Queer Midtown: How Atlanta Beme an Epicenter of Gay Life | Midtown Atlanta

Contents:

• ATLANTA LGBT ADVOTE OUT AS ‘THE GAY PREACHER’S WIFE’
• GAY GEIA THOR TO RELEASE FIRST LERARY WORK THIS FALL
• QUEER MIDTOWN: HOW ATLANTA BEME AN EPICENTER OF GAY LIFE
• GAY AUTHOR BRIAN BROOME TALKS RACE, MASCULY, AND ADDICTN NEW MEMOIR
• MARCHG FOR GAY RIGHTS ATLANTA, 1971: AN EXCERPT OM A NIGHT AT THE SWEET GUM HEAD

ATLANTA LGBT ADVOTE OUT AS ‘THE GAY PREACHER’S WIFE’

As she wr, “if the domant LGBT narrative of the 20th century was a gay boy the untry buyg a one-way b ticket to the Big Apple, the untold story of the 21st is the queer girl Tennsee who stays put. ”As Dohyun tells me now over our pastri, he created the group to addrs the specificy of queer Asian experience: “There’s jt so few of out there, and we are all sort of sttered, and half of are the closet, and we e om a culture that is very homophobic.

And San Francis and Chigo— the plac, when the muny me up, they me up a lot earlier than here the South, Atlanta, ” she told me, referrg to the historic trend of gay men and lbians gettg acceptance first while leavg transgenr people behd—or, worse, throwg them unr the b.

GAY GEIA THOR TO RELEASE FIRST LERARY WORK THIS FALL

Before Lost-n-Found began servg them five years ago, she not, there was no shelter the cy where openly transgenr people uld get this scriptn sounds eerily faiar—a gentrifyg cy whose smopolan and gay-iendly Midtown papers over problems such as poverty and homelsns—that’s bee so many major LGBT-iendly metropolis this untry f the same bill. You’re missg stori about the hard work of change, about anizatns that are workg on issu like LGBT homelsns or LGBT youth suici or transgenr wre that Atlanta is the bt place the untry to be gay or bi or trans. For example, there's Jimmy E's tale of gettg a b steamy the steam rooms of a lol Korean-style spa; Ronald R's emotnal story of takg the difficult cisn to end a relatnship that was plagued by dg abe; Blae P's mentary on beg Black, gay, and Christian the Deep South; Jab L's realisatn that sometim what seems like a meangls one-night stand n actually be somethg signifint; and Eric M's piece on how no matter how much he tri to do his part to help his muny, jt never feels like Atlanta is 196 pag and is available om a select group of shops around the world as well as for orr onle om the Elska webse.

He was the edor of Southern Voice, a gay newsweekly based Atlanta, for five years, edor of LGBT newspaper Hoton Voice for two years, and was also a reporter for newspapers metro Atlanta and South Carola. Savannah’s first openly gay cy uncil member, Kurtis Purtee was recently named to Savannah’s PROUD task force, a group dited to ensurg the cy’s lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, and queer muni n work and live a welg and safe environment.

QUEER MIDTOWN: HOW ATLANTA BEME AN EPICENTER OF GAY LIFE

Larry Stt-Walker is the executive director and -founr of THRIVE SS: Transformg HIV Rentments to Victori Everlastg Support Servic, a 501c3 nonprof anizatn wh a missn of improvg health equy for Black gay men livg wh HIV through direct support, advocy, and buildg llective power. Michael Shutt is the Southern Regnal Director for Lambda Legal, the olst and largt natnal legal anizatn whose missn is to achieve full regnn of the civil rights of lbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgenr people and everyone livg wh HIV through impact ligatn, tn and public policy work.

GAY AUTHOR BRIAN BROOME TALKS RACE, MASCULY, AND ADDICTN NEW MEMOIR

Rickie Smh is print of In The Life Atlanta Foundatn, which serv as the official anizer of Atlanta Black Gay Pri, now the world largt pri celebratn for Ain Amerin lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr people.

He has worked wh such anizatns as AIDS Uned, AID Atlanta, and the Kaiser Fay Foundatn as a nsultant, providg strategic guidance and thought-partnership around program velopment and policy advocy wh black gay and bisexual men.

Sce 1994, OUT Geia Bs Alliance (formerly the Atlanta Gay & Lbian Chamber of Commerce) has served the LGBTQ+ and Allied bs muny by advotg for the most clive and equable bs environment; providg support and rourc to fuel enomic growth; and drivg meangful muny nnectns and impact across the State of Geia. Queer history tends to foc on large ci like New York and San Francis, but Atlanta’s actually been a haven for queer and trans Southerners sce the early 20th on for some of Atlanta’s most unique queer history—irrefutable proof that this cy is gay as hoe where Michael Hardwick was arrtedPhotograph by Rachel Garb1.

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

Her vrl gathered a diffe llectn of gay rights activists to an anized movement, and won new alli to the e: the Southern gay magaze Cise quipped, “Save Our Children actually may have saved the languishg Gay polil movement. Acrdg to Gay Atlanta Flashback, the home beme the Italian rtrant Capri’s 1949, fally transformg to a gay hotspot the bar shuttered durg the Covid panmic, but last year the cy named the buildg a historic landmark, the first protected LGBTQ+ se the Deep South.

Atlanta has long held the nickname of the gay epicenter of the South, due to so many members of the LGBTQ+ muny om small towns neighborg stat movg to Atlanta to fd their place among their kdred spirs. ” Midtown and Atlanta were synonymo wh beg gay, and though the muny is more spread out over the metro area today, Midtown, wh s inic rabow crosswalk, is still regard as the center of gay Atlanta.

Long before the pri ftivals, bars and rtrants, the first rerd stance of what we would nsir Atlanta’s gay history go all the way back to the “Cotton Stat and Internatnal Exposn of 1895, ” wh the first known female impersonatn takg place Piedmont Park. Long before the ter, Atlanta had publitns servg gay rearship like David Magaze, Etcetera Magaze and even s own versn of the gay Yellow Pag that would help members of the LGBTQ+ muny fd doctors, lawyers, real tate agents and other gay-owned and gay-iendly bs. You uld fd them on stands across the cy at bars like Burkhart’s (the former lotn recently beme the new home to the Atlanta Eagle) or outsi Bshstrok (now Bshstroke Pleasur), an Atlanta stutn loted Ansley Mall sce 1989, sellggay-themed movi, books, clothg and other sundri one lotn safely and discreetly.