The rise of Atlanta's Black Gay Pri - Atlanta Magaze

Contents:

• THE RISE OF ATLANTA’S BLACK GAY PRI
• USG PREP TO #STOPHIVATL: FDGS OM A CROSS-SECTNAL SURVEY AMONG GAY MEN AND TRANSGENR WOMEN PARTICIPATG GAY PRI EVENTS ATLANTA, GEIA, 2018
• 50 YEARS AGO, ATLANTA’S GAY RIGHTS PH TOOK TO STREET FOR FIRST TIME
• GAY PRI ATLANTA 2018
• CELEBRATE ATL BLACK GAY PRI 2018

THE RISE OF ATLANTA’S BLACK GAY PRI

Here’s a look back at some key moments that shaped the cy’s LGBTQ muny over the last five 1969 – Atlanta police raid the Ansley Mall Mi Cema Midtown durg a showg of Andy Warhol’s “Lonome Cowboys, ” a wtern satire that featur gay sex scen. ” The raid, together wh New York Cy’s Stonewall rts six weeks earlier, is the talyst for Atlanta’s gay rights 1971 – More than 100 activists assemble Midtown for Atlanta’s first gay pri march to mark the two-year anniversary of Stonewall.

Led by members of the Geia Gay Liberatn Front, which formed rponse to the Ansley raid and other police harassment, participants ph for an end to sodomy laws and discrimatn the workplace, hog and other 1972 – A group of lbian activists form the Atlanta Lbian Femist Alliance, a group that would bee a powerful force the cy’s LGBTQ muny for 1976 – Mayor Maynard Jackson issu Atlanta’s first “Gay Pri Day” proclamatn. ”June 1978 – An appearance by Ana Bryant, the sger and activist who opposed gay rights, at the Southern Baptist Conventn attracts several thoand protters to Atlanta’s World Congrs Center and revigorat the cy’s LGBTQ liberatn movement. In his ncurrg opn, then-Chief Jtice Warren Burger wrote that “to hold that the act of homosexual sodomy is somehow protected as a fundamental right would be to st asi lennia of moral teachg.

USG PREP TO #STOPHIVATL: FDGS OM A CROSS-SECTNAL SURVEY AMONG GAY MEN AND TRANSGENR WOMEN PARTICIPATG GAY PRI EVENTS ATLANTA, GEIA, 2018

”Cred: The Atlanta Journal-ConstutnCred: The Atlanta Journal-ConstutnAugt 1993 – Cobb County adopts a rolutn llg homosexualy “patible wh the standards to which this muny subscrib.

Ls than a year later, unr prsure om gay rights advot, the Atlanta Commtee for the Olympic Gam announced was pullg volleyball gam out of Cobb County rponse to the 1996 – A gatherg of Black LGBTQ iends Piedmont Park sparks what eventually be Atlanta Black Pri, an annual Labor Day weekend ftival that now draws upwards of 10, 000 people to the cy for arts, cultural and tnal events. 2014 – Activists lnch Southern Fried Queer Pri, which foc on empowerg queer and trans people of lor through the 2015 – Gay marriage is legalized for the first time Geia after the Supreme Court l that the Constutn’s equal protectn and due procs cls protect same-sex 2016 – Then-Gov.

50 YEARS AGO, ATLANTA’S GAY RIGHTS PH TOOK TO STREET FOR FIRST TIME

ExploreDrag, dgs and dis: When Atlanta was a center of the gay revolutnJune 2020 – The Supreme Court, a 6-3 cisn, l that employers nnot fire LGBTQ workers bee of their sexual orientatn or genr inty. Participants the 1977 Atlanta Pri ParaPhotograph urty of Jerome McClendon/AJC/GSU llectnAugt 5, 1969Atlanta Police raid Ansley Mall Mi Cema’s screeng of Andy Warhol’s gay-themed Lonome Cowboys, takg photos of the approximately 70 atten.

The raid spir the formatn of the Geia Gay Liberatn 1970On the first anniversary of New York Cy’s Stonewall Uprisg Greenwich Village, Atlanta’s first Gay Pri rally, prised of a ragtag group of about 100 people, mostly whe men jeans and T-shirts, tak place Piedmont Park—wh some bravely strollg siwalks rryg “Equal Rights for Gays” plards.

Atlanta is among a handful of ci to mark the 1972Approximately 100 Atlanta “Gay Pri Day” participants marchg down Peachtree Street are greeted wh “stony ntempt, ” “disbelief, ” “s, ” and “flashed peace signs” by onlookers, reports the Great Speckled Bird, a long-nng lol unrground 1973A photo published the Atlanta Barb, one of the cy’s first gay newspapers, shows a female participant marchg wh a paper sack over her head and rryg a sign that says, “If I Showed My Face I Would Lose My Job. 1978Bulldogs, a ty bar which is still the epicenter of Atlanta’s Black gay party scene, Hotlanta Raft Race lnched 1978Photograph urty of Special Collectns & Archiv, Geia State Universy Library1978Sometim scribed as the granddaddy of Atlanta’s gay circu parti, the first Hotlanta Raft Race floats down the Chattahoochee River wh about 200 participants. 1988For his work on behalf of gay rights, Congrsman John Lewis is honored wh the gural Dan Bradley Humanarian Award, named for one of the Human Rights Campaign’s founrs, at the queer advocy nonprof’s Atlanta dner.

GAY PRI ATLANTA 2018

Lynn Harris publish Invisible Life, a g-of-age novel about a young, gay Black man, sellg pi out of his r tnk at Black bety salons and barber shops, before sellg the rights to Anchor Books. ”1993Marietta’s Theatre the Square be a natnal flashpot the culture wars after stagg playwright Terrence McNally’s Lips Together, Teeth Apart, which clud referenc to homosexualy.

”2002Q100’s Bert Show member Melissa Carter, the first out lbian on Atlanta morng rad, is a grand marshal at the Pri 10, 2009Two dozen Atlanta Police officers raid Midtown gay bar the Atlanta Eagle, sparkg a bate about police abe of force that ntu to this day.

CELEBRATE ATL BLACK GAY PRI 2018

Celebratg clivy and body posivy, has wispread appeal wh a younger, broar LGBTQ+ 2015Atlanta celebrat the historic Supreme Court gay marriage cisn wh impromptu weddgs at urtho downtown.

Celebry chef Art Smh hosts weddgs for dozens of upl at the InterContental Rabow crosswalk at 10th and Piedmont buts 2015Photograph by David Goldman/APOctober 2015Atlanta’s Rabow Crosswalk buts at the tersectn of 10th Street and Piedmont Avenue as part of the cy’s Pri 28, 2016Unr prsure om gay rights anizatns, cludg Geia Equaly, and the cy’s bs muny, Governor Nathan Deal veto Hoe Bill 757, a “relig liberty” bill allowg discrimatn based on personal beliefs, statg the legislatn did not reflect Geia’s image as “warm, iendly, and lovg.

”January 2020WSB-TV’s Je Estevez be the cy’s first openly gay Latx news 2020The director of Emory Universy’s creative wrg program, Black gay poet Jericho Brown, ws the Pulzer Prize for Poetry for his llectn, The 26, 2020In the wake of the killg of Ahmd Arbery, Governor Brian Kemp signs a hate crime bill passed by the Geia Legislature.