Next week, PGN is celebrating the 49 Most Influential LGBTQ+ Leaders for 2025. I had a chance to speak with one of the honorees, Tami Sortman, at one of our favorite coffee shops in the Gayborhood. Some responses have been edited for length or clarity.

Where do you hail from? I hail from Williamsport, Pennsylvania, home of the Little League World Series, where I was one of the first women to play Little League Baseball.

Wow! So tell me a little bit about Williamsport and little Tami Sortman. Williamsport is like, how do I explain it? It’s like that show from back in the day, Mayberry R.F.D. Just a quiet, sleepy little town. I grew up in a house with an actual white picket fence, you know, with the dog — the whole nine.

Kind of country living, but not exactly. We lived in a housing devel

See Full Page