the question posed to participants: What is the Pittsburgh-area QUILTBAG community to you? Participants defined our community is a subculture, it is fractured, it is welcoming, it is different groups coming together, it is united by challenges and oppression, it is loosely connected, it is transient, it is Pride, it is our organizations & their programming, it is family/friends, it lacks a geographic center. There was hesitance to even say “community” as there are many communities and they don’t always come together. Generally, participants expressed dismay and frustration about the extent of divisions within the QUILTBAG community. Divisions that came up: generational, racial, religious, queer men vs. queer women, ally vs. LGBTQ, political, regional, HIV status, economic.
In regards to where we want to see our community in 5 years, participants responded overwhelmingly with more. We want more resources (health, legal, emergency, housing) for youth, older adults, transpeople, sex workers, prison populations, etc. We want those resources to be accessible and up-to-date. We want more collaboration with allies, with a variety of organizations. We want more communication and more support for each other’s events and causes. More organizing around issues that affect some of us so they affect all of us—broadening what it means to be a QUILTBAG issue. For example, why isn’t Jordan Miles a queer issue? Why isn’t Marcellus Shale a queer issue? We want more discussion of, working on and unlearning racism within the community, and we want white people to take the lead more often on making that happen. We want events that are not in bars, substance-free, and welcoming to many different kinds of people within our community. We want Pittsburgh to become a queer destination, especially for young people and artists. We want to see the same enthusiasm about QUILTBAG issues year round and not just during Pride. We want more visibility and more people coming out. We want our allies to be educated. We want service providers, health care providers, and emergency responders to understand our issues. We want a space (preferably a building) that is self-sustaining and stands as a hub for the QUILTBAG community and provides event space, health care, a place to sleep, and youth services. Overall, intersectionality is huge and taking care of our own is huge. We can enact power to create change by unifying and bridging the gaps that divide us.
The Issues Gallery Crawl activity allowed participants to move around and record ideas about various issues apparent in our community. For each issue, there were two columns with something like the following: What is already happening? What needs to happen? That way, we have a space to focus on assets/the current state of things as well as generate ideas for change.
What a Pittsburgh-area QUILTBAG Community 5-Year Plan might look like
- Mission statement (i.e. what the 5-year plan is what it stands for)
- Vision (i.e. our ultimate goal for our community/communities)
- Background and history (i.e. previous plans, progress made, where we go from here)
- Structure of the plan (i.e. continuations committee, how to share the information)
- Themes of change (i.e. intersectionality, collective organizing, expansion of resources)
- Specific goals, steps to get there and timelines to measure success
[All information would be informed by ideas generated by this and future 5-year plan meetings]
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