This excerpt, as well as the acpanyg vio stills, centers the activism of Bill Smh, a central figure the foundg of Geia’s Gay Liberatn Front and a member of the Southeastern Gay Coaln. Smh served as the first out-gay man Atlanta cy ernment as Sam Massell’s appoted Communy Relatns Commissner (1973–1976) and played a key role the velopment of the Atlanta gay prs through his edorship and ownership of The Barb (1974–1977). Adapted om the book A Night at the Sweet Gum Head: Drag, Dgs, Dis, and Atlanta’s Gay Revolutn (New York: W.W. Norton, 2021). Reprted wh the permissn of W.W. Norton.
Contents:
- 50 YEARS AGO, ATLANTA’S GAY RIGHTS PH TOOK TO STREET FOR FIRST TIME
- MARCHG FOR GAY RIGHTS ATLANTA, 1971: AN EXCERPT OM A NIGHT AT THE SWEET GUM HEAD
- JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH ACH KEV MAXEN OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR US-BASED PRO LEAGU
- FLASHBACK: BISHOP EDDIE LONG’S ANTI-GAY MARCH THROUGH ATLANTA
- GEIA GAY LIBERATN FRONT AND ATLANTA’S FIRST PRI MARCH
- UNVEILG THE VIBRANT CELEBRATN OF ATLANTA GAY PRI 2023: AN EVENT LIKE NO OTHER
50 YEARS AGO, ATLANTA’S GAY RIGHTS PH TOOK TO STREET FOR FIRST TIME
June 27, 2021 marks the 50th anniversary of Atlanta’s first gay pri march. Here’s a look back at some key moments that shaped the cy’s LGBTQ mu * gay march atlanta *
Atlanta’s first gay pri march, on the bright Sunday afternoon of June 27, 1971, was virtually unregnizable om the 300, 000-person, multi-day celebratn has bee recent the Geia Gay Liberatn Front anized that first monstratn 50 years ago, there were no floats or cheerg spectators, no major rporate sponsors or ravans of panrg the cy that had jt birthed the civil rights movement, LGBTQ rights was nsired a radil issue that the polil tablishment, cludg many Atlanta progrsiv, wanted to stay away om.
At that time, gay sex was still illegal unr state law, and the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn characterized homosexualy as a mental would take s for attus and laws to change. 5, was six weeks after ps had raid the Stonewall Inn, a gay hangout Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, galvanizg the fight for LGBTQ liberatn.
ExplorePhotos: Atlanta's Gay Pri march through the yearsRoughly 15 mut to the film, the lights flipped as police burst to the theater and locked the doors behd them.
MARCHG FOR GAY RIGHTS ATLANTA, 1971: AN EXCERPT OM A NIGHT AT THE SWEET GUM HEAD
* gay march atlanta *
” But for many the te tent was enforcement had long targeted the cy’s LGBTQ populatn, particularly gay men, hangout spots like Piedmont Park and along what was known as “the strip” on Peachtree Street.
JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH ACH KEV MAXEN OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR US-BASED PRO LEAGU
Unver Atlanta's vibrant and extraordary Gay Pri 2023 celebratn, a one-of-a-kd event that radiat love, acceptance, and uny. Jo the ftivi like no other! * gay march atlanta *
In 1953, police ed a two-way mirror before arrtg 20 men for havg sex the basement toilets of one of Atlanta’s public that time, many gay Atlantans were closeted, even enterg heterosexual marriag, fearful they uld lose their jobs and be shunned by their fai if they were found out. ExploreTimele: Major moments Atlanta LGBTQ historyBy the 1960s, a handful of bars began sprgg up near Midtown that quietly tered to gay clientele. ”Fed upAfter the Ansley raid, a group of fed-up activists huddled at New Morng Cafe near Emory Universy and lnched the Geia chapter of the Gay Liberatn members, who were young and mostly whe, many had cut their teeth on the other social movements of the 1960s, cludg women’s liberatn, anti-war and civil rights fights.
)ExploreDrag, dgs and dis: When Atlanta was a center of the gay revolutnThe anizatn set up a table at the Piedmont Park Arts Ftival to mark the first anniversary of Stonewall June 1970, but shied away om holdg a full-sle march. Leadg the procsn was GLF lear Bill Smh, who embodied the ’s dis glamour that day wh a massive Barrymore llar, long siburns, thick-rimmed aviator eyeglass and a whe Courty of WSB Newsfilm Collectn, Universy of Geia LibrariCred: Courty of WSB Newsfilm Collectn, Universy of Geia Librari“We hope through this march people will realize that homosexuals are good, law-abidg cizens, that we do have rponsible jobs and posns, ” Smh told a reporter om WSB-TV.
FLASHBACK: BISHOP EDDIE LONG’S ANTI-GAY MARCH THROUGH ATLANTA
Explore LGBT Atlanta bars and nightlife, events and neighborhoods. Fd thgs to do and where to de wh this official gui to Gay Atlanta. * gay march atlanta *
The Atlanta Journal didn’t send a reporter to the march — stead published eight paragraphs om Uned Prs Internatnal, a story that noted that 50 “self-proclaimed homosexuals” took Journal and the Constutn rarely vered the gay muny at that time, and when they did, LGBTQ rears often found the tone rctive or downright 1975, the Constutn ran a three-part seri on “the liftyl of Atlanta homosexuals” that heavily quoted a sex crim tective who said murrs volvg LGBTQ people were among the cy’s most vlent slaygs.
GEIA GAY LIBERATN FRONT AND ATLANTA’S FIRST PRI MARCH
“Gay people sist that the homosexual muny actually is very much a mirror of heterosexual society, that, like the heterosexual muny, they have their perverts and sicki and weirdos, but no more than their share, ” the story stated. A turng pot, acrdg to Hayward, me 1976, when Mayor Maynard Jackson proclaimed June 26 as “Gay Pri Day” Atlanta, a move that prompted blowback om relig nservativ, cludg lls for his rignatn.
Several of the cy’s most popular gay bars, for example, were notor for discrimatory polici that required Black patrons and women to provi multiple forms of ID to orr a drk. “We were often I thk margalized and left out om some of the stutn buildg that some of the whe LGBTQ folks were dog Atlanta, ” said Charl Stephens, executive director of the Counter Narrative Project, an Atlanta nonprof that seeks to elevate the voic of Black gay men.
UNVEILG THE VIBRANT CELEBRATN OF ATLANTA GAY PRI 2023: AN EVENT LIKE NO OTHER
”The cy’s wtsi beme a thrivg center for Black LGBTQ social life around the same time, wh the openg of bars like the Marquette and parti the hom of proment gay Atlantans such as the late physician and art llector Otis Thrash Hammonds, acrdg to Stephens. Des later, a work of Black gay men built what would bee Atlanta Black Pri, an annual event that started as a piic among iends 1996 and has grown to a 10, 000-person ftival each Labor Day, the cy’s largt LGBTQ event is the ftival that scend om the 1971 march. It spans several days October — anizers moved to the weekend of Natnal Comg Out Day 2010 after a drought ed the cy to lim summer perms for Piedmont Park — and clus a para, tnal events, drag shows and vendor one of the biggt shifts om 50 years ago, the same police force that once harassed and arrted many Geians for beg gay now re-rout traffic and provis secury for the para, wh some uniformed officers marchg alongsi revelers.