03/17/23, Vol. 14 Issue 1

Jessica He and Patric Palkens. Photo by Rachel Neville.

About the cover: Courtesy photo of Women on the Rise

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A Woman is a Body Policed

Katie Burkholder

I would like to preface what I am about to say with the very firm statement that there is nothing I find valuable about TERF logic, and I very explicitly denounce TERFism as nothing more than dangerous, violently transphobic rhetoric. We all have a very real responsibility to protect the trans community, and I take that very seriously. TERFs are not welcome here, no exceptions.

The single thing that TERFs and I agree on, though, is that being a cis woman is painful, through and through. Living on a cycle of pain is, without a hint of dramatism, torture. No matter where in my cycle I am, it feels like my body and mind are waging a war on me. Having a reproductive body sucks.

That experience only makes up a fraction of what womanhood actually is, though. The “woman experience” does intersect with the “reproductive experience” at times. Yes, being a woman sucks because of periods, childbirth, and all the bullshit that comes with a vagina and a body forcibly labeled “female” (although, that’s not even a universal experience for all cis women, but I digress). But it would be reductive to pretend that accurately captures the entire picture of womanhood.

When TERFs reduce womanhood to our biology, not only is that just a thorough misunderstanding of the social phenomenon of gender to serve transphobic ends, it diminishes the truth about what being a woman (even a cis woman) actually means.

Womanhood is an ideal into which nobody fits. It is a strict and ever-changing fantasy of perfection that is at its core, by its very design, alienating. To be a woman is to be

reduced and policed into objectivity against impossible standards: Dress the right way — but not too feminine or you’ll be disregarded or assaulted, and not too masculine or you’ll be ... disregarded or assaulted. Be the right size (the less space you take up, the better, but this body ideal changes on a dime, so keep up with dieting and cosmetic surgery to make sure you’re worth looking at and, therefore, existing). Look pretty always. Don’t get old, and if you must, do so “gracefully” (adopt a strict skin care regimen and get cosmetic surgery to make you look decades younger than you actually are — this is easier to do preventatively, so start before your youth runs out).

Being a woman isn’t bleeding out of your vagina. Being a woman is feeling like you could never be a woman correctly, no matter how hard you try. There is no one who understands this, who knows the darkest impact bodily policing has, like trans women do.

For many trans women, looking feminine enough is literally a matter of life and death. While TERFs want to pretend that trans women are infiltrating and bastardizing womanhood, trans womanhood is actually womanhood amplified (in the same way that misogynoir is misogyny amplified). It is because the bodies of women are so policed

that it is both more difficult and more important when it comes to safety for trans women to pass; as noted in a TIME article by Charlotte Alter, “a 6’2” woman is often more conspicuous than a 5’4” man.”

As trans activist Julia Serano said, “Women’s appearances get more attention, women’s actions are commented on and critiqued more than men, so in that world it just makes sense that people will focus more on trans women than trans men.”

In my editorial for this issue last year, I said the thing that ties all women together is oppression. I stand by this, but would like to expand: the thing that ties all of us together is the oppression of women. Ask any gay man — or man who grew up exhibiting any characteristic deviating from the masculine norm — and they will tell you that the way they have been policed is through feminization.

All of this is to say that the plight of women is the plight of all of us — and yes, that is all women. It doesn’t matter if our bodies bleed or not. We are all subjected to the policing of gender. The further we are in the margins, the stricter the policing becomes. So, the next time you want to police who you let into the woman club in the name of “women’s rights,” just shut the hell up.

Read these stories and more online at thegavoice.com

Out On Film and Atlanta Pride Present Out on Film Spring Fest from April

3 to 6

Out On Film and Atlanta Pride have announced the lineup of films for a special Out On Film Spring Fest, taking place April 3-6 at the Landmark Midtown Art Cinema. Featuring films that have already made an impact on this year’s film festival circuit, titles will include Lisa Cortes’ Little Richard: I Am Everything, Maryam Touzani’s The Blue Caftan, Georgia Oakley’s Blue Jean, D. Smith’s Kokomo City, and Eva Vitija’s Loving Highsmith.

“I am very happy that Out On Film can present a spring series of five exceptional films, as well as a well-received shorts program from our 2022 festival,” Out On Film Festival Director Jim Farmer said. “This series celebrates filmmaking and filmmakers from around the world, and two of our documentaries celebrate Georgia and Atlanta subjects. Coming so soon after our record-setting 2022 film festival, I believe our audiences will be quite impressed with this special series.”

Lisa Cortes’ Little Richard: I Am Everything comes to Atlanta after wowing Mississippi and Utah following screenings as the Opening Night Gala at the Oxford Film Festival, and a smash debut at the Sundance Film Festival last month. The entertaining (and how could it not be, considering its subject) documentary gives a startlingly frank look at the life and career of the rock n’ roll icon who still influences music artists today as it shines a light on the Black, queer origins of rock ’n’ roll, and profiles the man behind the music. D. Smith’s documentary Kokomo City took two awards at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, including the NEXT Audience Award and the NEXT Innovator Award, and recently screened at the Berlin Film Festival as well. The film chronicles the experiences of four Black trans women sex workers living in New York and Atlanta. The film’s subjects are a charismatic and compelling combination of personalities, whose stories and testimonies are beyond compelling.

Maryam Touzani’s The Blue Caftan is a multiple award winner, having picked up

awards at Cannes (the FIPRESCI Prize at Un Certain Regard), Chicago International FF (Best Director), and the Athens International FF (International Competition Audience Award and the Greek Film Critics Association Award), among others. The quietly captivating film follows a couple running a caftan store whose careful balance of their life (including his homosexuality) and their business, is disrupted by a new apprentice. Georgia Oakley’s Blue Jean has taken several awards on the international festival circuit, including last year’s Venice Film Festival (Giornate Degli Autori’s People Choice Award), Thessaloniki Film Festival (Best Actress), and the Belfast FF (Breakthrough Performance). The riveting drama follows a teacher leading a double life in Margaret Thatcher’s homophobic Britain in the late 1980’s. Eva Vitija’s Loving Highsmith looks at the personal life of the prolific author (author of “Strangers on a Train” and “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” among others) revealing the romantic via tender confidences underneath her legendary tough exterior.

The Out On Film Spring Fest will also include a special shorts program presentation, “For the Ladies”, which will feature short films that previously screened at Out On Fest, and made an impact on the film festival circuit, including Aleksandra Odic’s Frida, which won Cannes’ Queer Palm and the Ligts on

View the full schedule online at thegavoice.com.

Trans Talent Show to Celebrate Trans Day of Visibility

In honor of Trans Day of Visibility, an open mic talent show for transgender performers will be held on March 31 at Wild Heaven Beer West End.

The goal of the event is to shine a positive light on how talented trans people are amidst a culture that’s hyperfocused on cis people’s negative reactions to the community. The show will allow the opportunity for any trans person who wants to to share their comedy, music, spoken word, fashion, poetry, improv, art, or other talent on stage. Each performer will get about five minutes to show their stuff.

Cis allies are welcome as audience. Admission will work on a sliding scale, from $5 to $20, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds. Doors are at 7pm, show at 8pm. Anyone who is interested in volunteering for the event can email laurenjonescomedy@ gmail.com with “Volunteer” in the subject.

Women Award, and Krizz Gautier’s Keep/ Delete, which won awards at the Charlotte and Paradise film festivals.

“Little Richard: I am Everything” is part of the Out On Film mini festival. PUBLICITY PHOTO

MARCH 24–AUGUST 13 | HIGH.ORG

Anti-LGBTQ Bills Pass and Stall in Georgia Senate

Katie Burkholder

In the Georgia Senate, one anti-LGBTQ bill was passed while another stalled.

On March 6, SB 140 passed the Georgia Senate by a vote of 33 to 22, with all Republicans backing the measure. The bill bars some kinds of gender-affirming care for minors, including most gender-affirming surgeries and hormone replacement therapies. However, it still allows doctors to prescribe puberty blockers.

The bill advances to the House for more debate.

“We are saddened by the Senate passage of SB 140 tonight,” Jeff Graham, the executive director of Georgia Equality, said in a statement. “Parents, working with their medical teams and adhering to standards of care, should be able to make decisions regarding their child’s healthcare. This bill sets a dangerous precedent when legislators second guess those standards of care. And it is nothing short of extremist government overreach.”

“I am grateful for all of the parents, medical providers, and supporters of transgender youth who showed up at the Capitol today, and for the thousands of Georgians from throughout the state who took action over the last two weeks to urge their Senators to oppose this bill,” he continued. “Your efforts did make a difference by delaying the vote as long as it did. In the coming days we will assess our next steps as the bill now heads to the House of Representatives.”

SB 88, a bill similar to Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, stalled in the Georgia Senate, lowering the odds that it will become law.

SB 88, the “Parents and Children Protection Act of 2023,” failed to cross over from one house to the other on Crossover Day after the Senate Education and Youth Committee voted to table the measure.

The original bill would’ve aimed to regulate classroom discussions about gender identity,

banning teachers from discussing gender identity “other than the child’s biological sex” without obtaining parental consent. The amended version, however, mandated that school boards have policies dictating how parents were informed of and involved in discussions of gender identity. It would have also mandated that schools use a child’s legal name on records. SB 88 would have applied to both public and private schools as well as private camps.

“In a surprising victory, the Senate Education Committee voted today to table SB 88, the expansive school censorship bill,” Georgia Equality wrote on Facebook. “This means that the bill is effectively dead for this session … Georgia Equality will continue to closely monitor all anti-LGBTQ legislation at the

State Capitol, but, for now, we’re celebrating the small wins while we can!”

The bill was authored by Carden Summers from Cordele, who also sponsored SB 140. He said the intent of the bill was to ensure parents were included in gender identity conversations and that it would only apply to those in charge of children younger than consenting age.

All of the bill’s co-authors were Republican men: Colton Moore from Trenton, Brandon Beach from Alpharetta, Clint Dixon from Buford, Randy Robertson from Cataula, John Albers from Roswell, Shawn Still from Norcross, Lee Anderson from Grovetown, Matt Brass from Newnan, Chuck Payne from Dalton, and Marty Harbin from Tyrone.

SB 88 is one of more than 100 anti-LGBTQ bills that have been filed this year nationwide and five in Georgia alone, along with SB 140 and others like HB 653 and SB 141, which prohibit health care providers from performing gender affirming surgeries and other treatments on minors, and the “Georgia Religious Freedom Restoration Act.”

At the same time SB 88 stalled, a bill in Florida was introduced mandating state intervention in cases of transgender minors receiving gender-affirming care. SB 254 includes provisions for courts exercising temporary emergency jurisdiction over a child who “is at risk of or is being subjected to” gender-affirming care; includes granting of warrants for physical custody over children “likely to imminently” receive gender affirming care; and imposing felony penalties on parents or health care providers providing gender affirming care to minors.

Jeff Graham, Executive Director of Georgia Equality OFFICIAL PHOTO

“Parents, working with their medical teams and adhering to standards of care, should be able to make decisions regarding their child’s healthcare.

This bill sets a dangerous precedent when legislators second guess those standards of care. And it is nothing short of extremist government overreach.”

—Jeff Graham, Executive Director of Georgia Equality

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Progress, Setbacks, and Everything In Between

The Reality of Being a Queer Woman in Business

Sukainah Abid-Kons

Public approval of individuals who identify as LGBTQ, as well as those who publicly ally themselves with the community, has increased significantly in the United States over the past two decades. Between 2002 and 2019, reported approval or acceptance increased to 72 percent, according to the Pew Research Center. Additionally, the 118th Congress has made history by having the highest number of openly gay, lesbian, and bisexual members in United States History.

Despite this progress, queer people still face challenges because of their identity or solidarity. A 2016 study from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business shows some of the unique challenges and discriminations that queer entrepreneurs face in particular. The study found that 37 percent of surveyed LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs who were seeking investments were intentionally hiding their identities from potential investors for fear that their sexuality would harm their chances.

Beyond that, queer women in particular face the unique and intersectional difficulties of being part of more than one marginalized group. So, how do our featured queer or allied women deal with these challenges, what have their experiences been, and what is it like to be them in 2023?

When Cleo Meyer first started working in claims at State Farm, she said that the conservative culture of the company prevented her from being honest about her identity and her personal life. Meyer feared that coming out to her coworkers and bosses might prevent her from being promoted or being included in company events.

“We didn’t really have a great culture with respect to gays in general and it was difficult for a lot of people to work there and to

disclose what their life was all about,” Meyer told Georgia Voice

Meyer faced harassment and discrimination due to her identity before she was even publicly out to all of her coworkers. She said the culture of the company led her to lie about her partner’s gender, giving off the impression that she was in a relationship with a man.

Meyer said her personal turning point was when she got pregnant with her son. No longer wanting to lie about her family, Meyer came out to her office, and said that the experience was better than she thought it would be. Still, progress was needed within the company.

“I was prohibited from creating my own ads that would have featured gay couples,” Meyer said.

Since coming out in the early 2000s, Meyer said that the company culture has changed a lot and that her experience has become increasingly positive as she’s felt empowered to advocate for the LGBTQ community as an agent.

“My office sponsors different LGBTQfocused groups, from the gay men’s rugby team to organizations that help homeless LGBTQ youth,” she said.

Meyer said that while the company culture has improved a lot — State Farm sponsors Pride festivals across the country and has created ads that feature gay couples – she still sees a lack of representation in the workforce itself. She said she’s worked on creating networks of fay agents and hopes to see more diversity in the workforce in the future.

Chef Deborah VanTrece is a chef, a cookbook author, and an entrepreneur. When she graduated from culinary school in 1995, she wasn’t aware of the fact that she was queer and entered the workplace as someone who outwardly appeared to be a heterosexual woman.

Deborah said that she witnessed growth in terms of diversity and inclusion in the culinary world alongside her own growth, in which she accepted her own identity as a queer woman.  Throughout this journey of her career in the culinary world, VanTrece said that there have been barriers at each step of the way.

The restaurant industry is male-dominated, and frequently when people think of famous chefs, white men are the first figures to come to mind. VanTrece noted that her intersectional identity as a Black queer woman has created hurdles. Part of this, she said, came from her own personal struggles

with her identity. But from these hurdles came growth and progress, both in her personal life and her professional world.

“I got pretty comfortable with who I was and realized if you respect my art form, then you’ll respect me, no matter how I come to you,” she said.

While progress has been made, VanTrece said that the culinary world still has ways to make chefs from every background feel welcome. People’s identities are still a point of judgment for them, but VanTrece said that we should be more concerned about whether they’re good chefs or restaurateurs, or how they act as a person.

Still, VanTrece said she’s been happy to see her career field become more diverse and welcoming, largely thanks to her and others like her who have demanded seats at tables they previously weren’t invited to.

“People have become more vocal, I’ve become more vocal,” said VanTrece. While she never intended to be a representative for LGBTQ people in the food world, her successful career has set an example that the culinary world is open to everyone.

“The more of us that speak their truth, the more other people get comfortable with it.”

Cleo Meyer (l) and Chef Deborah VanTrece COURTESY PHOTOS

Formerly Incarcerated Women Fight for Abolition

Luke Gardner

Women on the Rise is a group of formerly incarcerated Black women working to help free unjustly imprisoned people in the Atlanta area.

The group was founded in 2013 and serves the community through two major functions. One function is activism, where the women lobby for policy, lead campaigns, attend city council and public safety meetings, organize sit-ins and marches, and spread awareness of unjust incarceration and inmate abuse through social media.

The other function of the group’s work consists of offering direct services, support, and resources to incarcerated women reentering society. Currently, the group has a contract with Grady Memorial Hospital and Fulton County behavioral health to help 100 women reenter society. This process starts while the women are still incarcerated and consists of trying to secure mental health care, housing, a MARTA bus card, and employment.

Upon release from jail, many people are thrown back into society with no employment or housing and a felony record that can prohibit them from getting either. Sometimes this leads to people being arrested again after engaging in illegal activities for survival.

“You can’t say you want a society where people can thrive and grow, but they can’t get an apartment because of something they did in the ’80s,” campaign and community organizer Dominique Grant told Georgia Voice .

Often, women the group work with are mentally ill and might face homelessness upon release. This is why reentry services are vital to the safety of formerly incarcerated people, the goal being to create a secure foundation and support system.

Atlanta Community Detention Center

While these direct services provide lifechanging assistance to those coming out of prison, the organizing side of the group often works to free people and prevent them from being arrested in the first place. A large area of focus for the group has been the years-long campaign to close the Atlanta Community Detention Center.

Through successful efforts to decriminalize petty crimes like cannabis possession, the population of the center has shrunk over the past decade. By the beginning of 2022, the population was down to around 50 people.

“Inmates currently at the detention center are typically people that are unhoused, kept on charges of public nudity — for things like peeing in public — public intoxication, those types of crimes,” Grant said.

After years of activism, the campaign finally reached a victory point when former Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms committed to closing the detention center for good. Excited to create positive change for their community, the group of activists began doing renderings to determine how the space could be used and working with major companies to discuss providing job programs.

These plans were derailed last summer when the new mayor, Andre Dickens, stopped responding to the women after already agreeing to work with the group to close the detention center.

In August, Atlanta City Council approved a plan to let Fulton County use the detention center to house up to 700 of its inmates for the next four years.

Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat said that the space was needed to address overcrowding at the Fulton County Jail, which faced a string of inmate deaths while hundreds of inmates were sleeping in cots on the floor.

In September, the city council approved a plan to convert the bottom two floors of the detention center into a diversion services center modeled after a mental health jail diversion program in Texas.

Mayor Dickens expressly stated that after four years the space will no longer be used to jail anyone.

The agreement also called for a jail population study, which found that over 3,000 people in Fulton County jails were held on charges eligible for prison diversion programs and that several inmates simply couldn’t afford bond. Others hadn’t been indicted yet and more than one third only had misdemeanor charges.

“You have people sleeping on the floors for petty crimes,” Grant said.

Grant said that if nonviolent things like drug use were decriminalized and if people had access to housing, these crimes wouldn’t exist in the first place. She pointed to the study mentioned above, noting that the obvious choice would be to free the thousands of people sitting in jails for poverty and petty crimes and instead invest in mental health care, housing, and drug abuse resources.

Instead, the county and city decided to move the inmates, a process which they have not expedited.

“When I was there in February, they still hadn’t moved them in,” Grant said. “The men are still on the floor.”

Moving forward

Over the next four years, the group will continue bailing people out, keeping track of inmates’ well-being and detention status, and pushing for a record redemption program that clears someone’s record after seven years without charges.

Grant said that people who want to help the unjustly incarcerated get involved by working with abolitionist organizations and like-minded causes, like the movement to stop cop city. She also suggested listening with empathy to the stories of people who have been incarcerated.

Formerly incarcerated Black women interested in joining the organization are encouraged to reach out using the contact information found at womenontherisega.org.

To donate to Women on the Rise or shop their merchandise, visit womenontherisega. org and click “How to Help.”

Women on the Rise COURTESY PHOTO

Easter Weekend Preview in The ATL

Katie Burkholder

Even for the non-religious, Easter weekend is a big deal in LGBTQ Atlanta. Queer Atlantans don their Sunday best for drinks, drag, and dancing. Take a first look at what Easter weekend has in store this year!

THE EASTER DRAG RACES

When it comes to LGBTQ Easter in Atlanta, you have to start with the Armorettes’ iconic tradition. The Armorettes will celebrate 44 years at the Heretic with day drinking, drag, games, literal drag races, contests, and everyone gussied up in the Sunday best. You can expect performances from Baby D Galore, Kitty Love Antoinette, Ryeleigh St. James, Muffy VanBeaverHousen, Nurse Holly, Plenty Moore, and Alabama TP., plus special guests Misti Shores, Kellie Divine, and Lori Divine.

The Easter Drag Races will be held on Saturday, April 8, at the Heretic’s outdoor space from 3pm to 9pm. If you can’t attend but want to watch the live show, you can find a link through the Heretic’s Facebook page.

EASTER DRAG REVIEW

On Sunday, April 9, the Hideaway will host an Easter-themed drag show featuring some of Atlanta’s favorite queens. The show, which starts at 4pm, will feature Ruby Redd, Myah Ross Monroe, Lacie Bruce, Tatianna Tuesday Dickerson, and Angelica D’Paige. DJ Devon Rex will DJ from 3 to 7pm followed by DJ Rob Reum from 7pm to midnight. No cover and $6 Absolut cocktails make this a party you don’t want to miss!

DEEP SOUTH SHEASTER

On Saturday, April 8, one of queer Atlanta’s favorite Easter traditions returns. ShEaster with Vicki Powell’s Deep South is one of

the most anticipated events of this season. This year’s party will be held at the upstairs loft of Future from 10pm to 3am Easter Sunday. Along with Vicki Powell, Keenan Orr will be DJing. Orr has been a mainstay in Washington DC’s underground club and party scene since the ’90s. He has performed across the United States, Vancouver, Toronto and Mexico City, as well as overseas in Berlin, London and Reykjavik. Buy tickets at universe.com.

EASTER ART MARKET

Shop small and support local this Easter Sunday at the East Atlanta Village Farmers Market! On April 9, there will be 20+ local vendors selling homemade god and arts and crafts, and more from noon to 6pm. Make sure you get there by 3pm for the Egg Hunt!

East Atlanta Village Farmers Market is located at 572 Stokeswood Ave SE.

EASTER BRUNCH

Nothing beats a classic Easter brunch! Enjoy brunch by Piedmont Park at Park Tavern on Easter Sunday from 11am to 4pm. Brunch is $49.95 for adults (and only $10 more for bottomless champagne and mimosas) and includes chef-attended omelet and carving stations and an expansive buffet including smoked salmon, hash brown casserole, fresh baked biscuits, and much, much more. For guests 12 and under, the Easter Bunny will also host an egg hunt at noon! Buy tickets at bigtickets.com/events/parktavern/Easter-brunch2023/?referral=bt-buy-tix.

DJ Vicki Powell PHOTO VIA FACEBOOK

The Global Fight for Women’s Rights

Sophia Ling

Tucked away in the mountains of Nepal is a subtle outcry for women’s rights. Druk Gawa Khilwa, a Buddhist abbey, is the only monastery where its nuns practice the same kung fu as males. Though the open challenge against the patriarchal monastic has not gained the same media traction as other women’s rights movements, these women have quietly defined who they are and their own capabilities.

His Holiness The Gyalwang Drukpa, the current leader of the monastery, hoped to empower women through self-defense and train them no differently from the men. The progressiveness of The Gyalwang Drukpa almost feels unheard of or perhaps even out of place, but it’s only further evidence that the fight for women’s empowerment is global. It transcends time and space, where one movement sets off another like a chain reaction.

The battle for women’s rights and protests for suffrage may have started in 1848 in the U.S. with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and her friends, but the fight for gender equality and women’s rights is happening around the world.

In the U.S., protest work centers around public demonstrations, sit-ins, petitions and public marches and symbols. Of course, these forms of protest exist elsewhere as well, but when I think of mass organization and advocacy, I think of the George Floyd protests, the Greensboro sit-ins, and the 2017 Women’s March. However, to see protests as monolithic would be a mistake. It narrows the definition of advocacy and does not even begin to cover the ways in which women have sought to cement their rightful place as equals in a largely patriarchal world. Political activism among young people, combined with the ubiquity of technology, makes it easy to gather large crowds and rally for support; but in other countries, it might not be as easy.

For the most part, gender equality in the U.S. might be considered one of the many most caught up with modern-era democratic ideals. Women have the right to vote, to own property, to be educated, and hold many rights that other countries have not yet legalized. Feminism and outspoken protests for such in the U.S. are dominated by heated social media discussions, marches to the Capitol, and picket signs calling for legislative changes. In some countries, these acts and demands for governmental action could lead to imprisonment or even death.

Today in the U.S., one of the most prominent battles regards pay disparity and abortion. For instance, the U.S. and Canadian national soccer teams are among many groups that have spoken out about getting paid less than the U.S. men’s team despite winning far more matches on the global stage. U.S. players like Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe and their Canadian counterpart Christine Sinclair stand in solidarity with each other on labor dispute issues and funding for the same resources as male soccer teams. In support of the Canadian team, Rapinoe and her teammates wore purple armbands during

the SheBelieves Cup last month; both teams had turned their jerseys inside out as a form of rebellion against their respective governing bodies.

In China, however, the focus is not on equal pay. Societal and cultural stereotypes that shun out-of-wedlock births and unmarried women make it difficult for single women with children to receive maternity leave. Defiance of traditional Confucian family values automatically marginalizes these women, but many of them are left to fight the battle alone. They are stymied by bureaucracy and the patriarchy in a way that is not always recognized in the U.S., and is perhaps a reason why progress feels so much slower in other countries.

Across the continent in Iran, women’s rights protests have been ongoing for months. Its various movements have concentrated on reproductive health rights, dress code freedom and freedom of expression. What sparked global outcry and support for the Iranian movement was the death of Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish woman who was arrested for allegedly violating the Iranian dress code with her hijab. The level and extent of protest is

historic; women and young girls have begun a truly female-led revolution, despite the harsh consequences and the possibility of losing their lives if caught. But Iran and China are not alone. Each of these political movements is closely intertwined and creates a ripple effect that can be felt around the world.

At the convent in Nepal, encouraging the fight for women’s rights is only one aspect. The Gyalwang Drukpa doesn’t only imbue confidence in the nuns, but also teaches skills like fixing electrical and plumbing systems. We associate handiwork so often with a man’s role and forget that equalizing gender stereotypes can come from ensuring women are on a level playing field.

Women’s empowerment doesn’t have to be loud. It doesn’t need to hold a sign claiming to fight for women’s rights. People around the world are uniting and gathering to create change. Just because it doesn’t look like what’s familiar doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. The U.S.’s advancement on women’s rights does not automatically make it morally superior; other countries that have not prioritized the right to vote or to hold political office before advancing to other issues are not behind or less worthy. The fight for women’s rights is a battle for the collective, and it’s time we start to see it that way. Chain reactions are far more powerful when people aren’t neglected for not being on the same level of so-called modernity as everyone else.

A woman cuts her hair during a demonstration on Sept. 23, 2022 in front of the Iranian embassy in Brussels, Belgium, following the death of Mahsa Amini.

PHOTO BY SHUTTERSTOCK.COM / ALEXANDROS MICHAILIDIS

“Women’s empowerment doesn’t have to be loud. It doesn’t need to hold a sign claiming to fight for women’s rights. People around the world are uniting and gathering to create change. Just because it doesn’t look like what’s familiar doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.”

Anna Rüling: THEODORA “THEO” ANNA SPRÜNGLI (AUGUST

María Helena Dolan

Long before Stonewall, openly queer people built a movement for our rights.

Germany was a country where we pushed hard against crushing Victorian era sexual restrictions on queers and women in order to obtain liberation. Germany organizes — muscularly and almost fearlessly — and employs new tools to spread new knowledge.

In 1869, Karl Maria Kertbeny invented the term “homosexualität” (homosexual) as part of a campaign to eliminate Prussia’s Paragraph 175 statute forbidding malemale sexual acts. Prussia is the German state that Kaiser Wilhelm I made preeminent among the German states, and he liked laws against homosexuals and socialists (socialists attempted to assassinate him four times).

In 1886, Dr. Richard von Krafft-Ebing’s Psychopathia Sexualis provided 200+ case histories of “non-normal” sexual practices: sadomasochism, fetishes, homosexuality, even lesbianism. The book is turgid and fairly indecipherable without a good command of Latin. But with it out in the zeitgeist, stories began to disseminate.

In 1895, the trial of Oscar Wilde shocked the entire world, and accounts of the proceedings offered new ways to speak of “a scandal of the Oscar Wilde sort.”

In 1896, Havelock Ellis and John Addington Symonds published Sexual Inversion, the first medical textbook on homosexuality. It appeared first in German, then in English.

At the time, Germany was a seething, swirling cauldron of political, social and sexual ferment. Socialists, anarchists, feminists, third-sex liberationists, antisemites, Jews, Catholics, Protestants, artists, musicians, writers, and philosophers were all at work.

And there was a ferociously ardent and very strong women’s movement, promoting the welfare of women: mothers (married and not), children, women without work, prostitutes, homeless women, battered women … and of course, suffrage. If women could vote, the world would be a different place! Well, that was the thinking.

Funny how groups of women pushing for relief and support for their sex, with lots of money donated for those aims, may enjoy each other’s company in diverse fashions. I refer now to the actions of “The Association of Berlin Artists.”

The majority of women in the association were assumed to be heterosexual and were often married. But the group had “an annual all-female Ball at which some members dressed as men, and even led out members in women’s clothing onto the dance floor; the Ball was counted as one of the more important events in the Berlin season,” according to Nancy Reagin in “A German Women’s Movement: Class and Gender in Hanover, 1880–1933.”

Meanwhile, in 1897, Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld and a few others founded the Wissenschaftlichhumanitäres Komitee (Scientific-Humanitarian Committee), the world’s first sex researching, data and field interviewing, birth-control dispensing, sex-positive, feminist and queer rights organization.

Shortly after the foundation, Magnus put into effect his campaigns to liberate lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, and to get Paragraph 175 repealed. The primary instrument was knowledge. To that effect, Magnus held annual symposiums where papers were presented and orators spoke.

On October 8, 1904, Anna Rüling delivered an impassioned speech: “What Interest Does the Women’s Movement Have in Solving the Homosexual Problem?”

(according to Robert Ridinger in “Historic Speeches and Rhetoric for Gay and Lesbian Rights, 1892–2000”):

The Women’s Movement is an historicocultural necessity ... [it] wants to reform marriage. It wishes to change many rights, so that the difficult and inconsolable conditions of the present cease.

[From] middle class circles the most annoying enemies recruit each other against the movement to free Uranian people. I would like to give as an example my own father, when by chance he came to speak about homosexuality, explained with conviction “nothing of the sort can happen in my family.” The facts prove the opposite. I need add nothing to that statement.

[From] the very beginnings of the Women’s Movement to the present day it has been more often than not homogenic women who took over the leadership in numerous battles ... I will not name anyone. [But] if we weigh all the contributions which homosexual women have made to the Women’s Movement, one would be astounded that its large and influential organizations have not lifted a finger to obtain justice for the not so small number of its [lesbian] members.

The Movement is moving incessantly forward ... It is fighting for the rights of free individuals and of self-determination. Victory will come as a sign of radicalism. Per aspera ad astra! (Through hardships to the stars)

Regrettably, Anna took a different tack as World War I loomed. She became an ultranationalist, ultrapatriot imperialist. She lived four more decades, still practicing her theatrical talents and her journalism. She was Germany’s oldest female journalist when she died in 1953 at 72.

MORE READING

Lesbian-Feminism in Turn-of-the-Century Germany—Lillian Faderman and Brigitte Eriksson, Naiad Press Inc, 1980.

15, 1880–MAY 8, 1953)

Anna Rüling HISTORICAL PHOTO

Mabel Hampton (1902–1989)

What a life this Black butch queer Harlemite elder led!

Her father took off before her birth and her mother died when Mabel was two months old. She lived in North Carolina with her grandmother until she died when Mabel was seven. She was put on a train to New York and lived in Harlem with her aunt and a minister uncle, who raped her.

Soon, the eight-year-old ran away and walked the Harlem streets. A woman gave her a nickel and she rode the train to Jersey City. A woman who thought she could find Mabel’s family took her in. Mabel provided sketchy information, and so lived with this Black family until she was 17. (The family’s last name was White, so some sources misclaim that the family was white.) That’s when she started working as a dancer at Coney Island and learned about “the life” from a woman in the revue.

Now in Harlem, Mabel began dance work. But in 1920 she was arrested outside of a party. Why? Because an unescorted woman leaving a bar or party could be charged with prostitution.

She went before New York’s first female judge, Jean Norris, who was infamous for being harsh on Black women and sex workers. Mabel was sentenced to three years and sent to Bedford Hills prison, where she met many lesbians.

Released early for good behavior, she was told to stay out of New York City. She didn’t, and had to serve the rest of her sentence. Upon release, she performed in Harlem (Garden of Joy, Lafayette Theatre) but her heart wasn’t in it, due to the racism and misogyny she encountered. She then began cleaning white women’s houses.

Meanwhile, Mabel was hanging with Alberta Hunter, Ethel Waters, and Jackie “Moms” Mabley, who threw wild parties. Nothing matched A’Lelia Walker’s “salons” though, where a butler ushered her into the ballroom, where large pillows lined the walls and short tables bore fruits and wines. Naked women came by offering things to eat, and men laid with women, women with women, men with men.

Prohibition’s end stopped the wild times and the Depression cut deeply. For Black working-class women without WWII jobs, there was only domestic work. In fact, the ‘40s were called the decade of the Bronx Slave Market, when Black women stood on Brooklyn and Bronx street corners while white women drove by on the lookout for cheap labor (two decades later Mabel began working as a janitor at Jacobi Hospital).

But no story of Mabel could possibly be complete without accounts of her wife, Lillian Foster. Mabel recalls when they met in “Not Just Passing Through,” a 1994 documentary:

I was going downtown, and she … was

standing on the corner. So I said, ‘Oh that’s a cute little woman.’ I see the streetcar coming, and it was full. She says, ‘You wanna get on there?’ I says, ‘Yeah.’

She says, ‘well come on.’ So, she jumped up, pushing … people out the way, and me, I jumped up there, and I looked her over.

She says, ‘You live by yourself?’

I says, ‘Yeah.’

So she says, ‘You married?’

I said, ‘No, I’m not ... I don’t like men that well. Why should I marry?’

That’s that. So she came to the house for dinner. Had a couple of my friends there, they’d all been married for quite a [while]. I was single, they said, ‘Mable, you don’t do nothing but run around with women, why don’t you settle down?’

I said, ‘Well maybe I will.’

Documentary Interviewer ‘How long before you ... ?’

‘Oh, didn’t take too long, just about two weeks. I didn’t want to rush it. Yes, for 46 years, she stayed all night. And she stayed with me until 1978, when she passed away.’

Lillian recalled in 1976, “Forty-four years ago I met Mabel. We was a wonderful pair. I’ll never forget it … I met her in 1932, September 22. And we haven’t been separated since in our whole life.”

They referred to each other as “husband and wife.” They proudly marched together in the first National March for Lesbian and Gay Rights in 1979.

They lived at 639 East 169th Street, Bronx from 1943 until Lillian’s death in 1978. Mabel stayed on until1988. There’s a marker for “The Mabel Hampton and Lillian Foster Residence.”

In Mabel’s 1984 address to New York’s Pride, she affirmed, “I, Mabel Hampton, have been a Lesbian all my life, for 82 years, and I am proud of myself and my people. I would like for all my people to be free in this country and all over the world, my gay people and my black people.”

In 1985, she was Grand Marshal of the New York Pride March.

To hear Mabel Hampton at the Lesbian Herstory Archives and see photos, visit herstories.prattinfoschool.nyc/omeka/items/ browse?collection=29.

María Helena Dolan

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN, WHEN DID I COME OUT? I WAS NEVER IN!”

Mabel Hampton HISTORICAL PHOTO

A Complex History of Lesbians in Atlanta and Charlotte

In her new book, “Drastic Dykes and Accidental Activists: Queer Women in the Urban South,” LaShonda Mims explores the history of queer women in Atlanta and Charlotte following World War II. Uniting Southern women’s history with urban history, the book serves as an imaginatively constructed archive of feminist newsletters, queer bar guides, oral histories, and political rhetoric to explore the complex history of lesbian life in the South.

In an interview with Georgia Voice, Mims dove into the complexities of this history, from racial archival inequities to the controversial importance of corporate support, and what readers can expect when they pick up “Drastic Dykes and Accidental Activists.”

Quotes have been edited for clarity. Read the full interview online at thegavoice.com.

What can people expect when reading “Drastic Dykes and Accidental Activists?”

The book is divided into five chapters. The first one looks at opportunities: how do women find each other or build queer lives when there aren’t the structures to meet queer people? The first chapter looks at preStonewall, in and around World War II. The second one is connections, and that takes from the ’50s to the ’70s and looks at how women found each other in more public spaces. I call it the bar chapter … The third chapter is visibility, and that’s 1970s lesbian feminism. It looks at the political, visible activist efforts. These were the drastic dykes; literally, these women in Charlotte called themselves the drastic dykes, so I can’t take credit for that incredible name. They gave up male-identified jobs and they started a magazine for queer women writers called Sinister Wisdom — it’s still publishing

today. Chapter four is Pride. That is the chapter inspired by my own travels to Pride in Atlanta and looking at the political struggles that both Charlotte and Atlanta had to maintain Pride. The fifth chapter is called institutions, and that looks at the power of corporations in each city to shape the [experience] for queer people.

I’ll start with asking about the necessity of establishing a lesbian history as its own separate entity from gay male history. Can you talk about the differences in these histories and the experiences of gay men and lesbian women during these times?

Queer history started mostly focused on men, mostly focused on white men. We did get one or two books on lesbian organizing, but a lot of books would be written as queer or gay history, but the women would just be a chapter. As George Chauncy noted in “Gay New York”, lesbians lived their lives in completely separate ways and women [in general] lived their lives in completely separate ways with completely separate hurdles in what they could accomplish.

The networks women build — the conferences, bookstores, music festivals —

are as much about being lesbians as they are about being women. That makes a very different history, and that means you take a very different path in how you research.

I did want to ask you about this corporate element you mentioned. I think that’s a hot button topic right now with the increasing corporate presence at Pride. Can you talk more about the role these corporations had in creating space for these lesbian women? It’s a complicated argument, and one I can expect to get some pushback on. It was just hard for me to ignore, especially in Charlotte, how much opportunity and possibility changed when Bank of America led the Southeast by offering partner benefits. Corporate support for Pride events and corporate benefits for lesbian and gay employees altered the climate for queer life in each city. That’s the point I’m making. I don’t want to give them any more credit than that.

We talked about the differences in gay men’s and lesbians’ experiences. I’d like to talk about the difference among the lesbians’ experiences along racial and class lines, especially in a city as Black as Atlanta. What I found pretty quickly was that white women who are queer are also white women

in the South, and they tend to build their lives quite separately from Black and brown women. There are definitely stratifications along class. There is some privilege in being able to quit your job and become a lesbian separatist.

The privileges of the archives mean that white women’s stories have been saved and historicized in a way that Black, Brown, and Asian women’s haven’t. What I learned talking to Black women who are archiving and working to tell their queer stories is that they want to tell their stories. They don’t want white women telling their stories. That doesn’t mean I want to ignore what Black women were saying, but much of the sources I had [were told] through white women’s eyes. Just like much of what I learned about women came through gay men’s publications for a long time. I had to go through layers of privilege and just do what historians do, which is tell the story based on the evidence we have and then hope someone later tells a more complete story based on better evidence.

You can purchase Drastic Dykes and Accidental Activists at Charis Books and More in person and online at charisbooksandmore.com.

Katie Burkholder

LaShonda Mims PHOTO VIA TWITTER

LaShonda Mims talks about her book, “Drastic Dykes and Accidental Activists”

When Memory Leads to Yearning and There’s Nothing There

Cliff Bostock

It really was not my intention to dine in a mausoleum last Sunday. I just wanted some good fried chicken and maybe a few memories. Yes, I know that the 96-year-old Colonnade has long been called “home to the gays and the grays,” but I wasn’t expecting to enter what felt like a house of mirrors full of dead and nearly dead people milling before my eyes.

One of the things our brains inevitably do as we age is ferment memory in nostalgia. It is bittersweet. It tugs at the heart, pulling us back to lost time, casting a kind of slanted light on the remembered. But there is a more mysterious experience that is not limited to the old but is probably more common among us. There’s not an English word for it. The Portuguese call it “saudade” and it refers to a deep, melancholic yearning for something that is typically beyond description. If you want to hear and feel what I’m talking about, listen to the song “Sodade” by the late Cape Verde singer, Cesaria Evora.

I started dining at the Colonnade back in the late ’70s with my first partner Rick. It’s where all the gay boys went for their mama’s homestyle cooking. Rick and I were both shy unless we were looking for sex — it was the ’70s! — and we could always count on seeing somebody there we had fucked a few times but never knew by name. And it’s true that the dining room was also always filled with surrogate grandmothers with bouffant hairdos and portable oxygen tanks. The Colonnade throughout these years was

cheap and the chicken was routinely declared the city’s best. It was skillet-fried, and the crust seemed to have a whiff of bacon or lard. I continued dining there regularly with friends throughout the ’80s and ’90s until that day I woke up and realized all the men I called close friends, including Rick, had died. Literally. Then, I became bicoastal and had to limit dining to restaurants I was reviewing. I rarely went to the Colonnade after then.

So Sunday, I was overwhelmed by memories as soon as we set foot in the Colonnade parking lot, which it shares with the Cheshire Motor Inn, a former popular cruising space. (You could walk by the windows and pick a group or get a quicky in the bushes or utility room. You could also get easily arrested.) We went to the large bar area to wait 30 minutes for a table, and I was immediately swept into shock and grief. There were no “gays and grays” in the bar. It was all old gay men and a few lesbians. The overwhelming presence was the ghost of my long-ago copy editor at the AJC Sunday magazine, Nancy, who took up nightly residence there in the ’80s. That’s where I went to get the news of her funeral. When we were seated in the main dining room at a table, every place I looked seemed to stir a memory. There were memories of friends who had died during the AIDS epidemic, memories of a close younger friend who I last saw there during a rare visit just over four years ago. I saw a few men walking through the room I vaguely recognized. We looked at one another, both disoriented by the change that age has brought to our appearance.

The old ladies did show up in the dining room. One, beautifully dressed at a table next to us, was trying to figure out how to do something with her new phone. She stood up and looked around. “I’ve got to find someone young to explain this to me,” she told her husband. The server conscripted two young people in their 50s who couldn’t help. The woman tore across the room to a teenager at a table with her mother and grandmother. The teen’s fingers flew to work and solved the problem. Her annoyed husband kept trying to pull her away. The woman screamed, “Never get old!” My hand flew involuntarily into a high-five, and I whispered, “Never get married!” When they left, their table was taken by four gays. One of them, who kept referring to himself as fat, suffered from Compulsive Talking. The sun was setting, and the darkness made the crowded dining room feel like I really was descending into a chaotic meeting of lost souls.

That’s when “saudade” hit me. It is so hard to describe. In the face of all the memories of the dead and in a darkening room where

90 percent of us were not long for this world – not that anyone else was feeling this way – I felt this gigantic existential, unnamed absence of something that could make sense of this life. We battled religion, psychiatry, and the law just for the right to love one another. We died and still die by the thousands if we do not protect ourselves from a disease that can turn love into torture and feeds the evil righteousness of those who hate us. Was my partner Rick lucky to leave this life so young? He told me: “You were the sex maniac, not me.” I said: “I’ve always wanted to kill myself.” There was nothing to reconcile. What is the point?

Love is the point. I know. It was just dinner at the Colonnade. But these moments can hit us anywhere. It’s not regret. It’s not nostalgia. It’s not mystical. It’s not mental illness. We need to love one another. And the chicken was pretty good.

Cliff Bostock, PhD, is a former psychotherapist turned life coach, specializing in creativity; cliffbostock.com, 404-518-4415.

The Colonnade restaurant COURTESY PHOTO

Out Actor Stars in ‘A Soldier’s Play,’

Aurora Theatre Mounts ‘Summer: The Donna Summer Musical’

Jim Farmer

Sheldon Brown remembers reading Charles Fuller’s “A Soldier’s Play” when he was in high school. He never got to see a live production of the drama, but as an adult actor he’s now part of the Broadway in Atlanta touring version.

The 1982 Pulitzer Prize winner returned to Broadway in 2020 for a highly acclaimed production, directed by Atlantan Kenny Leon and taking home the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play. The touring version hits the ATL March 28. “A Soldier’s Play” is the story of a Black sergeant who is murdered on a Louisiana Army base in 1944 and the investigation that follows. Out actor Brown plays the role of Private C.J. Memphis.

The role, he says, is the heartbeat of the show.

“A lot of people have said that,” Brown told Georgia Voice. “C.J. is a very profound soul and has a way of knowing in ways that others don’t in the show. I think he is misunderstood in the way of being unapologetically who he is and proud of who he is. His ability to speak truth is something audiences [like]. He is Southern and soulful and giving and loving, full of life and sensitive.”

“A Soldier’s Play” is a relevant show that will appeal to LGBTQ audiences.

“I believe what we are dealing with today and are continuing to deal with as people in this country, this play sheds a light on,” Brown said. “Actor Eugene Lee has a beautiful way of describing this show. He says it tells the

truth and does so with clarity, and the play is not only a murder mystery, a whodunit and exciting entertainment, but [it] will allow audiences to leave with something they did not have when they walked into the theater. It’s a way to take a look at each other; this play is about what it means to be a human being living in America.”

Brown said working with Leon was a tremendous experience.

“He is brilliant,” he said. “He is a giving director in the sense that he has already directed the show on Broadway, and he came to the rehearsal room with even more ideas and ways of utilizing the people who are part of this team. For me, he has allowed me to touch on things I didn’t think I could do.”

Brown said being openly gay has affected his work, but in other ways it also frees him up.

“I think I know that I do my best and I am my best when I can be my authentic self,” he said. “The time it took to accept myself and live my truth and be who I am has allowed me to dig into each of my characters and find [the truth].”

This gig will be Brown’s first time in Atlanta, and he’s looking forward to performing in the Fox Theatre. The touring version has some subtle differences with the Broadway remount, mostly because of the new team involved, including Norm Lewis as Captain Richard Davenport. Nonetheless, Brown said it will be as fresh as when it landed on the Broadway stage.

A frequent director all over Atlanta

stages, Patdro Harris is now directing and choreographing the jukebox musical, “Summer: The Donna Summer Musical” at Aurora Theatre. With a book by Emmy winner Colman Domingo, Robert Cray and Des McAnuff, the musical looks at the life of the five-time Grammy winner and LGBTQ icon, charting her rise from gospel choir to international acclaim — and her professional and personal struggles along the way. The musical was on Broadway in 2018. Here, three actresses take on Donna at various points in her life. Jessenia Ingram is Duckling Donna, Desiré Gaston plays Disco Donna, and Marliss Amiea is Diva Donna.

Harris has always been a fan of the artist. One of the elements he likes about the show is that it explores Summer as a person and not just an artist.

He described the show as fun and energetic.

“There’s a lot of glitter, glamour and goodness — the glitter of the life that we know, the glamour we thought it should be and the goodness of her, how kind she was,” he said. “And how she embraced everybody and had

to leave her family.”

Harris said there was much he did not know about Summer before taking on this project. The biggest surprise for him was finding out about all of her humanitarian efforts.

Her legacy shows the importance of being who you are.

“She was a great example of this,” Harris said. “No matter what your sexual orientation, where you were from, your economic status — she loved everybody.”

The musical features virtually all of Summer’s hits, including “Last Dance,” “Hot Stuff,” “She Works Hard for the Money,” “MacArthur Park,” “No More Tears (Enough is Enough)” and “Love to Love You Baby.”

MORE INFO

“A Soldier’s Play” runs March 28–April 2 at the Fox Theatre

“Summer” runs through April 9 at Aurora Theatre

Actor Sheldon Brown stars in “A Soldier’s Play.”

PUBLICITY PHOTO

LGBTQ NIGHTLIFE FORECAST MARCH 17-APRIL 7

Katie Burkholder

ST. PATTY’S PARTY

MARCH 17, 10PM

THE HIDEAWAY

Wear your green and get ready to dance with DJ Mister Richard. No cover, $6 Slane’s Irish Whiskey shots, and $7 Jameson Green Tea shots.

SATURDAY SOCIAL TEAM SPORTS DAY

MARCH 18, 4PM

THE HIDEAWAY

Sports league members will enjoy $10 Pacifico beer pitchers while they watch NCAA basketball on 13 screens. The Hideaway sponsors Atlanta Pride Football, Stonewall Sports, Hotlanta Softball League, Southern Softpaw League and The Dogwood Bowlers.

SPRUNG WITH SASHA COLBY

MARCH 18, 9:30PM

MY SISTER’S ROOM

“RuPaul’s Drag Race” season 15 frontrunner Sasha Colby headlines.

MOCHAKK & DJ EU

MARCH 18, 11PM

DISTRICT ATLANTA

Tickets at bit.ly/MOCHAKKATL2023.

DAY PARTY

MARCH 19, 3PM

THE HIDEAWAY

It’s a Sunday Funday like no other with host Devon Rex. Enjoy $6 Absolut Cocktails and no cover!

MUG CHECK!

MARCH 19, 8PM

MY SISTER’S ROOM

The open stage drag show returns this month with special guest mentor Orchid and February’s winner, Naja Supreme. Hosted by TAYLOR ALXNDR.

DRAG ON! GUYS AND DOLLS

MARCH 20, 10PM

BULLDOGS

Every Monday night, hosted by Will Dupree Saint James and Tatianna Tuesday Dickerson.

TUESDAY NIGHT TRIVIA

MARCH 21, 8:30PM

THE HIDEAWAY

With host DeWayne Morgan. No cover.

MARYOKE

MARCH 22, 9PM

MARY’S COUNTRY NIGHT

MARCH 23, 9PM

THE HERETIC

Enjoy social country, Western, and line dancing every Thursday at the Heretic. Don’t know how? Take a free dance lesson every Thursday from 8 to 9pm. Learn more at tinyurl.com/danceoutatl.

PULLMANSOUL PRESENTS

UNDERGROUND RITUAL

MARCH 24, 10PM

FUTURE ATLANTA

With DJ Kemi and Ron Pullman. Tickets at future-atlanta.com.

ANFISA LETYAGO

MARCH 24, 11PM

DISTRICT ATLANTA

Tickets at bit.ly/ANFISAATL2023.

DJ SAM GEE

MARCH 25, 10PM

THE HERETIC

Tickets at hereticatlanta.com.

SULTAN + SHEPARD

MARCH 25, 10PM

DISTRICT ATLANTA

Tickets at bit.ly/SULTANATL2023.

DRAG ON! GUYS AND DOLLS

MARCH 27, 10PM

BULLDOGS

Every Monday night, hosted by Will Dupree Saint James and Tatianna Tuesday Dickerson.

TUESDAY NIGHT TRIVIA

MARCH 28, 8:30PM

THE HIDEAWAY

With host DeWayne Morgan. No cover.

MARYOKE

MARCH 29, 9PM

MARY’S

COUNTRY NIGHT

MARCH 30, 9PM

THE HERETIC

Enjoy social country, Western, and line

EVENT SPOTLIGHT

SPRUNG

MY SISTER’S ROOM

MARCH 18, 9:30PM

dancing every Thursday at the Heretic. Don’t know how? Take a free dance lesson every Thursday from 8 to 9pm. Learn more at tinyurl.com/danceoutatl.

KNOCK2

MARCH 31, 11PM

DISTRICT ATLANTA

Tickets at bit.ly/KNOCK2ATL2023.

ICON WITH GSP

APRIL 1, 11PM

FUTURE ATLANTA

A party celebrating the musical icons in the industry. Featuring DJ GSP and a performance by Phoenix from “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” Tickets at future-atlanta.com.

DRAG ON! GUYS AND DOLLS

APRIL 3, 10PM

BULLDOGS

Every Monday night, hosted by Will Dupree Saint James and Tatianna Tuesday Dickerson.

TUESDAY NIGHT TRIVIA

APRIL 4, 8:30PM

THE HIDEAWAY

With host DeWayne Morgan. No cover.

MARYOKE

APRIL 5, 9PM

MARY’S

COUNTRY NIGHT

APRIL 6, 9PM

THE HERETIC

Enjoy social country, Western, and line dancing every Thursday at the Heretic. Don’t know how? Take a free dance lesson every Thursday from 8 to 9pm. Learn more at tinyurl.com/danceoutatl.

BLOWN CARTRIDGE IMPROV SHOWCASE

APRIL 7, 8:30PM

JOYSTICK GAMEBAR

Featuring Baron Vaughn and Business Bitches. Tickets via Eventbrite.

SNAKEHIPS

APRIL 7, 11PM

DISTRICT ATLANTA

Tickets at bit.ly/SNAKEATL2023.

WITH SASHA COLBY

“RuPaul’s Drag Race” season 15 frontrunner Sasha Colby headlines. (Photo by Magnus Hastings via Twitter)

The Pervasiveness of Antiwoman Prejudice

Melissa Carter

Last month, CNN’s Don Lemon said of GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley that the 51-year-old “isn’t in her prime” and that a woman is “considered to be in their prime in 20s and 30s and maybe 40s.”

Last month, Tiger Woods discreetly put a tampon in Justin Thomas’ hand in an attempt to tease the younger golfer about his shorter stroke during a tournament.

Nothing offends me more than someone who has experienced prejudice on any level, and despite that, is prejudiced toward another. Such was the case with both of these men.

Even with organizations that are wellintentioned, like some LGBTQ groups with social media feeds, I noticed more imagery of cis male and transgender female figures to be celebrated for Black History Month than others. Even our leaders tend to show what reflects them and leave out what doesn’t, which in this case included cis women and nonbinary individuals.

Katie and I are raising a young, white male, seemingly straight individual, and despite our best efforts he is bombarded by other experiences that challenge our teachings of love and acceptance.

When watching certain YouTubers, he would tell me girls don’t play video games. I corrected him and explained there is no such thing as activities just for girls or just for boys. Once he found female YouTubers, he added them as favorites and didn’t have that opinion anymore.

He has heard on more than one occasion at school from classmates on the playground that to be a real family you have to have a mother and a father. So far, he understands

that’s not true, but I can tell there is going to be a moment when he’s tired of defending his life. He’s not the offending party, but his parents are.

Things are much better during this Women’s History Month than it was for our elders, absolutely. But the antiwoman prejudice is still there, and we have to stay diligent to make sure it is eliminated. And it’s the little things that need to be improved — those moments you see old-fashioned ideas still taking shape. For instance, if you are a parent, make sure your sons understand the importance of women as much as your daughters do. If you are a part of a couple, make sure any domestic chores are not regulated to just the “feminine” partners. Teaching equality in the home is vital for children and adults to practice that behavior in the world.

I also think the messages you send as a woman with your language are impactful, both positively and negatively. It’s not just about taking bitch, slut, and whore out of your vocabulary. It’s also taking out I’m sorry, I hope it’s OK, and don’t worry about me when expressing your comments, opinions or needs.

I’m not sure why the Don Lemons and Tiger Woods of the world are sexist — despite knowing better — but it’s evident any experience they’ve had as minority men doesn’t register as equal to offenses toward women. I didn’t realize offensive behavior has a hierarchy.

PHOTO BY SHUTTERSTOCK.COM / PRAZIS IMAGES