Merger brings LGBT community closer together

by Laura Kingsbury

The recent merger of the Gaylife Newsletter and the Keystone Alliance is bringing thousands of people in the tri-state area not only news and entertainment, but also a venue to raise awareness about issues important to the LGBT community. 

Those heading this union have found a way to bring together writers, performers and activists alike to reach out to a segment of the population they feel is far too underrepresented.

Though the online newsletter had already been providing its readers with twice-monthly news content for eight years, the fusion with Keystone Alliance stretched its outreach and added new dimensions to its community involvement and readership.

Before the June merger, Editor Max Van Sickle approached John DeBartola, president of the Keystone Alliance, to see what these two organizations could accomplish by combining their efforts.

According to DeBartola, the result of that union was an explosion of dozens of charity events and thousands more readers, partly due to the success of DeBartola’s Switch Hitter Romance Series blog (renamed Aunt Agony), as well as his knowledge of heading the Alliance for the past year.

“Together [it] is a multi-state, gay organization spanning across Pennsylvania, Maryland and West Virginia,” DeBartola said. “We raise money for charity, provide monthly support meetings and educational events, and write editorials in various local papers. We stand up for those who need protection and equal rights in our community.”

The Keystone Alliance began a year ago when DeBartola decided to form a new organization—after a rocky path with PFLAG National, which involved its suspension of the Altoona chapter that DeBartola had founded.

As for the Gaylife Newsletter, it started in September 2001 serving 109 subscribers in northern Pittsburgh under Van Sickle. Over the past eight years, it has grown from a subscriber-based e-mail to a Web page that includes a wide variety of news content and many cleverly named columns.

“I started it as a hobby newsletter, not knowing where it would go,” Van Sickle said.

In January 2009, the newsletter had a reported 2,228 subscribers. However, since the merger and inclusion of the illusionary fiction series, newly named “Aunt Agony,” DeBartola said the number of Web site hits is around 20,000.

Editor Van Sickle said that the inclusion of this series has “blown the roof off” of the newsletter.

The logo of a phoenix and a tree for the merged organization is also symbolic of both the struggles it took to create the Keystone Alliance as well as an allusion to his fiction series.

Besides the entertainment aspect, DeBartola, who is currently finishing his PhD in English literature at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, said this merger allows both organizations to strengthen each others’ missions by sharing their mutual benefits.

“Each organization accents each other,” Van Sickle said.

According to DeBartola, the new nonprofit cooperation has big plans to host a wide variety of charity benefits within the next four months. 

One such event is a Sept. 19 benefit at Club 231 in Uniontown for Shepherd Wellness Community, which provides support and assistance to those affected by HIV/AIDs.

“We have always done this benefit in Uniontown, even when the bar was called Illusions,” DeBartola said. “The owners of Club 231 are always helping the community and sponsoring events to bring us together and remind us we are all family.”

The event will raise money for Shepherd Wellness by donating the proceeds of the $5 cover and the 50/50 raffle, as well as tips from all drag performers.

“These events educate our community and remind us that there is still an epidemic out there,” DeBartola said. “Funding has been cut so severely by the government that organizations like Shepherd Wellness depend on these donations to keep [up] the quality of services they provide…”

Scott Peterman, Shepherd Wellness executive director, agreed and praised the group’s efforts. “The Keystone Alliance has produced several benefits a year and raised a significant amount for Shepherd Wellness, which has helped us continue our life-enhancing programs over the years. We depend on organizations like the Alliance in these tough economic times.”

DeBartola added, “Our goal is to unite the community, raise awareness for HIV and a cure one day, and in the process have fun.”

Details about other upcoming benefits, including those for Persad Center and the Greensburg Homeless Shelter, can be found on the Web site for Keystone Alliance and the Gay Life Newsletter at www.gaylifenewsletter.com.