Marchg for Gay Rights Atlanta, 1971: An Excerpt om A Night at the Sweet Gum Head - Southern Spac

Contents:

• GAY CLUBS
• DRAG, DGS AND DIS: WHEN ATLANTA WAS A CENTER OF THE GAY REVOLUTN
• GAY DIS ATLANTA (GEIA)
• MARCHG FOR GAY RIGHTS ATLANTA, 1971: AN EXCERPT OM A NIGHT AT THE SWEET GUM HEAD
• GAY KROGER, AKA KROGAY

GAY CLUBS

We let you know which on ter to gay men or lbians, what kds of shows and entertaments they host, and what tracks the DJs sp. Among the most celebrated gay bars Atlanta has to offer, Mary's has been named Atlanta's bt gay bar by "Creative Loafg" and one of the top 50 gay bars the world by "Out" magaze. The ial hangout for anyone weary of over-the-top gay clubs Atlanta, The Hiout is the olst remag gay bar the cy.

An old-school landmark amongst gay bars, this Atlanta hot spot is still one of the most beloved plac to party Midtown. One of the most unpretent gay clubs Atlanta, the Eagle, a nontradnal leather bar, has been drawg wonrfully diverse and amible crowds for s. A lotn near Piedmont Park, floor-to-ceilg wdows lookg out on 10th Street, and a iendly, sual vibe distguish this neighborhood bar, whose clientele is largely gay.

DRAG, DGS AND DIS: WHEN ATLANTA WAS A CENTER OF THE GAY REVOLUTN

In 1975, at the dawn of dis, Backstreet officially opened for bs at 845 Peachtree Street the heart of the begng, the massive, three-level, 10, 000-square-foot space ( had hoed Lang’s Interrs the 1950s), tered almost exclively to the cy’s burgeong whe gay male populatn. He also owned a place Provcetown lled the Crown & Anchor, which was a hotel, gay bar, and baret for female impersonators. Gay people played hard, they drank hard, and they danced hard and had more money to spend than the straight crowd.

RUSSELL BOWEN-YOUNGBLOOD: Atlanta gay nightlife photographer Bowen-Youngblood was a Backstreet ctomer om 1994 to 2004. But after we got the 24-hour liquor license [ 1987], was a gay bar until all the other bars town closed and then, everyone piled to Backstreet.

GAY DIS ATLANTA (GEIA)

The later got, the straighter I had been workg at Backstreet, a gay club, for years but I didn’t officially e out until I was 32. VANESSA: Growg up at Backstreet, you kd of got sensized to thgs like that after a Bee we were exposed to gay people at such an early age, ma more open-md.

It was the same vantage pot where I had stood the first time I went there and realized I wasn’t the only gay person the state. VANESSA: It was a place where black, whe, Asian, Lat, gay, straight, bs people, nerds, everybody uld e together and party. BackstreetOne of the largt gay bars the Southeast, this two-story Midtown club was among the few Atlanta nightspots wh a 24/7 liquor license.

MARCHG FOR GAY RIGHTS ATLANTA, 1971: AN EXCERPT OM A NIGHT AT THE SWEET GUM HEAD

Home to Charlie Brown’s Cabaret and a dis floor that drew gay and straight revelers, Backstreet was the go-to place to party after other clubs It stopped ra’ men 2004 after a cy ordance mandated 3 a. In Atlanta the days, ’s fairly easy to fd a gay bar that has some sort of drag show or petn at least once a week.

Gay nightclubs sprg up, like the Cove Morngsi and the Armory Midtown, as well as drag bars like Hollywood Hots on Chhire Bridge and Mrs.

AdvertisementSKIP McClendon/Atlanta Journal-Constutn, via Associated PrsWhen you purchase an penntly reviewed book through our se, we earn an affiliate 1, 2021A NIGHT AT THE SWEET GUM HEADDrag, Dgs, Dis, and Atlanta’s Gay RevolutnBy Mart PadgettHistorilly, a cy’s queer populatn end up the park, by flt. It was at Piedmont, a year after the Stonewall Inn rebelln 1969, that queer rints assembled to form the Geia Gay Liberatn Front. And was on those 200 acr 1971 that — riskg their jobs and their fai — they held their first Gay Pri those gathered was Bill Smh, a charismatic activist shoulrg a whe purse and wearg a goatee as he reced opportuni that queer Amerins were nied.

GAY KROGER, AKA KROGAY

Of the newly disvered syndrome, Padgett wr the fal pag that the Centers for Disease Control told gay men not to panic. )Another major change occurred durg that : The cy beme a mag for gay and lbian transplants om elsewhere the South, who me seekg a more acceptg environment. Read the backstoryThat new mographic gave rise to two new phenomena: A vibrant gay rights movement and the proliferatn of gay nightclubs offerg elaborate shows by female impersonators.

A new history of the perd by Mart Padgett, “A Night at the Sweet Gum Head: Drag, Dgs, Dis and Atlanta’s Gay Revolutn” was mostly wrten while he was pursug a Master of fe arts gree at the Universy of Geia. It follows a broad st of characters, but foc on two men, activist Bill Smh and drag artist John Courty: Mart PadgettCred: Courty: Mart PadgettGreenwell, who would eventually w a natnal tle for his drag performanc as Rachel Wells, me to Atlanta om Huntsville, Alabama, 1971, and perfected his act at a scffy Chhire Bridge Road club lled the Sweet Gum mpaigned through his fluential gay newspaper, The Barb, and om si cy polics as a member of the Communy Relatns Council, fightg to rce police harassment of homosexuals and to prompt the cy to pass gay rights legislatn. If Padgett offers overgenero tail about the othy songs and stum at the Sweet Gum Head nightclub, he explas the troductn that the safe plac, gay bars and nightclubs, were pivotal, “the birthplace of the emergg gay rights movement.

”It was the muny that alced around clubs that swelled the Pri Day paras and also took to the streets to prott Ana Bryant and her “Save Our Children” anti-gay movement, Padgett said. ”Drag, said Padgett, led the “queer civil rights movement, ” not jt by providg a safe place for gay Atlanta to gather, but also by attractg those outsi the muny.