Alexander Gray

Alex was born one bright, tropical Pittsburgh day in 1988 beneath a halo of straw hats and surgical masks: the doctor who delivered him had just gotten back from a Hawaiian vacation. Alex has been bemused by life ever since – and convinced that it is often stranger than fiction.


Alex currently lives in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh. He is passionate about books, walking, social justice, poetry, old movies, history, ethics, and Dionne Warwick. He has lived in Nagoya (Japan), Kyoto (Japan), Brookyln, the Twin Cities, and San Francisco.

QBurgh •

Pride and Protest in Pittsburgh: A Legacy of Resistance

In the early hours of Valentine’s Day of 1988, Pittsburgh police raided Traveler’s Social Club, a private gay club in the city’s East Liberty neighborhood. The nation was nearing the peak of the AIDS crisis, with more than 13,000 dead in the United States that year alone. By the end of 1988, over 40,000 lives had already been lost. Ignorance and religious zealotry were the order of the day. The federal government had barely acknowledged the epidemic. Ronald Reagan had only just uttered the...
QBurgh •

Pittsburgh’s Housing Crisis and the LGBTQ+ Community

Last November, a desperate act of violence threw Club Pittsburgh, a gay bathhouse in the City’s Strip District neighborhood, into chaos. William Samuels, a 55-year-old unhoused man, allegedly shot another patron after sneaking a gun into the club under his coat. Samuels and his girlfriend, who had been living in a tent Downtown, rented a room not for its intended purpose but as a shelter of last resort. This tragedy is not just a crime story—it’s a window into Pittsburgh’s fractured housin...

Professors Harris, SpearIt, and Yearwood engage in timely conversation about policing and crisis intervention

The Center for Civil Rights and Racial Justice hosted a panel discussion on policing and crisis intervention techniques with the Office of Equity and Inclusive Excellence on Jan. 26, 2023, at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. Professors David Harris, SpearIt, and Gabby Yearwood shared their perspectives on these techniques, as shown in the HBO documentary “Ernie & Joe: Crisis Cops.”
GLBT Historical Society Newsletter •

In the Archives | Crawford Barton: Capturing a City’s Gentle Carnival

One evening, not long after moving to San Francisco in 2011, I stood at the corner of Castro and 18th Streets, transfixed by the parade of humanity of all shapes, sizes, colors and gender presentations reflected in the protective Mylar coating of a bank window. The oblique angle of the window to the street crossing made the throng seem as though its members were revolving — a carousel of humanity...
GLBT Historical Society Newsletter •

In the Archives: Digitizing Volunteer Uncovers the Queer Past

For a few months now I have been volunteering on the GLBT Historical Society's project to digitize the pre-internet run of the Bay Area Reporter (1971-2005). The initiative is sponsored by the Bob Ross Foundation, created by the late publisher of the weekly LGBT newspaper. On any given day, I go through issues of the BAR, scanning each page for posting on a website that will be open to all free of charge.
Hoodline •

Meet Used Book Aficionados Friends Of The SF Public Library

People respond to randomness, which is one reason why brick-and-mortar bookstores and libraries are still so important. Bookstores and libraries are curated and organized in a similar way to sites like Amazon.com, but they allow for the opportunity to discover something you never knew you wanted. “We never know what we’re going to get,” says Sarah Rosedale, the Deputy Literary Director of Friends of the San Francisco Public Library.