Pittsburgh Equality Center

Pittsburgh Equality Center serves as a bridge that promotes education, advocacy, and social justice for all LGBTQIA+ people and allies in Western Pennsylvania. 

In 1979, the Gay and Lesbian Community Center Inc. began as a help line in conjunction with Persad, a local mental health organization that served the needs of the LGBTQIA+ community. For a time, the help line functioned out of people’s homes until it found its first home in an office donated by the Pittsburgh Free Clinic. Over the next 40 years, and a name change to Pittsburgh Equality Center, the mission of the community center started as, "to facilitate the development of individual and community resources to meet the needs of the LGBTQIA+ community." In that spirit our mission continues with a renewed mission but the same sense of urgency to make sure that LGBTQIA+ Western Pennsylvanians are supported through our community work.