Pittsburgh audiences next week will be able to tune into a first-of-its-kind televised drag pageant. Keystone Alliance/Gaylife Newsletter president John DeBartola, along with TV personality Brian T. World and Miss Keystone Alliance Eternal Christian Diane, will host the Miss Pittsburgh Public Access TV Pageant 2013 at 11 p.m. Sept. 18, running Wednesdays through Oct. 30. Although this is not the first year for the pageant, it is the first year of its televised broadcast, which DeBartola said he wanted to do to promote broader awareness of the LGBT community. “I’m doing it because I really want to, because I believe,” DeBartola said. “I’m not doing it for political gain or for money because I’m not getting anything. It’s altruistic in that sense. I am doing this because I care about this.” The pageant benefits the Trevor Project, an agency that works to prevent LGBT youth suicide, and an issue DeBartola said the community needs to be focused on. “The reason we choose this is because teen suicide is on the rise and it is extremely important that this be dealt with,” he said. “This helps the community because it shows that we care, it shows that we take our youth seriously and that we are going to allow them the space to become who they need to be, whether it be gay or straight.” The pageant has a production team of 60 people and DeBartola said it is expected to reach thousands of viewers. This will be the public-access station’s first broadcast drag pageant. “They were on board and excited about it,” DeBartola said. “So far it has been a very positive response not only from the public but the members of the various gay organizations in the community itself, and we feel very supported by the community as a whole.” DeBartola said the pageant will also help unify the LGBT community. “I think this will be an overall great production, but also it is going to activate people and allow creative free speech and allow things to be expressed.”
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