People's Pride

ABOUT SISTERS PGHFounded in 2013, sisTers PGH seeks to serve trans and gender nonconforming people in the greater Pittsburgh region; especially, focusing on trans women of color. Founded by Ciora Thomas, a trans woman of color from Pittsburgh, sisTers has been advocating for trans rights within housing, employment, and the larger TLGBQ+ community. Through direct community conversations across the city, as well as her role on the Mayor’s LGBTQ Advisory Council, Ms. Thomas provides a strong voice advocating for the rights of trans people in the city of Pittsburgh. A primary function of sisTers PGH is to amplify the voices of trans people within conversations around housing access, employment opportunities, and education.. We have learned via lived experience, that transgender leadership amplifies our ability to serve this community in a capacity that is truly effective and influential. The goal is to teach our community essential life skills that will expand their education and employment opportunities. We hope to transition into offering permanent affordable housing and a homeownership program for our LGBT+ communities. It has been shown that in Pittsburgh, not even shelters and workspaces can provide adequate care, or safety, our transgender community desperately needs. Through consistent communication, and interviews, we have deduced that this is primarily due to the absence of transgender people in leadership positions. In the words of Tarana Burke “Victims know what they need; give them the resources to do it.”  Having Trans leaders provides a voice that can garner the creation of inclusionary change within cisgender dominant spaces.In 2017, sisTers organized and hosted People’s Pride 2k17; a march to demand greater recognition of the struggles of black, brown, and trans people within the broader TLGBQ+ community. In a matter of weeks, we brought thousands of people together to celebrate the importance of our trans-POC forebears and to demand more attention to the inequality and oppression still facing queer and trans people like environmental disparities in today’s society. Since then, sisTers has co-sponsored marches against several insidious practices; from white supremacists protesting Google, to the Westboro Baptist Church lambasting our population on multiple college campuses. Through these community events, we have claimed space in the conversations driving Pittsburgh’s progression forward and established our place as integral voices in the community.In 2018, we launched cultural competency training for organizations and service providers across the city. By developing a curriculum driven toward providing services for black, brown, and trans people, we hope to make the city’s existing infrastructure more humane and approachable for these vulnerable populations. Furthermore, with the help of funding from our Small and Mighty grant, graciously provided by the Pittsburgh Foundation, we will offer a series of workshops for our clients on topics surrounding employment, affordable healthcare, and education. This will provide tools that allow the population we serve to flourish and begin demarginalization. Finally, sisTers has begun the long planning process to offer affordable housing. To do so, we have been building relationships with national organizations and attending conferences that will offer us vital institutional wisdom as we build a sustainable housing initiative. We have already visited Youth BreakOUT! in New Orleans (a trans youth community center) and sent board members to the Philadelphia Trans Health Conference.The connections and knowledge we gain, as we continue to research and plan, will allow us to consciously and effectively grow so that the wide variety of services needed can be offered. Youth: As they saying goes, “The children are our future.” Creating a safe environment for black, brown, and young trans people is vital to our mission. While love exists within these communities, decades of archaic ideology, stigmas, and taboo still remain. In order to generate safe spaces for the aforementioned groups, we have to expand and push for inclusivity in all of the spaces our people will navigate. Only education and action can create these spaces.  Although we fight on behalf of all of these groups, our trans people are facing some of the harshest circumstances. Through our efforts, we hope to reduce the amount of trans youth that “come out,” only to end up homeless, violently assaulted, or forced into survival sex work. Our trans youth are struggling; they do not receive the same resources, compassion, or opportunities as their cishet counterparts. Furthermore, a trans young person of color is statistically more likely to be assaulted or murderer than many other marginalized groups. The need is dire, and we cannot wait to pull these young trans people back from the brink. With the guidance and experience of our organization's leader, we hope to engage and uplift our trans youth through direct action and opportunity. While we work tirelessly to try and eradicate these issues, we know that even when we are gone, the work will go on. This is why creating a youth platform to cultivate new ideas, and to usher in a new generation of activist, is imperative. By creating educational workshops, dialogues, and programs where our black, brown, and trans youth can work together to brainstorm our toughest issues, we hope that these interactions will lead them to think about how their intersections affect one another, and how we can bridge the gaps that have been created by decades of vitriolic rhetoric, which only exist to keep our communities divided.Through their work together, we can create a new narrative that showcases inclusivity and the need for direct, consistent action. Through their comradery, we can showcase empathy, compassion, love, virtue, wholesomeness, and truth. They will be the bridge that is forged to create a dialogue that no longer separates them, but combines their efforts. By initiating programs that help them create workshops, and projects, we hope that they step forward to do just that. Doing so will give them the capacity and courage it takes to stand up and assert their rights, and the rights of their compatriots. It will also aid them in garnering skills that can open new opportunities that otherwise wouldn’t have existed; this is another goal we have in providing them with these resources.  Even though we have hope for them, and believe in their abilities, we also recognize that these groups of young people have been indoctrinated into certain ideals that can stall, or destroy their ability to work together. Through group sessions, mental evaluations, educational counseling, and housing initiatives, we hope to lift some of the burdens that may bar them from pursuing this collective work. We aim to give them tools that stabilize their mental condition and showcase the importance of self-care. Young people are our future; they are the light that shines forward and the strength that binds our legacy with our future. We believe that they are capable, mighty, and worthy; we believe that through their shared interest, comradery, and focus, that they can eradicate some of the degradation facing our communities, and the oppression that impacts all of our lives.

SisTers PGH

People's Pride PGH Presents: Reclaiming Pittsburgh Pride 2021

SisTers PGH, a nonprofit founded and operated by Black, Pittsburgh-grown transwomxn and femmes, has been organizing the People’s Pride PGH March and Music Festival every year since
 2017. It was created to uplift Black, trans and nonbinary folks who have for too long been segregated and abused by the Delta Foundation of Pittsburgh.
Each year, we march to include local nonprofits, unions and community members. We march to oppose white-, cis-, gay-centered Pride parades and extravagant parties, which are too expensive for many nonprofits and communities to participate in. We march to offer another opportunity to feel what being at a true Pittsburgh Pride can feel like.
This year, in 2021, People’s Pride PGH will be celebrated June 18-20 and will be centered around the theme “Reclaiming Pittsburgh Pride.” Now more than ever, TLGBQIA+ and other marginalized communities must stand together, firmly rooted in equity and radical honesty, and take back the celebration of our lives.
We are proud to be partnering with the Pittsburgh Equality Center to bring other leaders, organizations, and allies to the table, to not only work together on supporting this year’s events but future Pittsburgh Pride celebrations as well.
This is the time to tell our own stories. This is the time to rebuild, refocus, and organize as a collective force while ensuring out TLGBQIA+ community is supported in the Pride movement. We hope to see you in attendance!
HISTORY
People’s Pride PGH began in 2017 in protest of the Delta Foundation of Pittsburgh's destructive,
dangerous, and toxic actions, which have over the years undermined Pittsburgh's TLGBQIA+
 communities.
People’s Pride PGH, which is now Pittsburgh’s leading community-centered Pride event, was founded and is directed by Trans people of color and allies to bolster the unapologetic approach needed to demand equal rights and visibility for our TLGBQIA+ communities in
Pittsburgh and around the country.
Watch a video from The Daily Show with Trevor Noah about the disturbing corporatization of Pride, featuring Ciora Thomas, founder of SisTers PGH and People’s Pride:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KXpHo3qhFQ
WHY WE FIGHT
It remains legal in Pennsylvania to put forward a defense in court of “LGBTQ+ panic.” This is a strategy which asks a court to blame a victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity to defend
 against charges of a violent crime, such as assault or murder. In 2021, we cannot allow for our legal system to permit an “excuse” for violence against TLGBQIA+ because of simply who we
 are. Legislation continues to be introduced in the Pennsylvania General Assembly, but has yet to advance.
Because TLGBQIA+ people face systemic and institutional discrimination, many in the community view sex work as a career option -- sometimes the only option. This is why we must
 support sex workers and their fight for respect, safety, and dignity, as well as support the decriminalization of sex work.
We must also advocate for and stand with our TLGBQIA+ youth, who suffer from high rates of alcohol and drug dependency. We owe it to our younger siblings to strengthen supportive
 programs that center their needs, because that is the only way to break the cycle of trauma.
These are just a few reasons why we must center our most marginalized siblings and continue pushing for legislation and policies that protects our communities from the many phobias and crises that plague our equal existence in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
SPONSORSHIPS/DONATIONS
For sponsorship opportunities, please click the Sponsorship button below or email us at
info@sisterspgh.org
Electronic Donations can be sent to:
PayPal.me/SisTersPGH
CashApp: $isTersPGH
Venmo: SisTersPGH
Checks can be sent/written out to:
SisTers PGH
2014 Monongahela Ave
Pittsburgh, PA 15218
Memo: Peoples Pride PGH 2021

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