Pittsburgh City Councilmen Dan Gilman and Bruce Kraus crafted a bill that would ban conversion therapy, a harmful practice implemented to change sexual orientation and gender identity for minors in Pittsburgh.
“It’s something I’ve been looking at since I took office three years ago,” Gilman said.
The bill was introduced by the councilmen on Nov. 29. Gilman and Kraus expect the bill to pass; preliminary voting is Wednesday, Gilman said.
Brandishing a high-quality camera in his hands and a smartwatch on his wrist, freshman cinema production major Matt Metrovich sat down for an interview Sunday afternoon. He always has a camera like that with him and often breaks the ice by asking people if they would like their picture taken.
“I’m really awkward, and I embrace it,” Metrovich said.
Any awkwardness aside, Metrovich is already the CEO of his own photography and video company, Metro Digital, which rakes in good money for the young entrepreneur and has a large following on Instagram.
I Hate Fairyland #1
Written by Skottie Young
Art by Skottie Young
Colors by Jean-Francois Beauieu
Published by Image Comics
Do you ever worry that human beings will eventually use up all of the cool ideas?
It’s a silly fear that haunts the deep recesses of my mind from time to time that is constantly pushed further and further back as independent artists get to work on new properties. The latest example is I Hate Fairyland from Skottie Young over at Image Comics, based around a premise so neat and original that it’s downright annoying it only recently came into existence.
Point Park students were present at a recent Donald Trump rally downtown to both support and protest the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination. The large crowds on both sides eventually led to confrontations and police involvement.
“There is tremendous love in what we’re doing,” Trump said during his rally.
The campaign announced Monday, April 11 that Trump would be giving a speech at this rally in the David L. Lawrence Convention Center at 7:00 p.m. Before the rally, at 5:30 p.m. Fox News’ Sean Hannity hosted a town hall roughly an hour long with Trump at Soldiers and Sailors in Oakland. Trump called the town hall a “big, beautiful show” in his speech.
Read the full piece here
The grassroots activist organization “Fight For $15” has gained traction not just in Pittsburgh but also across the country, uniting frustrated single parents working at fast food restaurants with passionate, idealistic college students. College student activists have caught the attention of adult activists dedicated to Pittsburgh’s “Fight For $15” effort.
“I had tears in my eyes,” Mary Ann Williams said, recounting the supportive college students that participated in an April 15, 2015 protest in Pittsburgh. “I had goosebumps,” said Williams while manning the “Fight For $15” booth at the 18th Annual Summit Against Racism on Saturday.
Those college students in particular were from the University of Pittsburgh, not Point Park University.
Read the full piece here
From January throughout April of 2016, I interned at the New People, which is a freely distributed newspaper owned by The Thomas Merton Center, a non-profit peace and social justice group. I interned as a reporter focusing on LGBTQ issues and local activism, which allowed me to write three articles for the print edition (which were also published online) and over ten blog posts exclusive to the group’s website.
One article I wrote was a feature on a non-profit called the GLCC of Pittsburgh, which provides services for LGBTQ people in the city. The feature focused on the group’s “Youth Nights,” a program aimed at providing a safe, comfortable environment for LGBTQ youth to hang out and interact with others.
Credit: New People
Another article I wrote was a news story spinning out of a February 26 Port Authority board meeting. Two activists shared concerns about the death of Bruce Kelley Jr. during an altercation with Port Authority police in January.
Credit: New People
The last article I wrote for The New People was coverage of a rally in support of equal pay for women along with similar political issues such as minimum wage legislation.
I also provided tertiary services to the New People, such as contributing to the Thomas Merton Center Instagram page and copy-editing press releases that were included in the print newspaper.
199 Valley Ave Park. It has seen better days.
Not only does Steve Orlando’s Midnighter comic star a gay man, it tells blunt, sex-positive stories about that character. The main cast of characters in the upcoming main Avengers comic All-New, All-Different Avengers has only one white dude.
While there is still a lot of work on the road to a utopia of complete social justice, there is a trend of progressivism in some of today’s superhero comics that is impossible to ignore.
“There’s certainly a long way to go, but [the comics industry] is moving in the right direction,” said Orlando via phone interview on Oct. 23.
Read the full story here, as presented by Pop Optiq.
Huck, an Image Comics series starting on Nov. 18, is very different in tone compared to much of their past work, but that just means more excitement for writer Mark Millar and artist Rafael Albuquerque.
“I like doing different things,” said Millar via Skype interview today. “In the past two, three years I have tried to mix things up.”
Read the full article here, as presented on Pop Optiq.
As the team is instructed to raise their legs at a 90 degree angle to their body on the floor, in a series of exercises, one leg is closer to that number than just about all the rest. That runner continues to complete her exercises fully and doesn’t let up when the bulk of the team takes their breaks.
Katie Guarnaccia, a cinema production major, is that runner, an athlete who is breaking records and bringing great success to Point Park.
“She is a really hard-working runner,” said roommate, fellow runner and sophomore intelligence and national security major McKenzie Wilson in a telephone interview.
Read the full article here, as presented on The Globe
Matt Petras Portfolio 