title
WHEREAS, Wendi Miller was born on July 14, 1947 in Pittsburgh, PA, earned a BFA in Sculpture from Carnegie Mellon University (formerly Carnegie Tech) in 1972, shared a life with her partner Dorcas Evans-Miller and raised her son Cooper Miller (1982- ) in Pittsburgh; and
body
WHEREAS, Wendi owned a framing business for 50 years, Miller Frame, which, since February 14, 1982, operated in East Liberty, serving both small and large clients, including Fred Rogers, Mario Lemieux, Sidney Crosby, Willie Stargell, Bill Cowher, and completed high-profile projects at the Federal Reserve, University of Pittsburgh, UPMC, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh Public Schools, Pittsburgh Zoo and Aquarium, PPG, and the Carnegie Museum of Natural History; and
WHEREAS, Wendi employed predominantly transgender women, providing rare employment opportunities for Pittsburgh’s transgender community at the time due to discriminatory hiring practices, and Miller Frame was owned and operated for 30 years solely by transgender women; and
WHEREAS, the frame shop served and a refuge and a center of transgender community life and activism; and
WHEREAS, she served as president of Transpitt, established in 1983, a support group for transsexual people and crossdressers and their partners, and was co-founder of the Pittsburgh Transsexual Support Group, established in 1995, a non-profit which focused on emotional, medical and financial support for transsexual and transgender people, two of the earliest support groups for transgender people in the Pittsburgh region; and
WHEREAS, Wendi participated in the first national Congressional Transgender Lobby Day in Washington D.C. in 1995 to advocate for language inclusive of gender identity in the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA); and
WHEREAS, in 1995, she worked with an ad hoc committee of the Pittsburgh Human Rights Commission to protect transgender and gender variant persons from discrimination in housing and employment, which in 1996 redefined the protected category sex to “include those who are changing or have changed their gender identification,” which now extends to Allegheny County, and has been adopted by other communities in the US; and
WHEREAS, in 1996, Wendi appeared as a guest on the Ricki Lake show when they consulted the Pittsburgh Transexual Support Group for an episode; and
WHEREAS, Wendi served as an inaugural appointee to the Pittsburgh Mayor’s office LGBT Advisory Council from 2009-2012, which served as the predecessor to the LGBTQIA+ Commission; and
WHEREAS, Wendi remained a supporter of the numerous charitable institutions in the Pittsburgh community, donating framing to Persad, Animal Friends, The Heart Association, PFLAG, Pittsburgh Center of the Arts, Pittsburgh Artists League; and
WHEREAS, she trained a new generation of picture framers who have gone on to work at institutions such as the Carnegie Museum of Art, and
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the City of Pittsburgh commends Wendi Miller for her personal grace, strength, and openness and thanks her for her magnificent contribution to the LGBTQIA+ community; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Council of the City of Pittsburgh does hereby declare April 8, 2023 to be “Wendi Miller Day” in the City of Pittsburgh.