Center for Media Innovation celebrates history of queer media in Pennsylvania with special event

PITTSBURGH, PA - The Center for Media Innovation at Point Park University is hosting 50 Years of Coming Out, a celebration of the history of queer media in Pennsylvania, on Oct. 11 - National Coming Out Day.

The event will feature a gallery exhibit of Pittsburgh queer media dating back 50 years, as well as a panel discussion with LGBTQ journalists, bloggers and communicators representing publications across Pennsylvania, and beyond.

The gallery can be viewed beginning at 5 p.m. at the Center for Media Innovation, 305 Wood St., Pittsburgh, PA, 15222. The panel discussion begins at 7 p.m. A livestream of the event also can be viewed at the Center's Facebook page. The suggested donation is $15 for in-person attendees and $5 for those who watch online. Those donations will go toward the cost of the event. Register online at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/50-years-of-coming-out-tickets-175574196147

The event is cosponsored by the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia chapters of the National Association of LGBTQ Journalists (NLGJA), a journalist-led organization working to advance fair and accurate media coverage of LGBTQ communities and issues.

QUEER HISTORY

The exhibit on display in the Center will encompass Pittsburgh queer news dating all the way back to 1973. This includes Pittsburgh Gay News, Gay Life Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh's Out, Cue Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Pride Guides and Equal Magazine.

This substantial archive of queer news was donated to QBurgh by Tony Molnar-Strejcek, the former publisher of Out Pittsburgh.

"This is documented history. Basically, it was documenting my life," said Jeff Freedman, co-creator of QBurgh, which also celebrates its one-year anniversary on National Coming Out Day. "This was our tie to the community. We lived in a very straight world. These came out once a month and were like heaven to us. They were a moment in time where we could connect with our community and see people and read about people like us. Then you put it away and went back into the world."

QBurgh was created as a source for LGBTQ news and community resources in Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania. After getting the archives from Molnar-Strejcek, Freedman and fellow QBurgh co-creator Jim Sheppard went to work digitizing them so that the media was preserved.

"We now have documented history of queer Pittsburgh in an accessible form," Freedman said. "This wouldn't be possible without Tony, who trusted us with this precious cargo."

FUTURE OF QUEER MEDIA

The featured event is a panel discussion, The Future of Queer Media in the Commonwealth. LGBTQ journalists, bloggers and communicators representing publications from Pennsylvania - and beyond - will come together for a facilitated roundtable discussion about the current state of queer media in Pennsylvania and hopes for the future.

"As we celebrate our community's past, we're also eager to look forward," said Kristina Marusic, co-president of the Pittsburgh chapter of NLGJA. "We're excited to bring together this group of talented LGBTQ communicators from across the state to discuss our hopes for improving the statewide media landscape."

Panelists for the discussion will include:

• Jim Sheppard, co-creator of QBurgh
• Sue Kerr, founder and publisher of Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents
• Tony Molnar-Strejcek, former publisher of Out Pittsburgh
• Mark Segal, founder and publisher of the Philadelphia Gay News
• Stephen Jiwanmall, communications manager at the Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center
• Frank Pizzoli, editor and publisher of the Central Voice and a journalist at the Pennsylvania Capital-Star
• Michael Mahler, founder and publisher of Erie Gay News
• Maria Montaño, communications specialist at SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania

"We started planning this event as a history of queer media in Pittsburgh but quickly realized that the gallery exhibition represents the lived experience of many LGBTQ+ people in this region," said Andrew Conte, Director of the Center for Media Innovation. "We hope the exhibit and panel discussion will set the stage for meaningful thought and conversation about how far all of us have come over the past half-century toward being aware of and supportive of diversity in all its forms - and of how far we still have to go."