Pittsburgh Current, Volume 3, Issue 17, June 9, 2020

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PA. HOUSE BLACK DEMS TAKE OVER THE CHAMBER TO FIGHT FOR POLICE REFORM VOL. 3 ISSUE 17

June 9, 2020 - June 15, 2020

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BL ACK STUDENTS AT THOMAS JEFFERSON HIGH SCHOOL R A L LY I N G T H E I R P E E R S T O F I G H T B A C K A G A I N S T A C U L T U R E O F R A C I S M T H E Y S A Y A D M I N I S T R A T O R S H AV E SHRUGGED OFF FOR YEARS

Climate Crisis and Corrupt Politics By: Larry J. Schweiger Free Shipping Paperback $29.95 or purchase an eBook for $19.00 (Read the first 25 pages for free)

There is only one earth and our world is undergoing dramatic changes brought on by the climate crisis and other human-induced ecological disruptions. The world's top scientists studying these threats and the forces behind them have been warning us for decades to end the use of fossil fuels or face catastrophic consequences. Their long-ignored warnings have become more dire.

Larry Schweiger has long been on the front line of efforts to enact rational clean energy and climate policies and has witnessed efforts to undermine our democratic system that has been rigged leaving America hoodwinked and held hostage to dirty fuels.

Climate Crisis and Corrupt Politics pulls back the curtain on the central role of big oil, coal, and gas interests in American politics through the flow of money to fabricated entities for independent SuperPAC expenditures for mass deception through distorted advertising. Larry wrote this urgent message aimed at parents, grandparents and young adults who care about their children forced to live on the ragged edge of an unprecedented climate crisis. This book is especially for leaders who understand that we must act now with a "Green New Deal" scale response. Together, we must confront and overcome the many toxic money influences, reverse a failing democracy and retake the reins of government to enact policies that secure our shared future and the future of life on earth.

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contents

Vol. III Iss. XVII June 9, 2020

NEWS 6 | Pop the Bubble 12 | Black Dems Police Reform 13 | Man Identified 14 | Nique Craft 16 | PG Discrimination OPINION 15 | Rob Rogers 16 | Guest OP/ED: 'Lucky' Guy? 18 | Larry Schweiger ARTs & ENTERTAINMENT 20 | Joy Tourjour 21 | Event Listings EXTRA 22 | Savage Love 23 | Montana

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PITTSBURGH CURRENT | JUNE 9, 2020 | 5

NEWS

Protesters, mainly made up of students from the West Jefferson Hills School District, demonstrate June 3 at the Southland Shopping Center over the death of George Floyd and what students call the systemic racism in their school district. (Pittsburgh Current Photos by Jake Mysliwczyk

POP THE TJ BUBBLE

STUDENTS LEAD CALL FOR REFORM AT WEST JEFFERSON HILLS SCHOOL DISTRICT AFTER YEARS OF UNCHECKED RACIST INCIDENTS

O

n Wednesday, June 3, independent of their school district, members of the Thomas Jefferson High School multicultural student union, and the mother of the group’s president, led a peaceful demonstration in the parking lot of the Southland shopping center.

It was both a vigil for George Floyd, the Black man murdered by police in Minneapolis, and a stand against a history of racism in their community, more specifically in

BY BRIAN CONWAY - PITTSBURGH CURRENT CONTRIBUTING WRITER

INFO@PITTSBURGHCURRENT.COM

their school district.

Last month, a 12-second Snapchat video surfaced, showing two area middle school students mocking Floyd’s death. One white boy pins another down, his knee on his neck.

“Please sir, stop it, I cannot breathe, please sir, I am going to die.”

Others laugh in the background.

The June 3 protest intended for a crowd of 30 swelled to 300. They displayed signs with messages like, “Black Lives Matter” “Pop the TJ Bubble,” and “End Police Brutality,”

6 | JUNE 9, 2020 | PITTSBURGH CURRENT

in solidarity with the student leaders urging peace, unity, and reform.

Most wore masks to protect against the COVID-19 pandemic.

“In a small community like this, you wouldn’t expect as many people to show up, ‘cause when we go through situations at school, people don't stick up for us. And it's nice to see that we have a lot of support here today,” said Adia Smith, an incoming senior at Thomas Jefferson High School and member of the school’s multicultural student union.

In independent conversations before and after the demonstration, several students told the Pittsburgh Current that this most recent racist incident at the affluent school district is just the tip of the iceberg.

“They mock Black people for fun and they think that they're going to receive no consequences,” said Zyan Barrett, president of the multicultural student union.

“This is just an example of the kind of things that happen in our Continued on Page 8

NEWS

PITTSBURGH CURRENT | JUNE 9, 2020 | 7

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C O N T I N U E D F R O M PA G E 7

school P A G and E 7how they mock Black

lives.”

Barrett and others in his 20-member strong multicultural student union say the administration has for years failed to disrupt a culture that turns a blind eye to overt racism and bullying in the school district that leaves many feeling fearful and alienated.

“This is not the first incident that has happened to us, and we're sick of sitting in silence,” said Smith. “We tried sticking up for ourselves before, but we decided to put it out there more so other people in the community can be aware and be here for the change.”

The Current reached out by phone and email to Superintendent Michael Ghilani several times to request an interview but received no response. A source informed the Pittsburgh Current that Dr. Ghilani wrote to school district staff Thursday morning, June 4, the day after the protest, to inform them to not speak specifically with this reporter for this story, stating that the school district would supply a statement to The Current, but not an interview.

However, the Current never received comment from Ghilani or the school’s PR officer, Carrie Lekse.

The Current also made requests for comment from board president, Brian Fernandes, board second vice president, Suzanne Downer, or teacher’s union representative, Jim Benedek. None were returned “We go through the same thing each and every year, and it’s not getting any better” said incoming senior, Grace Nwabuogu. “I’ve lived in this district for almost 12 years and you would think over a decade, things have changed, but no, they're still the same. And it's really heartbreaking because I don't want little kids who are like me to go through the things

I went through in elementary school and middle school and high school.

It's not fair to them.” *** Eight-or-so stop-and-go miles down Route 51 south of Pittsburgh, beyond Brentwood’s Nepalese markets and the crumbling remains of West Mifflin’s Century III Mall, the neighboring boroughs of Jefferson Hills, Pleasant Hills and West Elizabeth make up the West Jefferson Hills School District.

“I hate to talk down on my school, but I feel that a lot of the time our

8 | JUNE 9, 2020 | PITTSBURGH CURRENT

issues are swept under the rug just to save face and look good for the community,” said Payton Payton, an incoming senior at Thomas Jefferson High School.

According to data submitted by the school district to the state’s Student Assistance Program, Thomas Jefferson High School reported zero incidents of “racial/ethnic intimidation” in the 2016-17 school year; two in 2017-18, and one in 2018-19.

There were no student expulsions from the school district during that time.

“When I first got there, they thought I was a drug dealer,” said

Barrett, his voice muffled by an n95 mask, before the prayer vigil. “These kids, they asked me to come to their table, and I was like, ’sure.’And they said, ‘Hey, do you know where we can get that stuff?’And they said, ‘Aren’t you a drug dealer?”

He and his twin sister, Zyniah, entered the school district as freshman in 2017, along with three other siblings. He says he and his sister’s names both start with a “Z,” and that a pair of white girls in their choir class would call them “ziggers.”

Barrett is an honors student -- not too modest to splash his report card and 4.0 GPA on his instagram. He

NEWS

Opposite Page and above: AScenes from the June 3 Protest in the West Jefferson Hills School District. (Pittsburgh Current Photo by Jake Mysliwczyk).

Right: A video still showing Jefferson Hillls Middle School Students mocking the death of George Floyd.

says that early into his time at TJ, he and other Black and minority students in the school district bonded in the cafeteria over being bullied for the color of their skin.

Nwabuogu remembers when Zyan and Zyniah first came to the school district; she was happy to have other students who looked like her, with whom she could connect.

She said the pair faced racist incidents almost immediately; things similar to what she faced herself.

Nwabuogu said she has been in the school district since kindergarten. She said she never felt accepted by her peers, and that for a long time she thought it was something wrong with her. She shared with the Current her experience growing up

in the school district.

Among her claims were a teacher who did not believe she was being bullied in the second grade, and another teacher in the fourth grade who told her “just get over it.” In the sixth grade, she said a group of girls she thought were her friends called her the n-word behind her back and sometimes to her face, and that the slurs continued in the seventh grade, when she started reporting incidents to the administration because she didn’t know what else to do.

“I just didn't know how to defend myself. Even if I tried to speak out, I just felt like I would get shut down.”

Nwabuogu said she has three older siblings who went through TJ, all of whom had the same experience as

her, though she believes her older brother had it the worst of all.

“And it's like a snowball effect.

It keeps happening and happening over again, like it's getting passed on to each and every person who went to TJ in my family, and like many other people of color who go to [the school].”

The multicultural student union shared with The Current photos of hate words carved into a table in the school cafeteria, racist memes and social media posts, as well as a photo of 3 white girls, 2 with braces, smiling at home in a mirror, wearing blackface.

“My sophomore year, I actually had a boy, he tried cutting out my box braids,” said, Adia Smith.

She wore a yellow shirt with sepia mugshots of Harriett Tubman, Rosa Parks, Angela Davis and Assata Shakur, above a caption that reads, “well behaved women seldom make history.”

“Nothing really happened,” she said. “Half of our situations usually get pushed under the rug, and we don't want that to happen for upcoming students. That's why we're trying to change how it is here.”

In early 2018, after a specific threat of violence against Black students, Barrett said he approached then-principal Sefcheck with the idea of a Black student union, and that Sefcheck’s reaction didn’t meet the urgency the students believed given Continued on Page 10

PITTSBURGH CURRENT | JUNE 9, 2020 | 9

NEWS CO N T I N U E D F R O M PAG E 9 PAG E

the severity of the ongoing incidents.

The Current emailed Sefcheck, now Superintendent at Bethlehem-Center School District in Washington County, to request comment, but did not receive a response.

Barrett shared with The Current a pair of emails he sent to Superintendent Ghilani, the first, dated Feb. 27, 2018, informing him of a racist social media post from a classmate that said, “I’m going to be the next Hitler but instead of gassing Jews I’m gonna drown n------,” among other concerns.

In a follow-up email, dated March 12, 2018, and also addressed to Superintendent Ghilani, he said that he was “ready to take the next step with the M.S.U,” and that “Mr. Sefcheck said it was going to take our club a year to start, but we see the need for it to start ASAP.” A March 28, 2018 Tribune-Review article referred to the multi-cultural club as “yet-to-be-formed.” The article reports that Ghilani said the District needed to bring in a cultural competency officer because of “specific incidents,” but would not publicly identify them.

The school board voted to allocate an amount no more than $2,000 to Dr. Donald Sheffield, President of TAME, Inc., (Techniques Assisting Motivation and Excellence), to serve as consultant with the district for building cultural competency. Dr. Sheffield was formerly Assistant to the Vice Provost for Outreach and Cooperative Extension at Penn State University, administrative assistant to Joe Paterno and Director of the Academic Support Center for Student Athletes at Penn State.

At that same March 2018 meeting, Ghilani was quoted by the Trib as saying, “TJ is a bubble.” One resi-

More protest scenes from June 3. (Pittsburgh Current Photos by Jake Mysliwczyk).

dent, who spoke out against the need for a cultural competency officer, told the board, “Many of us move here to be in a bubble.”

In a follow-up interview the day after the protest, Barrett, on break from his job at McDonald’s, explained by phone that after his emails, there was a meeting between administration and students and parents, but they still felt unsatisfied with the district’s response.

“Throughout that 2017-2018 school year, nothing improved,” said Barrett. “Nothing changed. Nothing

10 | JUNE 9, 2020 | PITTSBURGH CURRENT

happened.”

With the administration dragging its feet, the students met in each other’s homes after school for camaraderie.

“Students had to meet in homes just to be able to get through what they were going through at the school,” said his mother, Williams-Hilton.

It would take nearly another year, and another public incident, before the group was permitted to form.

In February 2019, a photo emerged from Snapchat, of a black student at

an adjacent desk, with the caption “These n------, I should hang one by a tree now.”

Nwabuogu says the same boy who took the photo bullied her in the third grade.

Black students and parents were concerned that the administration would brush the incident away, so another parent, Tyiona Davis, of Clairton, confronted the school board at their monthly meeting.

Afterward, Davis and Williams-Hilton met privately with Principal Murphy and Superintendent Ghilani, among others. At the

NEWS meeting, administration officials agreed to make changes, including diversity training, and working with students to make the multicultural club happen.

So she backed off.

“I wanted to give the school district the opportunity to begin to create new policies and procedures and activities, but that didn't happen,” said Williams-Hilton.

“We’re not on that level anymore,” she said. “I have to step above, and have conversations in other rooms.

So that's what we started doing.” She recounted with the Current other incidents that have happened since the 2019 meeting, and a belief that the administration wanted to dictate how the multicultural student union went about its activities.

It took a year, and the threat of lynching, but the students had their club; however, the victory was shortlived. Barrett said he and his peers were met with scorn at school the next day.

“They looked at us as if we were disgusting to them because their school was just put on the news,” he said. “They didn't know how to handle anything. They didn't speak to us about it. They didn't do anything.”

In May 2019, the school district approved two contractors with the Diversity and Respect Campaign to work 9 hours a week between both the middle and high schools, for an amount just under $25,000.

The budget of the West Jefferson Hills School District for 2019-2020 was $55.6 million.

Many of the students who belong to the multicultural student union said there are no Black teachers or administrators at Thomas Jefferson High School, only two Black security guards who work as contractors.

“We recognize there is a lack of

diversity in our staff,” Ghilani was quoted as saying at the May 2019 school board meeting. “Our diversity amongst our students is growing.

Our staff is not representative of that diversity.”

According to Future Ready PA, WJHSD is 91.8% White, 2.8% Asian, 2.4% Black, 1.3% Hispanic, and 1.7% two or more races. **** Back at the protest, Williams-Hilton works the megaphone with the fervor of a testimonial preacher.

The vigil ends with a circle of about 10 local preachers reciting a psalm together, prayers for black lives, prayers for reconciliation, and prayers for the health of a local police officer injured in a car wreck earlier that day.

Students from the multicultural student union spoke their piece, as did Corporal Aaron Allen, of the Pennsylvania State Police Equality and Inclusion Office: “I want to see integrity, things of that nature. I think what's best for any law enforcement department,’ he said after the vigil.

He estimated the crowd to be between 200 and 300 people.

Pleasant Hills Police Chief, Brian Finnerty, urged protesters to push their elected officials for better training standards, and mental evaluations for police officers. He told the students they were making history.

Volunteers handed out bottles of water and Gatorade to the students, clergy, nurses, letter carriers, fast food workers, and the handful of teachers and counselors in attendance.

Despite fears expressed on local community message boards the event might turn violent, count-

er-protesters numbered in the single digits. One man wore a “Fuck Antifa” T-shirt. At one point, area police stepped between two white men with guns who started to yell at each other.

No one who spoke for this story could recall seeing any member of the school administration at the vigil, other than a counselor. The Superintendent released a statement after the recent video emerged of the middle school students saying, in part, “racism and hate have no place in WJHSD.” The letter ended: “I encourage you to speak with your children about the serious nature of what has happened in Minneapolis and across the country over the past week and to make sure they know the importance of being responsible for what they post online.”

Local resident, Dawn Zacharias, said she wasn’t surprised by the video, but believed it could have emerged out of any similarly situated school district. She has one son in the school district, and has lived in the community since 2005. She held a “Black Lives Matter” sign.

When the most recent racist video emerged, she formed a “TJ anti-racist neighbors for change” Facebook group, which is now up to 200 members.

“If this is our youth in our community, and I believe it's mostly made up of our community, I think this is a really good sign,” she said about the demonstrators. “Although I know some kids had to sneak out and do this without their parents knowing, they're the future; their parent's aren't.”

As the rally reached its apex, the mood was optimistic. The crowd migrated to a McDonald’s parking lot adjacent Route 51, to wave their

signs at passing traffic. It wasn’t the multicultural student union anymore; it was simply, multicultural.

“I'm starting to see the hearts of my peers,” said Barrett.

He said when this latest racist video emerged, “so many people from my school had contacted me and were like, you know, we're going to stand for you guys.”

One black student who said he didn’t experience racism at TJ was Barrett’s older brother, Darius, a former defensive tackle on the Jaguars football team. Now a student at Clarion University, Darius was in attendance to support his brother’s cause, and said he attended with some of his former teammates.

“There are good people in [the high school]. There are. There are.

But it's just a matter of those good people actually coming out and speaking up,” he said.

It’s a sentiment shared by his younger brother, Zyan: “There's a small minority that sometimes influences the majority. So the majority, sometimes they stay silent and they won't speak up.”

Williams-Hilton hopes that, at the group’s next action, she won’t be involved, and that the students will take charge and continue to spread their message.

“I'd like to see change in the school district,” said Smith, in the midst of the demonstration, her peers waving signs affirming black lives and decrying white silence, while passing traffic blared its support.

“I'd like to see people come together and actually get the time to start to know each other instead of assuming things. Because if you think about it, if we all actually open up, we can all relate to something in a way, and they may not even know it before they start judging us by the color of our skin.”

PITTSBURGH CURRENT | JUNE 9, 2020 | 11

NEWS BLACK DEMS TAKE OVER PA. HOUSE FLOOR; TURZAI CALLS FOR SPECIAL SESSION ON POLICE REFORM

BY JOHN L. MICEK - FOR THE PITTSBURGH CURRENT

INFO@PITTSBURGHCURRENT.COM

T

he most powerful Republican in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives said Monday that he “[stands] in solidarity,” with Black lawmakers who have called for votes on long-delayed police reform bills, and proposed a special legislative session on those bills.

The remarks by state House Speaker Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny, came as the chamber’s Black members, all Democrats, occupied the House chamber and refused to allow Monday’s voting session to begin until there was a guarantee of action on the legislation. The measures include a ban on chokeholds, expanding public access to police footage and adjusting use of force guidelines.

“In the matter of peaceful civil disobedience. They have expressed their anger. Their frustration. Certainly the issues they raise are legitimate,” Turzai, who is retiring at year’s end, said in remarks that stretched about nine minutes.

Turzai told the Black lawmakers, who were joined Monday by some white colleagues, that House leadership would meet to discuss the legislation, and send a joint letter to Gov. Tom Wolf to call for the special session.

Turzai acknowledged Monday that there wouldn’t be a consensus on more than 10 Democrat-backed reform bills, but did say there was room for consensus.

Turzai vowed to lawmakers to “personally” review the proposals and hoped to reach “common ground.” A 30-minute session on Monday afternoon did not immediately yield a result. Across the Capitol, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairwoman Lisa Baker, R-Luzerne, announced she planned to hold hearings on reform measures.

The takeover in the House Monday came together over the last two days, Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, D-Philadelphia, said in a text message. Rep. Stephen Kinsey, D-Philadelphia, the chair of the Legislative Black Caucus, said lawmakers had reached their tipping point.

“We can’t keep going back

12 | JUNE 9, 2020 | PITTSBURGH CURRENT

to our communities talking about Republican-led House majority and not getting anything done. Just like you’ve seen action in the street you’ve seen action in the Capitol,” Kinsey told the Capital-Star.

Rep. Valerie Gaydos, R-Allegheny, stood during the moment of silence like many of her colleagues– though a few paid the moment if silence little mind and scrolled through their phones.

Gaydos said the protest had merit, but said that it had set a precedent that any lawmaker with demands could copy the approach to get their way.

Then, the chamber would have “abandoned rule of law.”

She could not yet say what

she would vote for.

While symbolically important, special legislative sessions rarely result in concrete legislative action. The notable exception was a special session in crime in 1995, under former GOP Gov. Tom Ridge, that saw lawmakers pass a glut of get-tough measures.

Democrats also asked for, and were rebuffed, in their request for a special session following the death of Antwon Rose, a Pittsburgh teen who was shot to death by a white police officer two years ago this month. The officer who shot Rose was later acquitted.

Turzai’s remarks came after more than an hour of fiery speeches by Black lawmakers lambasting the lack of action

NEWS on the legislation, which has been stalled in committee for months.

“You all want calm right now. You just want to go to caucus, and ‘We will talk about this at another time,'” Kenyatta, his voice steadily rising with emotion, said during his turn at the rostrum.

“We’re not going to have the ceremony and pomp and circumstance of us coming up here like its another day,” Kenyatta continued. “This is our moment to say enough is enough.”

The chamber had been set to gavel in at 1 p.m., when Turzai was expected to publicly address the protests that have rocked Pennsylvania and the nation since George Floyd, a Black man, died under the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer two weeks ago.

Shortly before 1 p.m., the House’s online feed switched to a color-bar test pattern as Democrats staged their takeover. Black lawmakers, including Rep. Chris Rabb and Minority Whip Jordan Harris, both of Philadelphia, respectively streamed the peaceful takeover on their Instagram and Facebook accounts.

“We respect this body, we respect this institution … for this promise and its potential,” Rabb said, as Democrats began their round of speeches.

Late last week, Wolf rolled out a package of police reforms that included citizen review boards for state and local police. Wolf also said

the state would redo its useof-force training standards, and create an inspector general to investigate fraud and misconduct among law enforcement.

While the state Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police released a statement acknowledging the need for change, saying Floyd’s death has “has diminished the trust and respect,” for law enforcement, Wolf faced pushback from the union representing Pennsylvania State Police troopers, an agency he directly controls.

Asked about reform matters during a Monday afternoon news conference, Wolf said, “we have to get out of denial.

We all have a vested interest in making this a fair society.”

While it’s up to Wolf to call a special legislative session, a spokeswoman for Senate Republicans said Monday that the leaders in upper chamber “don’t believe that a special session is needed to move bills.”

“We can do that now – and faster,” Senate GOP spokeswoman Jenn Kocher said.

In a series of memos Monday, Democratic lawmakers signaled their intent to introduce bills creating new accountability measures for police and limiting use-offorce tactics.

John L. Micek is the Editor of the Pennsylvania Capital-Star where this story first appeared. Associate Editor Cassie Miller and staff reporter Elizabeth Hardison contributed to this story.

MAN WHO USED N-WORD AGAINST BLACK WOMAN AT PEACEFUL SUNDAY PROTEST HAS BEEN IDENTIFIED BY POLICE, SOURCES SAY

BY CHARLIE DEITCH - PITTSBURGH CURRENT EDITOR

CHARLIE@PITTSBURGHCURRENT.COM

Editor’s Note: This story contains disturbing language that includes racial epithets and slang that is demeaning toward women. We have left much of the language unedited, including one usage of the n-word.

A

white man (pictured below left) who identified himself as a “police officer” and used racial epithets against a black woman as she left a June 7 Peaceful Protest For Racial Justice on Mount Washington is not a member of the Pittsburgh Police force or, apparently, any other.

City Police officials tell the Current that the department knows who the man is and he is not a police officer. The man's name is not yet being released, however, because the investigation is still ongoing. Several community members called the department to identify the man and he was also identified by some police officers. Despite learning the name of the man in the video from multiple sources and a social media search, the Current did not have official confirmation at the time publication and was withholding the name. Once the investigation is complete it will be referred to the District Attorney's office for the consideration of criminal charges.

Sunday's event was attended by several hundred people along with Allegheny County Chief Executive Rich Fitzgerald and U.S. Congressman Conor Lamb.

The woman who was the target of the man's vitriol asked not to be identified but says she was coming forward because she wants the man, who lives in her neighborhood identified. “I’m fearful because he lives in this neighborhood and I want charges brought against him so the neighborhood can feel safe from racism,” she said. The woman said she already feels unsafe in her neighborhood because of the outward racism by some residents."

The man approached the woman as protesters began to march from Mt. Washington to Market Square. The man approached her and said, ‘The nigglets are out fucking shit up again aren’t they,’ The woman then followed the man with her cell phone camera, asking questions. The man again called her the n-word and a slew of profanity, saying that he didn't like black people and called the woman a “fucking worthless nigglet who doesn’t have a job.” As the man became more aggressive, several nearby protesters came to her aid.

"I’m also thankful to the white allies who used their bodies to shield me from his hateful rhetoric,” she said. “It takes white allies

to shut down racism. We can’t do it alone. I don’t know what would have happened if I was alone. I didn’t ask for help, they came on their own.”

PITTSBURGH CURRENT | JUNE 9, 2020 | 13

NEWS 'YOU HAVE TO SCREAM' AN INTERVIEW WITH ACTIVIST NIQUE CRAFT

BY ERIC BOYD - PITTSBURGH CURRENT CONTRIBUTING WRITER

INFO@pittsburghcurrent.com

F

ace to face, you’d be foolish to say Nique Craft looked vulnerable. You might wake up on the ground if you did.

Yet as a black, nonbinary metalhead, there aren’t many people in this city more marginized; because of this, Nique has been at the forefront of the Pittsburgh protest movement, despite not wanting to be.

“I just happened to be the loudest person and literally the most colorful in every way imaginable. If you're gonna chant and wake up buildings, you have to scream and let them know you're there.”

Those screams have continued to be heard for several days in Pittsburgh as daily actions have popped up in different parts of the city.

Truthfully, the screams have never stopped. The murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd have added two more knicks to the bleeding body of America’s civil rights movement, but this is a crusade which has never ended. Ask Nique how long they’ve been protesting and you get a resigned chuckle.

“I mean, I’ve kinda been against my oppression my entire life, so…”

Adopted by a white woman, Nique learned about racism in kindergarten when a classmate asked them why their skin was a different color than their mother’s.

“I punched him in the face because I thought he was lying,” Nique says. “I asked my mom about it and she told me she didn’t want me to be treated any differently than anybody else. She thought if a black person just articulated well and wore a suit, you wouldn’t get shot. So I wasn’t raised with my heritage, and that was super irresponsible on her part.”

Nique Craft. Opposite page: Craft at a protest in Bakery Square. (Pittsburgh Current Photos by Eric Boyd)

As a heavily tattooed person who uses They/Them or Alien as pronouns, embracing their black heritage was particularly hard until they realized that black culture was not a linear experience and that intersectional voices needed to be amplified.

The danger, Nique believes, is that these protests could become homogenized into the heteronormal culture of a city like Pittsburgh. George Floyd has deserved this moment, but so has Breonna Taylor and Tony McDade.

In grabbing a bullhorn and standing at the front of any protest they

14 | JUNE 9, 2020 | PITTSBURGH CURRENT

can, Nique is ensuring that other outsiders feel seen and heard.

“I know we’re all very vain and people like seeing photos of themselves on Facebook and Instagram doing cool shit, but that’s because you get to remember that you did it.

That doesn't mean that's why you're doing it.”

While their white peers could more easily navigate their identities, Nique had few role models they could actually relate to. The visibility of these protests can help correct that.

“When I was a kid, there was

no one that looked like me and it was hard to become somebody that looked like me. I'd have been so pumped to see just one person on TV who was like me,” Nique says. “It just makes it that much easier when you see somebody that looks like you doing it to make you think you can do it too.”

Of course, the concept of intersectionality can also be co-opted into something akin to an All Lives Matter mindset, which Nique says is not the point of the current moment.

“This isn’t about patting white people on the back just for showing

NEWS up when you weren’t out here even two-and-a-half weeks ago,” Nique says. “We should have crowds of all different kinds of people, but then there’s the impression that everyone should have a chance to stand up and talk about what bothers them. That’s not true. We need people who are 100% intersectional in their minds to stand up for every level of blackness.”

Along with that fear of coddling white protesters, Nique believes that anger has not played a large enough role in Pittsburgh’s protest. While we happily celebrate the death of the Pinkertons, dozens of people were arrested in East Liberty essentially because someone may or may not have thrown a water bottle at a riot cop.

“Logically, I think we should fuck shit up like everybody else is. Also logically, I feel like we're not ready for that,” Nique admits. “When someone calls me a nigger, I want to fucking throw them in the river.

I need to be able to feel that, even if I'm not gonna throw some dude in the river. I should be able to feel like that and you should trust me to know what to do with that feeling... I don't want to judge anybody's anger on any scale.”

That anger isn’t going anywhere.

Bill Peduto can send a tweet about peacefulness into the ether but it won’t change what it refuses to address. Nique, and so many others, are pissed. Protesters are being brutalized by the police for speaking out against police brutality, and as long as people stay on the streets to call it out, this savage American tableau will likely grow.

However, there is an unfortunate disconnect. Even as polls begin to show a majority of Americans believe these injustices are indeed a result of systematic racism, you can march in any local protest right now and hear well-intentioned white cries of Fuck Trump muffle out the name

of a murdered black person during a singing of Which Side Are you On? “We're sharing the civil rights movement with people who shouldn't be a part of it,” Nique says.

“I don't want to talk about Trump because police brutality existed before and it will exist after him if we don't make these huge changes now. People think they’ll show up in November and then it’ll just be done and that’s just terribly naive.”

Admittedly, Nique was hopping trains when Obama was first elected; they were not even registered to vote. They have since come to understand the power of voting, but it’s also time to discuss things that bother republicans and democrats want to discuss.

“In the service industry, if a kitchen staff is fucking food up, nine times out of ten you just fire

everybody. We don’t need police,” Nique says. “We can replace them with social workers, mental health workers. Yeah there’s always gonna be ridiculous people doing crazy shit, but if we could weed out certain aspects of what makes them get there, we won’t need cops corralling some wild drug addict who’s eating people’s faces off because we’ll have gotten them help way before reaching that point... Put that money into the Hill district, into black womxn’s health, into our LGBTQIA community. Everybody needs a boost.”

As actual police reform is slowly dragged into Pittsburgh’s public consciousness, Nique believes things will continue to be turbulent in the perfect storm that is 2020.

“White people broke a legit lockdown to get haircuts, so I guess we’re allowed out now, but they

didn’t get riot cops for that. We did… So I’m looking forward to Juneteenth and seeing all the black leaders on our biggest holiday, I think that could unite the country; but then by July 5th, all the evictions will start after quarantine and I think things are gonna get heavy for everybody.”

Until then, Nique is trying to take care of themselves, but it’s hard to step away from current events.

“Today I'm supposed to go hang out with my friends in the middle of the woods but I really don't want to be away from my phone for that long. I know that kind of behavior is going to consume my brain. I'm gonna keep doing it as long as I can before I totally break I guess… I just don't want to see vulnerable people get fucked up.”

PITTSBURGH CURRENT | JUNE 9, 2020 | 15

NEWS UNION CALLS ON POST-GAZETTE ADVERTISERS TO FORCE PAPER TO CEASE RACIAL DISCRIMINATION

BY CHARLIE DEITCH - PITTSBURGH CURRENT EDITOR

M

CHARLIE@PITTSBURGHCURRENT.COM

embers and attorneys of the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh, which represents members of the editorial staff at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, are asking the newspaper’s advertisers, “large and small” to contact PG management to express their displeasure over the paper’s decision to pull two black journalists from coverage of the ongoing civil rights protests in the city.

Last week, the PG removed reporter Alexis Johnson from all coverage following a tweet she made the previous weekend claiming she could not be unbiased.. Photojournalist Michael Santago was pulled off of coverage on Friday for the same reason.

At a press conference Monday in front of the P-G’s North Shore offices, Johnson and Santiago were joined by PGH Newspaper guild President Michael Fuoco and the guild’s attorneys, Joe Pass Sr. and Joe Pass Jr. Black Journalists have been covering these stories since the beginning of time,” Johnson said. “Racism has always been part of the fabric of our country. Whether we tweet our sentiments or how we feel, we have to experience that trauma in real time and then show up for work and report the news fairly and accurately. As a black woman, as a Pittsburgh native, as the daughter of a retired state trooper and a retired probation officer, it’s a shame I wasn’t able to bring all those experiences to coverage of this story.

“The real shame here is that the people being punished are our readers and the public.

Fuoco says the Guild is making three demands of management: Rescind the ban and allow these black journalists to cover the most monumental civil rights movement in more than 50 years.

Stop retaliating against their supporters.

Fulfill your mission by adequately and ethically covering the protest and related issues.

Fuoco said retaliation has also been made against other guild members. Two writers who wrote stories on the issue of racial justice tweeted support, as did most members of the guild, for Johnson. The next day, their stories were removed from the P-G’s website, a move that Fuoco called a “mortal 16 | JUNE 9, 2020 | PITTSBURGH CURRENT

Post-Gazette Journalist Alexis Johnson (Pittsburgh Current Photos by Jake Mysliwczyk).

sin in journalism.” The stories later showed up again without bylines. Then, over the weekend, the Post-Gazette didn’t use staff photographers to cover any local protest, instead opting for wire photos. Instead, the paper’s photojournalist shot art for stories about bees and ice cream.

“I have been representing the guild for five decades and I have never seen the Post-Gazette act this way,” Pass Sr. said.

“You would be hard-pressed to find two journalists more qualified than these two people [to cover this story]. The only reason they are not is because of the color of their skin and that has to stop.

“We call upon our advertisers, those who pay the bills, to tell them to rectify this situation or they’ll never see their dollars. I think that’s the only way they’ll ever do anything.”

OPINION

ADVERTISE WITH US TODAY! WWW.PITTSBURGHCURRENT.COM PITTSBURGH CURRENT | JUNE 9, 2020 | 17

OPINION THE 'LUCKY' ONE?

POLITICAL CONSULTANT, ACTIVIST KHARI MOSLEY REFLECTS ON A SYSTEM THAT LABELS A BLACK PERSON WHO LIVES THROUGH AN ENCOUNTER WITH POLICE IS DEEMED FORTUNATE.

BY KHARI MOSLEY - SPECIAL TO THE PITTSBURGH CURRENT

INFO@PITTSBURGHCURRENT.COM

I

am lucky it wasn’t worse.

That’s what I’ve been told countless times since that frigid night in Detroit. That night could have easily ended tragically for me like it did for those we march for: George, Breonna, Antwon and so many others that weren’t as lucky as me. I was lucky because I didn’t die for making the mundane mistake of forgetting my hotel room key.

Forgetting my room key in a fourstar hotel like Detroit’s Westin Book Cadillac turned my life upside down, but still I was lucky compared to what could have happened. The fact that forgetting your room key could result in a traumatic interaction with the Detroit Police, dubious criminal charges and slanted national media coverage speaks volumes to the dire situation that exists in this country. The fact that I am considered lucky in comparison to far too many other incidents is a national embarrassment.

As protests sweep the globe in response to George Floyd’s tragic murder, my mind has often drifted back to the night of March 5, 2019. That night and in the days following, my wife, Allegheny County Controller Chelsa Wagner, and I became victims of an insidious plot by a corporation, local law enforcement and corporate media to promote a racist

ABOVE: A security guard testifies in the tril of Khari Mosley. Opposite page: Khari Mosley, raises his arms on security camera footage at Detroit’s Westin Book Cadillac on March 2019 being approached by security.

narrative in order to cover up misconduct and power of abuse.

Their character attacks and false allegations that were published in media outlets across the country, fits a pattern of behavior that lies at the heart of global condemnation of American law-enforcement’s long history of white supremacy, institutional racism and brazen lack of accountability.

The George Floyd video was so powerful because it showed in such stark terms how law

18 | JUNE 9, 2020 | PITTSBURGH CURRENT

enforcement will lie to cover up misconduct. The casual nature in which they accuse cooperative and compliant citizens they interact with of resisting or being combative. Because I rightfully challenged the hotel’s assertion that I was sneaking into the hotel when my name didn’t appear on the room, the staff did to me what Amy Cooper did to Christian Cooper. Instead of trying to solve the customer service issue, Westin hotel staff made a false police

report claiming I was a random drunk, belligerent man threatening staff and guests in the hotel lobby.

Security even mentioned on the 911 call, that I may be carrying a weapon. Hotel, street and police body cam videos and a 4-day jury trial proved all their allegations of disorderly drunkenness and disturbing the peace false, but for months they incessantly promoted a false narrative through the media. My wife’s political adversar-

OPINION ies in Pittsburgh peddled vicious lies about a domestic altercation.

On the way back from Detroit, KDKA media personality Marty Griffin texted my wife claiming he heard we were involved in a DUI, domestic altercation that resulted in my wife punching a cop.

Immediately following the incident, Detroit’s police chief James Craig held a televised press conference where he falsely claimed I was involved in a bar room altercation, fell asleep in the bar and was escorted out by the police.

When we demanded the video from the hotel bar to prove all I did was have a glass of wine and charge it to my hotel room then leave for the front desk to retrieve a room key, the video mysteriously vanished. To this day, people still ask, “What happened at the bar, who were you fighting?”

The most unbelievable aspect of this lie is that a white patron did get into a physical altercation shortly shortly before I walked into the bar. He was escorted by the hotel to his room, the security was coming from his room when they came to remove me from the front desk area.

In the past couple of days, I made the difficult choice beginning to post the videos from that night and the trial. I know everytime I re-watch, I relive the trauma of that night. I do it anyway because I feel an obligation to expose our broken criminal justice due to the unique platform my wife and I have. I have been moved by the overwhelming response to our stark example of

a corrupt criminal justice system abusing their power to protect the interests of bad corporate citizens.

The way the Westin staff gaslights me in the bodycam videos as if forced removal from a hotel and police detention is a normal course of action for forgetting your room key is nauseating.

The way the Westin security and Detroit Police stand try to gaslight the judge and jury while testifying on the stand is infuriating and insulting. It all speaks to a culture of no accountability and the only way to fight that is tell our stories even when it is painful. We owe it

to the voices they silenced forever to speak up.

I always say that night was like a trip to the Twilight Zone, I was profiled a vagrant, kicked out of the hotel, assaulted by hotel security, falsely accused of assault, detained in a police car, later removed from hotel in handcuffs, witnessed my wife get body slammed and arrested right in front of me. That nightmare was followed by enduring the emotional stress of constant media coverage & financial strain of a 4-day jury trial only to be fully exonerated of trumped up disor-

derly drunkenness & disturbing the peace charges. All for forgetting my hotel room key. For most people that would be the worst night and year of your life. For a Black Man In America, living with the trauma, scars and pain of that awful experience is considered being lucky for we all know it could have gone much worse.

Khari Mosley is the CEO of the Sojourner Group, a Pittsburgh based political consulting, civic engagement & public affairs firm.

He lives in Point Breeze with his wife Chelsa Wagner and their two sons, Thaddeus & Isaiah.

PITTSBURGH CURRENT | JUNE 9, 2020 | 19

OPINION

THE OTHER DISEASE CAUSED BY ECOLOGICAL DEGRADATION AND CLIMATE CHANGE

BY LARRY J. SCHWEIGER - PITTSBURGH CURRENT COLUMNIST

INFO@PITTSBURGHCURRENT.COM

While the number of deaths in the United States from COVID-19 has reached more than110,000, the origin of the virus has been the focus of political conspiracy theories. We now know that this novel virus started with Chinese wildlife consumption. The virus probably came from a bat. Research scientists confirmed that COVID-19 has similarities to known coronaviruses found in wildlife. The researchers have ruled out the political conspiracy theory that COVID was created in a Wuhan lab funded by the Obama administration. In an over-populated China, wildlife habitats are disappearing, and humans are eating all forms of unclean wildlife for protein.

In an interview with Fox News on Feb. 16, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., first suggested that the coronavirus came from a virology laboratory in Wuhan, China, where the outbreak emerged. Others went further by raising the possibility that the virus was a leaked bio-weapon.” All of this has been a deliberate deflection to take the attention off of Trump's failures.

Sadly, it’s still true that a lie seems to travel further and faster than any scientific fact. Human populations are stressing nature and creating opportunities for more novel viruses to cross over. When human populations exceed the limits of the natural world, more novel viruses are inevitable.

There is another ecological disease that has spread across Pennsylvania. It has not received the needed attention in the face of the required media attention to COVID and Black Lives Matter. This week, I developed a high fever, chills,

night sweats, headache, fatigue, muscle aches, so my family doctor suggested that I get tested for the COVID-19 virus. I was tested for COVID-19 and found to be negative. At the hospital, we discovered a tick bite on the back of my thigh.

It was not the typical bullseye shaped rash but a quarter-sized red welt. It was a tick bite, none-theless, and I missed it. I have been so focused on social distancing that I failed to check my body for ticks when outdoors. As a lifelong wildlife professional, I of all people should know better.

Unlike mosquitoes that produce an anticoagulant protein that triggers itching from a quick immune response, ticks do not use anticoagulants so they can escape notice.

We know when we are bitten by a mosquito, not so with black-legged (deer ticks) and other silent biters.

“Thirty percent or more of people with Lyme disease don’t remember having the rash. Even fewer people remember a tick attachment. Estimates range from 20 to 50 percent.

The ticks in the nymph stage are the size of poppy seeds, and their bites are easy to miss.”

I am now taking an antibiotic that targets these Spirochete bacteria. Lyme is one of several nasty corkscrew-shaped bacteria.

Many spirochetes are dangerous pathogens causing diseases such as syphilis, yaws, relapsing fever, and Lyme disease. Unchecked, Lyme can be a nasty disease.

My grandson developed Lyme a few years ago while playing in the woods and was not detected for some time. When I was a boy, playing in the same nearby woods, we never had to worry about ticks

20 | JUNE 9, 2020 | PITTSBURGH CURRENT

Child getting treatment for Lyme Disease.

because they were not there. With a rapidly warming world facing a climate crisis, deer ticks and other disease-carrying ticks and mosquitos can now overwinter are encroaching on more new places than ever before. Thanks to climate change, our average minimum winter temperatures have gone above about 19° F. Colder temperatures keep deer ticks from establishing stable populations. It turns out that freezing deep cold weather is the best insecticide against ticks and other problematic insects. We are losing our hard winters.

How do we stay safe while outdoors? Emily Tipping, writing for

the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy’s CONSERVE when Lyme first arrived in Western Pennsylvania, offered these precautions to reduce the risk of tick bites: “Either avoid areas in the spring and summer that are likely to be infested (ticks prefer open to semiopen habitats with low-lying vegetation); or wear long pants, long sleeves and a hat, and tuck your pant legs into your socks or boots, or tape pant legs to your socks.

Wear light-colored clothing so the minute deer ticks can be easily seen and removed.

Apply an insect repellent containing DEET (n,n-diethyl-m-tolua-

OPINION

mide) to clothes and exposed skin, following Environmental Protection Agency safety guidelines.

Walk in the center of hiking trails to avoid bumping into the overhanging brush. Ticks hang from the edges of vegetation and latch onto warm-blooded bodies walking by.

If you’ve been out in an area that may be infested with deer ticks, check for and remove any attached ticks immediately.”

How is Lyme disease diagnosed?

According to Medline Plus, in making a diagnosis, “your health care provider will consider: Your symptoms How likely it is that you were exposed to infected black-legged (deer) ticks

The possibility that other illnesses may cause similar symptoms Results of any lab tests It takes between 24 and 48 hours for an infected tick to transmit the Lyme disease once it has started to bite. Lyme disease tests check for antibodies made by the body in slow response to infection. These antibodies can take several weeks to develop. If you are tested too soon, it may not show that you have Lyme disease, even if you have it. You may need to have another confirmation test later.

As an informed society understanding the development and spread of Lyme disease is important to understand how the climate crisis, ecological collapse, and resource mismanagement have fueled

the spread of new disease and will spread other emerging diseases.

“Lyme disease was first identified in rural Connecticut in 1975.

Physicians suspected a virus was behind the outbreak, but—without knowing its true agent—attempts at further understanding the pathogenesis and possible treatments of Lyme disease were unsuccessful.

In 1981, IRP researcher William Burgdorfer, Ph.D., at the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Rocky Mountain Laboratories discovered spirochetes” as the cause of Lyme.

White-footed mice and whitetail deer have been primary spreaders of the infected ticks from Lyme, Connecticut. They are spreading the Lyme since infected black-leg

ticks are now able to overwinter in the northeast. Deer are macro spreaders of the contaminated ticks.

Twenty years ago, Lyme was only a problem in eastern Pennsylvania.

Since then, the deer have spread the ticks and virus statewide. Tick populations have exploded in populated areas where deer hunting was not practical and where local governments have not found the will to more aggressively manage deer numbers. Pennsylvania is now in the epicenter of Lyme. High deer densities have been encouraged by the Pennsylvania Game Commission for far too many decades. Increasingly we are witnessing lower hunter participation as the aging hunting population declines.

The climate crisis is affecting the spread of Lyme and other infectious diseases. CDC has warned that climate change may change the distribution of vector-borne and zoonotic diseases prevalent in America. Climate change could cause diseases like dengue fever, Lyme disease, or West Nile virus to re-emerge, or spread to areas previously unaffected. Also, changes in climate can help introduce and spread new diseases, such as Chikungunya fever. Besides, climate change directly affects the number of waterborne cases through effects on water temperature and precipitation frequency and intensity. CDC's work on the spread of diseases from the climate crisis has been thwarted since 2016 when Trump came to power.

We must demand the unleashing of the CDC to study these emerging threats. From my experience, we should be more vigilant in inspecting each other for ticks while we socially distance. This is the new reality.

PITTSBURGH CURRENT | JUNE 9, 2020 | 21

A&E JOY TOURJOURS’ NEW EP EXPLORES TOXIC RELATIONSHIPS AND THE “THIRD ROAD”

BY MARGARET WELSH - PITTSBURGH CURRENT MUSIC EDITOR

MARGARET@PITTSBURGHCURRENT.COM

I

n the video for “Giving Tree,” Joy Toujours, dappled with disco lights and wearing roller skates, loops around the Belvedere’s dancefloor. “The things I used to do for you I now just do for me,” the song goes. “I’m feeling so much better now, I’m not a giving tree.” On one hand, it’s a celebration of newly-found freedom from codependency, an anthem for boundary-setting. But it’s also a melancholy goodbye to the kinds of toxic relationship habits that often feel the most comfortable. “ “Giving Tree” appears on Toujours new four-song EP, Postjoy, which was released via Soundcloud two months ago, and is the first music the experimental post-folk artist has produced in years. It’s a reflective, brooding, though not self-serious, collection of songs.

Toujours slightly flattened vocals, along with the spare texture of the instrumentation, recalls the Magnetic Fields, or very early Destroyer, with strings swapped out for guitars. But Toujours -- a multi-instrumentalist who primarily plays violin -- is a busker at heart, and knows how to entertain on that level. Postjoy catches me the same way I might slow down and linger for a particularly engaging street musician.

“I just got back into music,” says Toujours in a phone call with the Current in late May, noting that they’ve stayed busy over the last decade raising a daughter and running Belvederes, in Lawrenceville (which, like other bars and music venues, is closed for the time-being). Old(er)-heads will likely remember the wild-n-wooly anarcho freak-folk ensemble Joy Toujours and the Toys Dujour, which was once a mainstay of the Pittsburgh scene.

But Toujours (who is non-binary and, while not picky about pronouns, prefers to be called by their name whenever possible) recently started writing music again, “intentionally getting back into it because I knew my kid was going to be starting to do her own thing … I wanted to have a thing to do.” Now, Toujours is preparing to hit the road in a van outfitted with a bed and a bathroom, with the hopes of focusing on music. There’s not a specific destination, or time frame, but Nashville, Vegas, New Orleans, Austin, Savannah, and eventually California are all potential docks.

“I want to go partake in the communities. I’ve toured already a dozen times -- like, hit a town, leave, hit a town, leave,” says Tourjours who, as an experienced street performer, is less constrained by the question of where to play than many other musicians in the age of Covid. But, true to the spirit of “Giv-

22 | JUNE 9, 2020 | PITTSBURGH CURRENT

Joy Toujours

ing Tree,” Tourjours says, “I’m always very cautious of the giver/taker relations with places, so I definitely want to ... be more a part of the community.”

In addition to relationship dynamics, Postjoy deals heavily in what Toujours calls “my less than binary” perspective. In the video for “Giving Tree” Toujours’ costume -- a red dress and black suit, each cut in half and sewn together at the middle -- is an obvious nod to gender identity. And an extra gloomy cover of Cher (and Nancy Sinatra’s) hit gets a bit of gender neutral tweaking: “Bang Bang (They Shot Me Down).”

But Toujours rejects many of life’s other binaries as well. “Derelict Dreams,” a version of which was also recorded by the Toys Doujour in the early 2000s, goes, “When there’s only

two choices I’d say both are probably wrong/ Give Jesus or Satan I’ll stick with Tommy Chong,” before calling to bring back guillotines for all our modern kings and queens. It echoes the messages of the anarcho punk of Toujours youth, but the listener is reminded a few lines later: “The masses aren’t asses cuz they don’t know who Crass is.”

In most situations, Tourjours says with a chuckle. “I prefer the third road, as i call it. …

Opening of the eyes to the grey spectrum is super important for … everyone's life.”

For more information visit www.soundcloud.com/joytoujours

A&E THE CAN’T MISS

BY EMERSON ANDREWS PITTSBURGH CURRENT CONTRIBUTING WRITER INFO@PITTSBURGHCURRENT.COM

FEATURED EVENTS IN AND AROUND THE PITTSBURGH REGION

JUNE 9 1Hood Media and UrbanKind Institute continue their Virtual Town Hall series, this time on What Black Pittsburgh Needs to Know About Protests. The panel, moderated by Moderated by Dr. Cheryl Hall-Russell, President of BW3, will also include Fawn Walker Montgomery, Director of Take Action Mon Valley. The event is open to anyone. 2 p.m. Free. facebook.com/events/705477090212261

JUNE 10 Startup Drinks Pittsburgh holds Tipsy Pitches, a night for entrepreneurs to pitch their silliest ideas and compete for cash prizes. Attendees can just watch or sign up to be one of the pitchers. 6 p.m. Free. facebook.com/ events/2925380467546242 PRSA Pittsburgh and the Young Professionals Committee host a panel on Navigating the Job Search During Covid-19 Times. The panelists will share tips on virtual networking and interviewing, resume-building and more. Registration is required. 6 p.m. Free. facebook.com/ events/198312631240685

place to increase safety. Shop locally produced cheese, meat, coffee and more. A full list of the market’s modified operations during the pandemic is available to read before attending. 9 a.m. 5050 Liberty Ave. Free admission. bloomfieldnow.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/BDC-Modified-Market-Operations-COVID-19.pdf Craft beer fans can attend Mitch Steele’s discussion of the Evolution of IPAs including brewing techniques and hopping procedures. Registration is required. 2 p.m. Free for MBAA members, $5 general admission. facebook. com/events/850829712105556 SisTers PGH and People’s Pride PGH - Breaking the Cistem host LGBTQIA Pittsburgh's BEST: Award Ceremony, honoring the local individuals, organizations and businesses for the work they do for the community. 6 p.m. 530 William Penn Pl. $20 general admission, $27.50 chicken dinner, $22.50 vegetarian/vegan dinner, $160 table reservation for up to eight people. facebook.com/events/587704801780539

JUNE 14 PizzaFest goes virtual this year, featuring demonstrations and tips on how to make the dough, sauce and all the other ingredients that go into pizza just right. Artisans from Caliente Pizza and Draft House, Slice on Broadway, Eddie’s Pizza 412 and Mercurio’s Pizza and Gelato participate as well as a show from Flair bartenders. Attendees can either just watch or sign up to pickup a pizza kit from their favorite place. 6 p.m. $10 zoom access, $25 zoom access and pizza kit. goodtastepittsburgh.com

JUNE 15

JUNE 11

Northland Kids & Teens Summer Reading holds Toddler Time featuring nursery rhymes, songs and more perfect for kids in the pre-reading stage. 10 a.m. Free. facebook.com/events/3178897102160766

Pittsburgh Human Rights Working Group, US Human Rights Network and Global Studies Center at the University of Pittsburgh hold a webinar on Local & Global Strategies for Advancing the Human Right to Housing, part of an ongoing forum discussing issues brought to light during the pandemic. Reservation is encouraged. 4 p.m. Free. facebook.com/ events/697257277502460

Pittsburgh Youth Chorus moves their classes online for the first time. Jun. 15 through Jul. 31, PYC is offering classes for kids eight years old and up, either in groups or individually, on a variety of topics relating to music. For those who bundle courses, discounts are available. Times and price vary on which courses attendees register for. pittsburghyouthchorus.org/summer-online-courses

JUNE 12

Assemble hosts a virtual summer class on the future of city planning and community agriculture through virtual reality. Jun 15 through Jun. 19, kids ages six to fifteen can explore ideas, hear from experts in arts, math and science as well as create with hands-on activities. Classes are hosted on Google Hangouts. YOU-TOPIA : FUTUREVISION is free for Garfield residents, and scholarships are available to those who need it. 3 p.m. $20 general admission. assemblepgh.org

The Block Northway hosts their annual Farmer’s Market. Participating vendors and artisans include Franktuary, Graeter’s Ice Cream, Kilimanjaro and more. Attendees are required to wear masks, and no pets other than service animals are allowed. 3 p.m. 8013 McKnight Rd. Free admission. facebook.com/events/242547263738302

JUNE 13 Bloomfield Saturday Market continues with some safety measures in

1Hood Media holds 1Hood Power Hour, a weekly forum on their Facebook Live featuring community leaders, local politicians and policymakers.

7 p.m. Free. facebook.com/1HoodMedia

PITTSBURGH CURRENT | JUNE 9, 2020 | 23

EXTRA

Savage Love Love | sex | relationships

BY DAN SAVAGE MAIL@SAVAGELOVE.NET

Hey, Everybody: We had our first Savage Love Livestream event last Thursday night and I had such a blast! A huge crowd of Savage Love readers and Savage Lovecast listeners got together on Zoom for a live online Q&A that raised more than $14,000 for Northwest Harvest, an organization that supports food banks in my home state. I got more questions than I could answer in our allotted time and so I’m going to answer as many as I can squeeze into this week’s column.

Here we go…

Is it a red flag or sign of deeper attachment or commitment issues if your long-term partner never tells you he loves you?

I’ve heard people describe relationships that were three months old as “LTRs.” Assuming you’re not one of those people—assuming you’ve been with this guy for more than a year—and you’ve already said “I love you” to him and he hasn’t said it back, well, that’s a bad sign. But I wouldn’t describe it as a red flag. Early warning signs for physical or emotional abuse are red flags; not hearing “I love you” from someone you’d like to hear that from does suck, I know (because I’ve been there), but it’s not a sign that you're in danger, girl. It’s also not proof your partner has attachment or commitment issues; he just might not be interested in attaching or committing to you. But whatever the

case might be, if you’re unhappy being with someone who can’t bring himself to say “I love you” then you shouldn’t be with that person.

Is there a safe way to date/be slutty now? Will there ever be again? I’m poly but live alone so I haven’t had sex in twelve weeks. HELP!

While health officials in most places are urging all to only have sex with people we live with—mom and dad excepted— over in the Netherlands health officials are advising single and horny Dutch people to find “sex buddies.” One sex buddy per person, someone you can meet up with for sex, ideally someone who isn’t interacting with too many other people. If you can find someone you trust—and if you are someone who can be trusted—you could go Dutch.

My fiancé has an ex-girlfriend who just can't let it go.

He's blocked her on social media but his mother still follows his ex and is friends with her and they interact at least monthly. Likes, comments, etc. Can I address the issue with his mom or is that just somewhere you don't go?

Why are you monitoring your fiancé’s ex-girlfriend’s social media? I mean, if you weren’t lurking on her Instagram, you wouldn’t know your future MIL is liking and commenting on her photos. You fiancé’s mom is an adult and she can follow anyone she likes on Instagram. And if you don’t want her to think you're the toxic one, you won’t address this with her. Be the change you wanna see in your fiancé’s ex: let it go.

24 | JUNE 9, 2020 | PITTSBURGH CURRENT

I’ve always wanted to know more about your history with circumcision.

California. When is the right time to tell someone I just started dating that I’m bisexual? And how?

My history with circumcision isn’t that interesting: I was present at one circumcision (my own), I’ve never performed a circumcision (that I recall), and I’ve encountered both circumcised and uncircumcised dicks in the wild (enjoyed them all).

Mention your bisexuality on dating apps—which is where most couples meet these days— and you won’t have to tell someone you’re bisexual after you’ve started dating them. If you meet someone the old fashioned way (school, work, through friends), tell ‘em right away. It’s nothing you should be ashamed of or have to roll out carefully. And being with someone can’t embrace and celebrate your sexuality is bad for your mental health; the more out you are about being bi, the lower your odds of winding up with someone who has a problem with it. It ups your odds of winding up with someone who fetishizes your bisexuality, of course, but if you had to choose between a partner who disapproves (and polices) and a partner who drools (and wants to watch), you’re gonna way better off with the droolers.

My wife and I are lesbians who just found out we're having a baby boy! We're super excited but had some penis questions.

My wife wants to circumcise our son because she says that if he's uncircumcised he'll get made fun of in the locker room. Does this happen? How often do boys look at each other's dicks growing up?

The circumcision rate among newborn boys has been falling for decades and now only a little more than half of boys are circumcised at birth. So even if boys were comparing their dicks in locker rooms—and they’re not—your son won’t be alone. And for the record: the American Academy of Pediatrics doesn’t recommend the procedure and the supposed health benefits—a lower risk for urinary tract infections and a lower risk for some sexually transmitted infections—aren’t a convincing argument in favor of the routine circumcision of male infants. And while the complication rate is low (1.5%), those complications can range from easily treatable infections to “amputation of the glans,” “necrosis of the penis,” and “death.”

Risking your son’s life and most important limb to spare him a moment’s awkwardness in a locker room seems unreasonable to me—particularly since your son can’t consent.

My partner wants me (F) to peg him! Hooray! Any advice?

He is very hot! Thanks! You rock!

He should douche! Plenty of lube! Take it slow! Film it for HUMP!

I’m a bisexual male in

Cis poly woman here. My quarantine sexpod contains me and my two male partners. We’ll call them A and B. My partner B has another female partner that we’ll call C. Since we're already "connected" anyway, would it change anything for me to have a threesome with B and C?

If B is fucking C and then coming home and fucking you and then you’re running down the hall to A, then C is essentially already in your sexpod. The bigger your sexpod, the more people you’re in contact with, the greater your risk of contracting and/or spreading COVID-19. Ideally C would move in with you and A and B if you’re all going to be fucking each other. But not having a threesome with B and C while B is out there fucking C won’t protect you and A from whatever B might bring home from C.

ESSAY MONTANA

BY MATTHEW WALLENSTEIN - PITTSBURGH CURRENT CONTRIBUTING WRITER INFO@PITTSBURGHCURRENT.COM

T

he sun was coming up.

The sky was turning red.

There was fog everywhere, rising from the pavement and from the trees like breath. We rolled the windows down and the air was cold and clean. We had been up all night driving and we were passing through the mountains of North Dakota. Ben was behind the wheel and I was in the passenger seat keeping him company. The other seven people on tour with us were sleeping in the back of the van. We were about six weeks into a full US tour. Ben and I had been at each other's throats since 13 states back and he was smart enough to know a night of driving, just him and me, would do us some good.

Ben and I met in preschool. The teachers let the kids outside unsupervised during recess. There was a mound of dirt behind the building where we played king of the hill. Ben had never lost to anyone, neither had I. So I watched him push kid after kid down the hill and laugh at them. I went up and he did it to me too. I was furious.

I stood back up and climbed to the top of the hill and threw him off.

It felt good. I hated him. He hated me. When his mother came at the end of the day to pick him up I told her he was a jerk, she told me he wasn’t a jerk all the time. After that we became best friends and beat up all the older kids together. In the years since there was no one I ever fought against or on the same side as more than Ben. We beat the hell out of each other almost every time we spent more than a few minutes together, but we also helped each other in large and minute ways.

It had taken till sunrise, but we were remembering we loved each other. As we drove across into Montana we were back to laughing, mooning truck drivers, seeing how long we could hold the dying

jerry-rigged van over 100 miles an hour. There was a creek along the side of the road and we decided we would follow it until it was deep enough to swim in. Eventually it went between two large cliffs to the left of the road. Ben spotted a pull-off and he parked in front of some trees. We opened our doors and stepped onto the dirt. The sun was bright, I held my hand above my eyes like I was saluting.

The side door opened and as it did various food containers and a few shoes fell out. Chris had woken up. He came out of the van mumbling with a candy bar wrapper stuck to the side of his head.

He shut the door. He had punched its window out with his bare hand back when we were in California.

He hadn’t done it on purpose, he'd just gotten excited and needed to hit something. It exploded completely when his fist made contact.

One of us cut a piece of cardboard to fit the space and it was still there held on by duct tape. We all took turns sleeping in the van so no one would break in and take our stuff.

The three of us walked to the edge of the trees and looked down to where the water was. It was a very steep 200 feet down. We slid on dirt, tripped over roots, fell over a few times, but made it.

The water was moving fast and rough. It was white and perfect. We stood on a rock. Looking up I saw there were tall cliffs of red dirt and stone. A collapsing railroad bridge ran from a cliff on our side of the water to a cliff on the far side. We started taking off our clothes. The sun was heating up but we were still in the mountains and it was still cold. Ben and I stood there naked. Chris pulled his underwear

down. There were these boils on the backs of his legs and his ass, they had been growing since shortly after we left New York. At this point they were swollen and green, about the size of limes.

“Do they hurt?”

“Ugh. Yeah they hurt like hell.”

I jumped off the rock into the water. Ben and I grew up in New Hampshire and swam summer after summer in the White Mountains where the water makes your skin feel like ice and static. We knew cold water. This was cold water.

Not so cold you couldn’t breathe when you were in it, but close. It felt good. Ben jumped in. Chris started peeing on us and laughing. I climbed out and pushed him in the water. We took turns punching each other, and throwing one another off the rocks, skipping stones, holding each others’ heads under water.

Chis climbed out and stood on the large rock where our clothes were. Either from the cold or from the impact of jumping, one of the boils on the back of Chris’ knee had burst and pus was dripping down his leg.

“Oh, shit, Chris look at your leg man,” I said.

“Oh, shit,” said Ben. “Oh, shit,” said Chris.

Chris bent over and started squeezing the boil. He was making sounds like it really hurt. Ben and I were still in the water off to the side of the rock.

“Okay guys, this is where the white water really starts so it’ll get pretty bumpy.” This was a voice coming from up the river.

I looked around the rock in the direction it was coming from and sure enough a raft was coming around the bend. It was a group of Boy Scouts and their leader. From where Ben and I were we could see them but they couldn’t have seen us. They could however see Chris: naked, very hairy, bent over with his ass facing them, legs covered in boils, and pushing pus out of one of them. I watched them as they passed by staring, jaws hanging off their faces like broken hinges. They went on down the river, under the railroad bridge and around another curve and were gone.

Ben and I got out. We laughed till it hurt, till we couldn’t breathe. We lay on the rock and let the sun dry us off. Then we put our clothes on and climbed up the railroad bridge and everyone else kept sleeping in the old blue Ford van, the morning turning into the day.

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PA R T I N G S H OT

PITTSBURGH CURRENT PHOTO BY JAKE MYSLIWCZYK PITTSBURGH CURRENT | JUNE 9, 2020 | 26