You don’t get the title “Unofficial Lesbian Correspondent of Pittsburgh” for nothing.
If you ask Sue Kerr where the nickname came from, the Founder and Publisher of The Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents says the title started as a joke but has evolved into something special.
“That name was given to me by a local radio host in the early 2000s before I blogged,” said Kerr in a recent interview with News is Out. “It was a joke, and I would do a little segment. We’d talk about politics, usually Rick Santorum or something, because this is before the 2004 Senate election where he lost his Senate seat. And he just dubbed me the official Lesbian correspondent from Pittsburgh, so it wasn’t really a self-promotion.”
Finding community
Soon, though, the name stuck and inspired the name of Kerr’s long-running blog.
“When I started the blog, I had to figure out a name, and I was able to get PGHLesbian as a URL,” said Kerr. “So, I couldn’t think of anything better. So, I thought, let me just build on that.”
Celebrating 18 years of blogging this year, Kerr is one of the key LGBTQ+ voices in Pennsylvania and beyond. She’s won two GLAAD awards for her work and was named Person of the Year by The Advocate in 2022. Kerr is humble about her impact, however.
“I’m very careful to make sure people understand that I’m not the voice for the entire LGBTQ community in Pittsburgh,” Kerr said. “Literally, no one person can speak in that capacity. So, one thing I try to do is use my blog to amplify lots of different kinds of voices. I think that that strength has kind of helped me become more high-profile, if that’s the right phrase.”
Started at a time when there was no LGBTQ+ media serving Pittsburgh specifically, Kerr filled the void.
“I realized that being a queer woman with an opinion and paying for my own platform to say it was incredibly political and radical,” said Kerr.
Breaking into blogging
Kerr has a social work and political science background, both of which influence her work. She hesitates to refer to herself as a journalist, though many others do.
“So, I’m not a journalist,” said Kerr. “I argue that all the time, but I will accept the term writer. And the reason I say that is out of respect for the profession, that it is a trade, a craft that requires training. And that’s something I’ve never done. I write whatever I want. It’s because I respect journalism so much that I’m always careful to distinguish myself.”
Starting PLC was a learning experience for Kerr, who had developed an interest in the internet in grad school and how it connected people.
“So, I thought that if you write it, they will come,” said Kerr. “I learned quickly that I had to actually invite them and bring them in. But a lot of my blogging is, as people would term, intersectional. That wasn’t a significant term in the blogging world in the early days. But, For Kerr, that meant tackling subjects that mattered to her and her community, like writing about poverty and mental health.”
In 2010, Kerr became fully disabled and stopped working for pay. She writes about her experiences with Social Security Disability Insurance.
“I really ramped up my blogging because now I was officially disabled,” said Kerr. “And boy, that came with a lot of stuff, and it was a chance for me to educate people on the kinds of experiences I was having.”
Covering what matters
When deciding what to cover, Kerr tells News is Out she goes with her gut. While the blog’s name is The Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents, Kerr also finds it important to cover the full spectrum of the community.
Her writing combines personal blog posts, news stories and memorials. She is also a member of many LGBTQ+ and community social media groups, which often reveal stories and issues involving the community that deserve exploring.
It was in one of these Facebook groups that Kerr learned about the death of a young nonbinary student in Oklahoma. PLC broke the story of Nex Benedict, which would inspire weeks of national coverage and deep exploration into Benedict’s death and the anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric spreading in Oklahoma.
In one of her Facebook groupsIn a Facebook group specifically focused on Anti-Trans Violence, Kerr received a tip about Benedict’s death and how they could have been nonbinary and used they/them pronouns. From there, Kerr went on a deep dive to confirm the information about Benedict.
“I poured through the family’s public content and saw enough to convince me that this was true, and I wanted to write the story because it was really local at that point,” said Kerr. “I saw that there was the story about the school and the bullying, and I was appalled to think that any child would be treated so poorly. And even as more information came out, it still pretty much sucks. They did not take good care with these kids.”
Kerr wrote her first post about Benedict on Friday, Feb. 16. However, she was surprised that other media outlets did not pick up the story until Sunday.
“That puzzled me that it took so long, and I am still trying to figure out what didn’t happen,” said Kerr. “Given how big the story is now, it’s even more shocking that it sat dormant for two or three days. That’s not the way it normally goes. Of course, most stories don’t get that big.”
Benedict’s death and how they identified in life was the cause of much confusion in the early days of the story, but Kerr wanted to get as much info out as possible. Kerr thinks the media covering Benedict’s death and story got too mired in what pronouns Benedict used or didn’t use.
“Were they nonbinary or trans masculine?” said Kerr. “Take a step back. The bigger issue is that we are not using she/her pronouns or Nex’s deadname. There are other significant issues in Nex’s life story that are not in any of the media coverage.”
Kerr points out that LGBTQ+ and gender-nonconforming youth often use different pronouns and names in various situations.
“I don’t want to diminish anyone’s sense about their identity,” said Kerr. “But I think that maybe we’re jumping on flashpoints instead of helping the public understand. What media should be doing is to say, it is possible that this child, who was assigned female at birth, expressed themselves in one way to their family and a different way to their friends. That’s not unusual.”
Shining a Light
Kerr has devoted much of her writing time and energy to bringing attention to the violence facing the trans and gender-nonconforming community.
“In 2013, a trans woman, a Black trans woman was murdered in Cleveland: Cemia Dove Acoff,” said Kerr.
The news of Acoff’s death triggered Kerr’s desire to help. Kerr talked with a trans man friend from Ohio who suggested the best way to help was to write a post about it.
“The idea would be to share information about this crime that happened without all the anti-trans framework that went into it, the dead naming, the misgendering,” said Kerr.
Kerr spent time researching who Acoff was and what she loved.
“I did that for Cemia, and I followed her case, and then there were three murders in Cleveland that year, and I wrote about them,” said Kerr. “Then I just kind of kept going.”
Supporting Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents
PLC is free for all to access and the site is kept afloat by donations from readers.
“When people send me money randomly, $25 here or there that matters. It’s important, and it also sustains me emotionally to do the work.” Am I contradicting myself here?
Kerr points out that local foundations have yet to support queer media.
“They have not stepped up to say, we think this is important,” said Kerr.
If you’d like to support Kerr’s work, visit the site’s “Donate to Support our Work” page, where Kerr lists all the ways readers can help PLC stick around for a long time.