By SHANNON O. WELLS
After a woman who identified herself as a Pitt graduate representing transgender rights groups interrupted Chancellor Patrick Gallagher’s farewell address to the Board of Trustees on June 23, the chancellor indicated University leadership would “respond to their demands and interests … offline.”
However, some longtime advocates for resource centers dedicated to LGBTQ+ and other marginalized communities, as well as other transgender-rights-related reforms and resources, sound skeptical, at best, that such proposals are moving forward with any urgency or focus.
Iris Olson, manager of Pitt’s Center for Innovative Research on Gender Health Equity, was among a small, peaceful group of demonstrators who gathered outside the William Pitt Union before the Board of Trustees meeting. Olson, a member of Trans Action Building, said they support the demands that “Stephanie,” the woman who interrupted Gallagher, expressed at the meeting, but is not particularly confident they will be listened to.
“Unless Chancellor Gallagher is going to meet any of our demands, I doubt that any follow-up around expectations and grievances will be fruitful, and that any meeting they are trying to plan will be used to try and push us down,” said Olson, who identifies with they/them pronouns. “We’ve had alumni and long-term staff members reach out to us who began this fight a decade ago. We won’t wait another decade for resources we know Pitt can provide its most vulnerable communities.”
To see “if the University of Pittsburgh is truly committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion … to benefit the LGBTQ community and all students and staff,” Olson identified the following items Trans Action Building demands:
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Three fully-staffed, in-person resource centers dedicated to LGBTQ+, disability and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) communities.
- Trans-inclusive health care and housing, including additional medical leave for trans-related health care.
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Trained mental health providers to de-escalate crises on campus.
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$20 per hour campus-wide minimum wage that matches the rate of inflation plus 1 percent, and an end to Pitt’s “multi-million dollar union-busting,” Olson said.
These reflect much of what Stephanie, who spoke out at the Board of Trustees meeting, called for before she was escorted out of the meeting room.
Task force and website
In August 2020, Tyler Viljaste, then a Pitt junior, formed a task force that issued a report outlining the status of LGBTQIA+ resources at the University. It called for a new physical center and staff hires, both of which would be dedicated to the LGBTQIA+ community on campus, the University Times reported in April 2021.
Started by students, the task force of more than 70 people included faculty and staff, including Mike Campbell, an assistant in the Center for Creativity and then-chair of the Pitt Queer Professionals (PQP) affinity group for faculty and staff.
The task force urged Pitt, by the end of the summer 2021 term, to:
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Create a formal institutional working group dedicated to creating a final proposal for a physical LGBTQIA+ center.
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Work with the LGBTQIA+ Task Force to formally agree to implementing recommendations concerning counseling services, student services, and faculty and staff services.
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Create a formal search committee to hire two new LGBTQIA+ center co-directors housed in Student Affairs and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, respectively.
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Establish a new centralized website, www.lgbtq.pitt.edu, to serve as a virtual hub for all LGBTIQA+ resources and opportunities.
Pitt, through the Office for Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (OEDI), did move forward to aggregate resources into the new website and hired Ali Hoefnagel as coordinator of LGBTQ Inclusion and Belonging in the Office of Inclusion and Belonging,.
But a member of the LGBTQIA+ Task Force who wished to remain anonymous said there is no clear indication that leadership has taken visible steps toward creating an LGBTQ+ resource center on the Oakland campus or increased staff as the task force proposed.
The LGBTQIA+ Task Force ceased operations after its student leadership graduated in spring 2022, the task force member said. Much of its advocacy work has since been dispersed among various groups, including the diversity subcommittees of the Student Government Board and College of General Studies student government; Pitt Queer Professionals; and OEDI’s Transgender Working Group. In addition, various student, alumni and faculty/staff grassroots organizers responded to the anti-trans speaking events on campus in spring 2023, including the protesters of Trans Action Building at the June 23 Board of Trustees meeting.
Viljaste, who graduated from Pitt in May 2022 and now attends Georgetown University Law Center, said he was not up to date regarding “the status of LGBTQIA advocacy at Pitt” since he left.
‘Surprised we’re still here’
Zach Davis, gender discrimination and Title IX response manager for OEDI and the chair of Pitt Queer Professionals, said that group has “made several reminders to administration about the inaction items at least over the past year.” The lack of a staffed resource center was discussed in communications about House Bill 972 (regarding the designation of “male, female or coed” sport activities) in summer 2022 and about the anti-trans speaker events on campus this spring, and most recently in a May meeting with Clyde Wilson Pickett, vice chancellor for equity, diversity, and inclusion.
“PQP’s perspective remains the same: We should have a physical resource center on our campus that is staffed by full-time professionals for our LGBTQIA+ community,” Davis said. “While it’s a goal to be at the forefront of progress, I’m surprised we’re still here, as most of our ACC and aspirational counterparts have had such centers for years.”
The University declined to comment on this ongoing issue.
A broad, united movement
Iris Olson described Trans Action Building as a group of students, staff, faculty and alumni — including several “union members organizing in a personal capacity” and members of community organizations like Socialist Alternative — that came together after “several anti-trans speakers spoke on campus.”
“Our goal is to organize for better living, learning and working conditions for LGBTQ people on campus, and for all students and workers more broadly,” Olson added. “We think we need to build a broad united movement on campus to achieve this.”
Olson said Trans Action Building is planning for its next action and organizing drive this fall to continue “to fight for these needs on campus” and welcomes “all students, staff, faculty, alumni, and supportive community members to get involved” by contacting @trans_action_building on Instagram.
Shannon O. Wells is a writer for the University Times. Reach him at shannonw@pitt.edu.
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