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The booking of Azalea sparked off a cavalcade of criticism of the Delta Foundation, many of which had been brought up before, but were now all adding up to create a bigger\u00a0picture of the organization. Bruce Kraus, the first and only openly LGBT member of Pittsburgh City Council<\/a> (and its president), as well as GLSEN and many faith orgnaizations, pulled out of Pride, not only because of Azalea, but also the direction that Delta has been going for years.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n They are inherently dedicated to cis-gendered, wealthy, white gay men. \u00a0The board has no trans* members, and only two women. \u00a0Pride in the Street is routinely an expensive concert to go to, especially for a community that is economically disadvantaged to begin with.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Their magazine, Equal, was finally shut down after months of not paying their writers or their printer.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n One service they did offer, was small fundraising\/banking services to smaller LGBT groups, such as the Gardens of Peace project (much like when banks will be donation locations for non-profits\/emergency assistance funds, the Delta Foundation would do the same for other projects), except when they needed to get their money, they got the runaround or were charged interest on it.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n This is an organization that last year, during Pride in the Street, shut down the public sidewalks, so unless you had a ticket, you could not get to the business and restaurants that were on the streets that were closed to traffic. \u00a0This unannounced change led to a lot of people turned away from other events they had tickets to, or were forced to pay an additional fee to get to them.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n But I what I think is the most damning of all, is that in the last seven years, the Delta Foundation has given less back to the community than what they contracted Iggy Azalea to play for.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Delta Foundation used to bill itself as the largest LGBT organization in Western Pennsylvania. \u00a0That language has softened this week to describe themselves as \u201cone of the largest,\u201d finally making room for others, which is a nice change.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n As such, they have failed to encompass the LGBT community in Pittsburgh. \u00a0I don\u2019t expect them to be perfect, no organization is. \u00a0But these are criticisms that have been ongoing for years. \u00a0And they had the balls to post on Facebook that this was the first they had ever heard of them, after hosting a meeting<\/a> to try to address some of these issues:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n That\u2019s either entirely disingenuous or proof that their entire board has no clue what they are doing. \u00a0Or maybe both.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n But I think part of the reason we\u2019re at this point is there is less work to do in Pittsburgh than other areas. \u00a0Pennsylvania has marriage equality, and Allegheny County has ENDA. \u00a0Yes, there is a lot of work to be done, especially in the rest of the counties that constitute Western Pennsylvania, but so much of the other goals we need to fight for are at a state and national level, beyond the scope of Delta (not that they couldn’t help EqualityPA however).<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n So for now, Delta serves as a glorified party planner. \u00a0Van Horn won\u2019t step down (why would he, it\u2019s a cushy job, and he still owns a bar I believe), and I\u2019m afraid not much will change at Delta. \u00a0But for the first time, there were Latin Pride<\/a> events held in Pittsburgh (not that we\u2019re known for our Hispanic population, but it\u2019s more than I imagined, sitting around two percent), and what was formerly Black Pride, now Roots Pride<\/a>, seems to be really taking off, both as a protest to Delta and as a fully inclusive and minority-oriented series of Pride events.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I don\u2019t necessarily think splitting apart is the way to go, but at least right now, here in Pittsburgh, it seems to be the only way to get things done. \u00a0And if this forces Delta to actually make systemic changes and listen to the greater queer population in Pittsburgh, so be it.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I hope we can all reconcile and reconnect, and maybe that will even happen for 2016 Pride, we’ll have to see where this conversation goes, and we have to hold Delta accountable to keep having the conversation and to actually listen.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n This however, is not just a problem that plagues Pittsburgh: this is a national problem. The HRC was recently described as a “White Man’s Club<\/a>,” and it has every appearance as such, and a recent UK poll of gay men shows a shocking rate of racism<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n This is something that lots of us, myself included, want to make better (and are probably guilty of ourselves). \u00a0We can’t just sit on the sidelines and allow this to be our community. \u00a0Especially when there are so many external forces at work.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Which brings us to the second part of this sad article, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n For those unfamiliar, there are two daily papers in Pittsburgh (not counting the Business Times), the PG is larger by itself and leans liberal, the Trib (which has better coverage of Westmoreland County and owns the weekly neighborhood papers), leans conservative.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n However, the PG published\u00a0an utterly shocking, bigoted and harmful article in their editorial section about Caitlyn Jenner recently. \u00a0I won’t repost it, it’s that’s bad, not only from a hate standpoint, but just flat out lies.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The City Paper has an excellent take down<\/a>:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n In case you didn\u2019t catch it, yes, Graham used references to the \u201cgood ol’ days\u201d of carnival freak shows to refer to Ms. Jenner, or as Graham so sensitively calls her: \u201cBrucette.\u201d Brucette?!? Really? Why not just call her \u201cfruity,\u201d \u201cfairy,\u201d \u201cqueer\u201d or \u201cfag?\u201d I\u2019ll tell you why. Because you know those words are hateful, disgusting and inappropriate. So you try and be cute and clever with “Brucette.” Guess what? It\u2019s just as disgusting, maybe more so.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n And what is most shocking, is, as City Paper notes, the PG was recently awarded a GLAAD award and had a great speical feature covering the lives and stories of six trans* individuals here in the city.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The PG has defended the article<\/a>, the\u00a0Editoral Page Editor responded:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n As an editor, I found Jennifer’s piece well-written and worth publishing.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The HRC (yes the one above I just called out for being a white man’s club) did their job and also had a fantastic rebuttal to the horrific article<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/michaelcrane.net\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/deltalie.png\")
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