Jessica McGuinness is a transgender woman who worked as an EMT in the South Hills of Pittsburgh for 12 years. Her coming out letter to her coworkers was published in the book American Heroes Coming Out From Behind the Badge, edited by Greg Miraglia. She has done speaking engagements at a number of colleges, community centers and bookstores, has done outreach work for the transgender community and has been heavily involved in several advocacy issues. She was featured on the cover of the LGBT publication Pittsburgh's Out in April and has done several radio interviews including one on KDKA with Marty Griffin. Jessica is currently employed by the Pitt Men's Study.
Welcome, Jessica, to the Initiative for Transgender Leadership's Advisory Committee!
"Positive OUTLook" with Sara Luby
OUTtvPittsburgh/www.outonline.com
September 22nd, 2011
Sara stepped in to host Positive OUTLook this week as Nayck Feliz was out of town. Nayck's show is tagged: Health and Wellness in the LGBT Community in Pittsburgh and Beyond.
Sara works at the Positive Health Clinic at Allegheny General Hospital. We talked about ITL, my current projects, the Pittsburgh queer community 5-year plan, how great the acronym QUILTBAG is, and the recent rally in response to anti-gay violence in Boomfield. Great show! Thanks Sara & Nayck!
Thanks to the show's sponsors: Pitt Men's Study and Pittsburgh's OUT!
"Helping Transgender People Find a Voice" by Erika Beras
Essential Public Radio
September 21st, 2011
This radio piece is about voice coaches for transgender women. I make an appearance around 4:40 to talk about transgender voices. Erika and I had a great chat during the interview and we talked about Purchase College, where we both went to school.
"Transgender Community Tries to Enlighten" by Tony Norman
Post-Gazette.com
September 16th, 2011
Tony Norman met Mad and I for dinner to talk through this piece about the ITL and the Stories on the Square event. We ended up talking even more about trans etiquette, trans representations and the trans community. Really a great opportunity to have an in depth conversation with Tony, who was so refreshingly up front about not knowing this or that about trans people. I've gotten a lot of good feedback about this article and I appreciate Tony for putting himself out there and spreading some good press about trans folks, and thanks to Mad for setting this up!
