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Sue Kerr
Steve Mellon
Educators

Sue Kerr

Meet one of the artists, disruptors, educators, groundbreakers, innovators, and storytellers who all helped make the world a better place for LGBTQ+ people.

In February, the LGBTQ+ community and its allies mourned the death of Nex Benedict, a 16-year-old nonbinary Oklahoma high school student who died after an attack in a girls’ bathroom. If it weren’t for Pittsburgh-based reporter Sue Kerr, the story would have stayed under the radar.

Kerr founded the Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents blog back in 2005 and has been covering local and national LGBTQ+ news ever since. She was first to report on the details of Benedict’s death, which quickly became a national news story. Even though the last year has been one of the toughest in her life, Kerr is still doing the hard work to combine activism, journalism, storytelling, and memorializing the lives and deaths of trans victims of violence on her blog.

“We aren’t yet equal. I live in a state with no statewide nondiscrimination protections, an active DOMA law, and no codification around parental rights,” Kerr says. “Racial injustice, climate change, poverty, housing affordability, workplace rights, disability, and more are bound to our equality. Don’t take anything for granted and don’t leave anyone behind.” @pghlesbian

Jaymes Black
Erik Carter
Educators

Jaymes Black

Meet some of the artists, disruptors, educators, groundbreakers, innovators, and storytellers who all helped make the world a better place for LGBTQ+ people.

Erik Carter

The Trevor Project — a national suicide prevention and crisis intervention nonprofit supporting LGBTQ+ youth — tapped Jaymes Black this year to helm the group’s vital work.

Black (he/she/they) is Trevor’s first Black and first nonbinary CEO. A former CEO of Family Equality who grew up in the rural South, they bring both an impressive résumé and lived experience to tackling the daunting challenges faced by today’s queer and trans kids. “To be in this role, to be who I needed when I was [a] young queer Black awkward kid in Texas, is…another dream come true,” they say.

Bullies manifest on the playground and in the political world. But through it all, Black is inspired by how many young people live openly and proudly, a resilience that comes with being part of the LGBTQ+ community.

“The way that we view the world is very different. And because of that, I think we come with…this innate strength that others don’t understand,” they say. “We’ll never give up. We’ll never give up the fight. We’ll never give up fighting for equality. We’ll never give up being ourselves.” @thejaymesblack