04/22/22, Vol. 13 Issue 3

Georgia

Know the when, where, and how.

Then vote.

Voting is your most important right.

It gives you the power to decide what our future looks like. But you have to be in the know to vote. Election laws and voting places can change. Thatʼs why AARP Georgia has collected all the most up-todate election information to make sure that the voices of voters 50-plus are heard on May 24. Make sure you know how to register to vote, where to vote in person, what the rules are for absentee or early voting, and all the key voting deadlines.

Get the latest voting information for Georgia at aarp.org/GAvotes

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voice

georgia VOLUME 13• ISSUE 3 About the cover:

GUEST EDITORIAL

Courtesy Photo by Joseph Sinclair

TheGeorgiaVoice.com

PO Box 77401 • Atlanta, GA 30357 P: 404-815-6941; F: 404-963-6365

Business

Principal/Publisher: Tim Boyd tboyd@thegavoice.com

Editorial

Editor: Katie Burkholder kburkholder@thegavoice.com Editorial Contributors: Sukainah Abid-Kons, Brammhi Balarajan, Cliff Bostock, Jim Farmer, María Helena Dolan, Divine Ikpe, Buck Jones, Daniel Martini, Casey Williams

TO HOMO OR TO HOMEOWNERSHIP? Daniel Martini COURTESY PHOTO

Production

Daniel Martini, Co-host of The Gayly Dose

Sales

I am the gayest and hottest real estate agent you will ever have the pleasure of meeting.

I have been in the real estate industry for seven years and I would like to share some tips and tricks for first time homobuyers (see what I did there?) on how to decide what’s best for you based on budget, location, and property type.

Art Director: Rob Boeger rboeger@thegavoice.com Sales Executive: Dixon Taylor dtaylor@thegavoice.com Sales Executive: Jim Brams jbrams@thegavoice.com Business Advisor: Lynn Pasqualetti Financial Firm of Record: HLM Financial Group

National Advertising:

Rivendell Media • 908-232-2021 sales@rivendellmedia.com Publisher Emeritus: Chris Cash

Fine Print

All material in Georgia Voice is protected by federal copyright law and may not be reproduced without the written consent of Georgia Voice. The sexual orientation of advertisers, photographers, writers and cartoonists published herein is neither inferred nor implied. The appearance of names or pictorial representation does not necessarily indicate the sexual orientation of that person or persons. We also do not accept responsibility for claims made by advertisers.

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4 EDITORIAL APRIL 22, 2022

Let’s break it down with the first step.

Stop snorting your down payment. This generation is one of instant gratification, so saving for a down payment is not always top of mind. You will need to have some liquid cash to get in this real estate market.

Expensive clothes, overpriced cars and bar tabs are only going to slow down your dreams of home ownership. The average percentage people are putting down for a down payment is anywhere between 3 percent and 20 percent. Let’s say you buy a house for $300,000. The minimum you are required to put down is 3 percent, which will total $9,000. Piece of cake, right?

Getting pre-qualified by a gay lender is preferred. I tell my clients all the time to get the dialogue started with a mortgage lender you feel comfortable with. Before they run your credit or request proof of income, getting that conversation started is KEY! They will give you scenarios and you will be able to get a better understanding of what your buying power is.

Next Step! LOCATION!!! What I always try to tell my clients is live where you eat, not

where you work. If you can’t afford to live where you eat, baby, you better find a new place to eat. You are probably aware that the gays have been priced out of Midtown. It’s the harsh truth, but I’m not here to sugarcoat it. My advice? GO WEST HOMOS! We are seeing a huge influx of gay men and women moving to the West Side! This includes my personal favorite neighborhood, Mozley Park. Some others include Castleberry Hill, Summer Hill, Adair Park and Bankhead.

I am sure you or a loved one have “fond” memories of these neighborhoods, but fear not! These neighborhoods have grown exponentially, and you can thank the BeltLine for that! You can get a threebedroom, two-bathroom ranch bungalow for around $350,000 (sorry, folks — the days of buying a house for under $200k are over). The list of chic restaurants in this area includes No Mas! Cantina, My Potato Factory, Lean Draft House, and SluttyVegan ATL. I invite you to go check out these neighborhoods and restaurants!

Now that we have your budget and location established, it will make the following questions easier to answer. Let’s talk about condos vs. single-family homes. In my initial meeting with clients, I always ask what’s important to them. What is going to make you the happiest? Would you rather have a backyard for entertaining or amenities like a pool or skyline views? How many bedrooms do you need? Do you want to mow your own lawn? Do you want to pay an HOA fee every month? I have two Boston terriers. One is lovely, the other is a total psycho, making high-rise condos with an elevator out of the

question. Other personal requirements for me are dedicated parking, a pool, and park accessibility. It’s personal necessities like these that will help you shorten the lengthy list of property options you will have!

Now that you and your lender have your buying power set, you’ve explored what location and neighborhoods are a good fit for you, and you have narrowed your list of property options based on your personal needs, we are on our way to writing up a contract on your new home! The home buying process can be a daunting one and guidance from the right agent is crucial.

You don’t have to do this process alone. I work with first-time home buyers every day, and once I start breaking down these three questions, it makes the buying process much easier to enjoy. Trust your team, trust yourself, and most importantly, trust the process! Homo-ownership is going to set you up for financial freedom in the future, allow you to gain equity, and if you don’t like it in two years, call me and let’s sell. If you are ready to discuss finding your new home, I am just a phone call away!

Daniel Martini is a host of The Gayly Dose Season Two, an Atlanta-based podcast hosted by an all-gay cast. Unique in its mission and follow-on format, weekly episodes of The Gayly Dose are known for their real conversations about things that matter to the community and their listeners. Purposefully candid and brutally honest, the cast speaks on a range of topics, including monogamy, body issues, coming out, dating apps, and growing up gay in the church. Listen at thegaylydose.com.

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NEWS BRIEFS Staff reports Read these stories and more online at thegavoice.com

16th Annual LGBTQ Community Survey Now Open!

The 16th annual LGBTQ community survey is now open through May 31.

The survey is the largest annual survey of its kind, yielding up to 45,000 participants from 150 countries around the world.

Participants offer insights into the LGBTQ community that companies and brands then use to understand and include the LGBTQ community as a viable market segment.

For over a decade, this survey has provided free data to help non-profits, universities, media, organizations, and businesses better understand and serve the LGBTQ community. The report will be published on the CMI website for free download.

Everyone who completes the survey by May 31 may enter into a drawing to win one of twenty US $50 gift e-card prizes or donate your prize to an LGBTQ charity of your choice.

To participate in the survey, visit our website thegavoice.com. On the optional last question, please remember to choose Georgia Voice.

Atlanta Women’s Chorus to Explore the Meaning of Home in Upcoming Show The Atlanta Women’s Chorus (AWC) will perform “Finding Home” on Saturday, April 30 at Grace United Methodist Church (458 Ponce de Leon Ave NE). “’Finding Home’ captures the many concepts of what home is to individuals,” said Melissa Arasi, artistic director of the Atlanta Women’s Chorus. “Wherever you find it and whoever it involves, home is the place where your heart is at rest. Whether you are running away from ‘home,’ coming back to ‘home,’ or searching for ‘home,’ it will always be a special place for you.”

Musical selections at this performance will prove to be powerful and touch on many different emotions and topics surrounding the concept of “home.” The AWC will premiere “Boxes” by Catherine Dalton, which celebrates differences and those who are trying to find home. Other songs run

6 NEWS APRIL 22, 2022

The 16th annual LGBTQ community survey is now open through May 31. PHOTO BY PEXELS.COM / MONSTERA the range of “home,” Motley Crue’s “Home Sweet Home” and Simon and Garfunkel’s “Homeward Bound,” to choral pieces “No Time” and “Nine Hundred Miles” — and Broadway favorites like “Corner of the Sky” and “Home” from The Wiz. Additionally, the Atlanta Women’s Chorus is partnering with Families First, an organization that has been providing support to vulnerable families in the Atlanta area for 130 years. The AWC is working directly with Families First to collect monetary and item donations for their Second Chance Home, which offers housing and support services for homeless and DFCS-involved teen mothers between the ages of 13 and 19.

To purchase tickets, visit voicesofnote.org.

Grenell Bragged to Jared Kushner About Decriminalization Initiative: Emails Former U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, who was the face of LGBTQ outreach for former President Trump, bragged to Jared Kushner about a major German company’s endorsement of the Trump administration’s global initiative to decriminalize homosexuality, suggesting the former White House adviser had a greater role or interest than previously known.

The latest emails obtained by the Washington Blade from its Freedom of Information

Act lawsuit against the State Department, which was filed by attorneys at Davis Wright Tremaine, LLP and seeks Grenell’s emails related to the initiative, includes the communication from Grenell to Kushner.

“Huge” says Grenell simply in the email to Kushner forwarding a tweet from Daimler AG, now known as the Mercedes-Benz Group, in support of decriminalization at a time when Grenell was working in Germany to build support for the initiative.

It’s unclear why Grenell sought to engage with Kushner on the initiative, nor whether Kushner offered any response. No reply from Kushner is included in the emails obtained by the Blade, although such a response could come in a further email production under the FOIA lawsuit or may have happened offline.

The message, however, is consistent with the perception that Kushner and Ivanka Trump were among the players in the Trump administration who supported LGBTQ rights, privately pushing to include that in President Trump’s agenda and resisting efforts to roll back LGBTQ rights.

Grenell didn’t respond to a request for comment from the Blade on why he emailed Kushner about the initiative. Kushner couldn’t be reached for comment, although the Blade sought to contact him through his private equity firm, Affinity Partners.

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LOCAL NEWS

Mayor Dickens’ First 100 Days largest police training facility in the nation with military-grade training facilities, a mock city and a Black Hawk helicopter landing pad. While the project has the support of Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, it does not appear to have the support of Atlanta citizens; in a survey of 371 residents living near the site, 98 percent said they did not support police facilities being built in the area.

Divine Ikpe Andre Dickens ran on a very ambitious agenda with lofty plans to improve the general quality of life in Atlanta for people across the class spectrum, including making the city more pedestrian-friendly, expanding MARTA, the BeltLine and general greenspace access, creating more affordable housing, expanding the City’s LGBTQ Advisory Board, ensuring pay equity for city employees, decreasing crime through a comprehensive approach, and more.

Other public safety measures

Dickens previously stated that his first 100 days would be “laser focused on reducing crime, with a particular emphasis on balancing safety and justice” and he does seem to be somewhat true to his word. He himself said “when we advance underserved communities and embrace equity, the root causes of crime are eliminated” in his State of the City address on April 4, and it appears as if he has begun community initiatives that would be beneficial both for quality of life and decreasing crime.

host midnight basketball games for young people in underserved communities.

Living wages

Affordable housing for … police?

Dickens has stated that, his power is limited in what he can do to ensure Atlantans have a minimum wage, but some (specifically) union workers at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport have been granted a pay increase from a $7.25–$12.10 an hour pay range to $15 an hour. Although this is great news, we can’t fully credit Dickens for it, because it has been in the works for years.

Dickens has granted leeway toward offering affordable housing for the citizens of Atlanta, helping to end a years-long legal feud between the city’s public housing authority and developer Integral Group and becoming a member of the Atlanta Regional Commission.

He has also helped to secure funding for affordable housing for the average person. JP Morgan Chase says it will invest $2.5 million over the course of three years in Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partners. Wells Fargo is giving $1.3 million toward at least one thousand units of affordable housing. Invest Atlanta has received funding for “nearly” 400 units. Ground has been broken at the soon to be built Skyline Apartments in Peoplestown, which will provide 250 affordable units to the city. However, Dickens has also been working with APD on “Unity Place,” which is an affordable housing complex for police officers in training on English Avenue, a primarily Black and overpoliced neighborhood in West Atlanta already in the process of being

Resources for the youth Dickens has invested $5 million toward the Mayor’s Youth Scholarship fund, with plans to launch the Mayor’s Internship Program this year and provide jobs to 3,000 teens through the Summer Youth Employment Program. He has urged Atlanta Public Schools and “the philanthropic community” to invest money as well, up to $20 million to improve early childhood education. He has also promoted and supports At-Promise Centers, Recreation Centers, and Youth Entrepreneurship programs, and hopes to

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Andre Dickens

PHOTO VIA FACEBOOK

gentrified, effectively providing affordable housing to police in a place that still needs affordable housing for its current residents.

Dickens and APD Although he claims to believe in comprehensive crime management, most of Dickens’ efforts have prioritized the Atlanta Police Department.

He plans to hire an additional 250 police officers and has promoted a police recruitment event at Lenox Mall. The Atlanta Police Department has $230.23 million at its disposal, an increase from $194 million in 2019. Since 2019, APD has received an increase in funding each year and more police with more funding.

When Dickens was a council member, he voted in support of the Public Safety Training Facility, nicknamed Cop City, and is clearly still in support of it based on his “State of the City” speech. This appears to somewhat contradict his campaign promise to protect Atlanta’s tree canopy, as the project would destroy 381 acres of the South River Forest, which is the largest metropolitan forest in the United States and the home of the Muscogee people. For context, “Cop City” would be the

Dickens’ administration created the Office of Violence Reduction, which focuses on violence interruption programs, conflict resolution programs, and youth engagement. He plans to collaborate with faith-based organizations, community-based organizations, nonprofits and Atlanta Public Schools to offer resources to local communities that need them. The administration also created a Nightlife Division within the mayor’s office that deals with de-escalating violent altercations, security training and first aid and emergency response. Dickens has also begun one aspect of his Safe Streets Plan with the “Light up the Night” campaign, which has already installed nearly half of the 10,000 lights promised to be installed (or fixed). He has also restarted the “Pothole Posse” and has been photographed around the city filling up potholes.

What he has yet to do There doesn’t seem to have been much progress regarding transportation and walkability, although funding for the TSPLOST 2.0 will be up for a vote soon. Seemingly nothing specific has been done regarding his LGBTQrelated campaign promises, and only three out of 40 members in his transition team were queer. It has only been three months, and Dickens has been speaking to many different organizations and other public officials, so perhaps within the next few months we’ll see more movement on some of these issues.

Georgia Voice reached out to Mayor Dickens’ team to request a comment on his achievements over his first 100 days. We did not receive a response.

APRIL 22, 2022 NEWS 7

REAL ESTATE

COVID-19 Brought Remote Work, But It Might Be Here to Stay There are downsides, however, as research from the Harvard Business Review found that companies that followed a “work anywhere” model experienced a 9.2 percent reduction in communication volume between employees.

Sukainah Abid-Kons The costs of rent and homeownership have risen drastically since the beginning of the pandemic. These fluctuations are typical in real estate, but price increases have been exacerbated by COVID-19 and global conflicts, so how are they affecting jobs in the United States?

It is significantly easier to find a job now than at the beginning of the pandemic, a side effect of “The Great Resignation” that has been ongoing since 2021. While many offices are trying to get their employees back in the office, high rent and gas prices may be prompting people to quit their in-person jobs and opt for remote positions instead.

Real estate prices, from rent to down payments, are seldom stable for a period of more than a few years in the United States.

The housing market here operates in a “boombust” cycle, meaning that there is a period of significant growth (boom) in the economy, which translates to people buying and selling houses more quickly or signing leases with higher rents. However, this high does not last, and as the economy hits a “bust,” which can include job loss, a decrease in currency value, and an increase in the price of gas and other essentials, the real estate investments and commitments made by many people become unaffordable, property loses value, and people can lose their homes.

Over the past two years, Americans have seen dramatic changes in the housing market.

In Atlanta, the median cost of a house has risen 20 percent since October 2020 and 40 percent since the autumn of 2019. The average cost of rent in the city has increased by 22 percent since January 2021. Additionally,

8 REAL ESTATE APRIL 22, 2022

PHOTO BY SHUTTERSTOCK.COM / JACOB LUND

the national average gas price has increased by 78 percent since 2020. That said, not all housing markets are created equal, and there are still disparities between the cost of living in smaller or rural areas than within a large city like Atlanta. The average rent in Atlanta is approximately $1,800 for an apartment that is around 1,000 square feet, whereas living in Cumming or Warner Robins will cost between $650 to $700 a month.

If people can work for a company in Atlanta that offers remote options but pay less than half the rent they would if they worked on site, why opt for a job that would have them relocate to somewhere more expensive or spend hundreds of dollars on commuting every month?

There are several ways this emerging trend could

impact the job market in the future. Some companies, wanting to have their employees in the office, may increase their salaries to make living within commuting distance more financially feasible, though they may suffer workforce losses due to their decision.

Other companies may choose the less expensive option of allowing their employees to work from home, and they may even benefit from that. Vistaprint, for example, is a company that used to be headquartered in Boston, but chose to leave its $9 million office space to go fully remote. Now, that nine million dollars can be invested elsewhere in the company. One Stanford study of more than 16,000 participants found that working from home increased productivity by an average of 13 percent.

In March of this year, President Biden urged Americans to return to their inperson routines, saying “We can end our shutdown of schools and businesses,” and also encouraged Americans to “fill our downtowns,” referring to another impact of this trend: the emptying of cities. Since 2020, cities have experienced significant losses to their populations and surrounding suburban and rural areas have seen similar levels of increase. Without the need to commute, the less expensive and potentially more idyllic living situations in nonmetropolitan areas seem to be appealing to people. One of the primary concerns regarding this trend is how it will impact the culture of these cities; what will Times Square be if it’s not full of New Yorkers?

And while this relocation wave has been helpful to some local businesses in lesspopulated areas, it may end up causing housing prices to inflate significantly in areas that have traditionally been affordable, potentially causing longtime residents to have to relocate due to increased living expenses.

While some reports are showing employment, particularly in-person, return to pre-pandemic norms, the increased cost of living and commuting is a factor in some people’s decisions to stay at their jobs or quit.

The long-term effects of this trend are hard to predict, but the affordability of remote work raises the question: will we ever see a full return to in-person office jobs?

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REAL ESTATE

Housing as a Human Right: COMMUNITY MOVEMENT BUILDERS ORGANIZE AGAINST GENTRIFICATION The Work of Community Movement Builders

Katie Burkholder

Gentrification is a hard beast to control, especially when there are millions of dollars backing investors up. So, instead of attempting to “end” gentrification — if even such a thing is possible within our current economic framework — Community Movement Builders are more invested in a preventative approach.

Atlanta is not the city it was 20 years ago.

In the past two decades, Atlanta has boomed in development and commercial expansion, but it has come at a cost. From 2000 to 2014, Atlanta was the fourth fastest gentrifying city in the U.S., according to a federal study released in 2019.

Gentrification is the displacement of people living in an area due to an influx of wealth and property development driving up the cost of living. While rising property values may seem like a positive sign of growth for the city, it’s only so for those who can afford to keep up. Atlanta’s poorer residents — some of whom who have lived here for decades — are being forced out of their homes, and people of color are disproportionately bearing the brunt, according to a Stanford study. Black people in particular — who make up about half of Atlanta’s population — are seeing the impacts of gentrification, and several of them are organizing against it.

Community Movement Builders is a local organization tackling gentrification, as well as police violence and other community-focused initiatives, by building and supporting self-sustainable and self-determined communities largely in Atlanta’s Pittsburgh neighborhood. Because the money behind gentrification can make it difficult to fight head-on, Community Movement Builders puts its efforts behind keeping people in place, according to Organizing Director Jasmine Burnett. Burnett spoke to Georgia Voice about the history of gentrification in Atlanta dating back to the Olympics, and the strategies Community Movement Builders is employing to combat gentrification in the ways it can.

10 REAL ESTATE APRIL 22, 2022

PHOTO BY SHUTTERSTOCK.COM / ALEUTIE

The History of Gentrification in Atlanta When the city hosted the Olympics in 1996, Atlanta had an intentional focus “cleaning up” the city — or, more specifically, the city’s public image — by literally removing residents and unhoused individuals.

According to Burnett, this was done through the closure of housing projects.

“Folks were given vouchers to move out of housing projects under the misguided and just false description that concentrating poor people, and particularly poor Black people, in one location leads to all these negative impacts on communities and cycles of intergenerational poverty when, in truth, the state disinvested from these housing projects, so folks were living in really poor conditions,” she said. “… Then there’s the narrative that a lot of people are familiar with unhoused folks being given bus tickets to get out of the city for the Olympics so that publicity around the city was positive.”

Flash forward a decade to the recession and housing crash of 2008, and property investors took advantage of the devaluation of homes by buying up and sitting on properties.

“[The housing crash] facilitated investors, largely from outside of Atlanta, [to come] in and buy those properties for really low amounts and just sit on them and hold them until property values rose again so they could make a profit,” Burnett said.

In the years since, property values have spiked near projects like the BeltLine, the proximity of which to Black communities spiked property values by more than 100 percent over the course of less than a year, resulting in the foreclosure of the homes of those who could not afford the property taxes.

Today, many investors aren’t even sinking their money into flipping homes for family residences, but are opting for short-term rentals like Airbnbs.

“There are entire blocks in Southwest Atlanta where there are just Airbnbs,” Burnett said.

“We’re in this predicament where there are very few housing units in general, so that strain on supply increases demand and allows folks to charge exorbitant prices for oftentimes very substandard housing.”

“A lot of our work is simply to keep folks in place,” Burnett said. “We have a stabilization fund where we pay up to $750 in rent, mortgage, utility, and home repair assistance for Black residents. We give away free grocery, hygiene, and cleaning supplies to Black residents in Pittsburgh and also throughout South Atlanta…. We do a lot of food sustainability work with our community garden.”

They also engage in other organizing efforts, including demonstrations at open houses, attendance at neighborhood association meetings, and push backs when developers ask for permits. While their work is largely focused on uplifting the community so that they won’t be forced to leave, Community Movement Builders are also interested in fostering a narrative that’s honest about the reality of gentrification.

“Everyone deserves a nice community, but we can’t do it at the expense of one another,” Burnett said. “How can we [begin thinking] about creating systems where you’re not relying on the value of your home to go up for your family to have wealth? We want to think of housing as a human right and not a commodity.”

Black Atlantans who are interested in supporting Community Movement Builders are encouraged to join the organization.

You can do so, as well as donate and learn more, through their website, communitymovementbuilders.org.

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APRIL 22, 2022 ADS 11

REAL ESTATE

AFFORDABILITY AND EXPERIENCE:

Airbnbs vs Hotels

Brammhi Balarajan

Dubbed the “gay capital” of the South, Atlanta has a rich LGBTQ history and thriving community. A peak spot for gay tourists, the landscape for short-term housing has changed dramatically in the past decade, with the immense popularity of Airbnbs slowly declining in favor of the affordability of hotels.

While travelers have long turned to Airbnbs as a cheaper alternative to hotels, prices have been rising in recent years. In the past decade, the popularity of Airbnbs has exploded, with prices slowly creeping up to match those of hotels.

As a major city with overall high housing costs, Atlanta has been rated one of the top cities where hotels are more affordable than Airbnbs. In a study by FitSmallBusiness,

12 REAL ESTATE APRIL 22, 2022

which looked at price along with availability, location, amenities and other factors, Atlanta was deemed the second top city to book a hotel over an Airbnb.

Still, recent legislation has changed the ease and affordability of short-term rentals. In spite of the numerous benefits, Airbnbs also pose risks for hosts, including renters who may disrupt or damage the rental property and surrounding neighborhood. In response, many cities have explored legislation to mitigate these damages. Atlanta is no exception, moving to enforce punitive actions on so-called “party houses.”

Last year, Atlanta City Council passed the “City of Atlanta Short Term Rental Ordinance,” which requires agents to obtain a license to rent out residences, including Airbnbs, beginning March 1 of this year.

Citing that “an over-abundance of short-

PHOTO BY SHUTTERSTOCK.COM / DIEGO CERVO

term rental units in a community increases a commercial element to residential uses,” the ordinance aimed to prevent an overflow of short-term rental units such as Airbnbs from flooding neighborhoods, specifically ones that can cause disruptions to the neighborhood. The application fee for a license is $150, but the path to a license has proven difficult for some hosts.

a homier experience while visiting their destination. Airbnbs are indubitably still favorable for those who crave the more spacious environment of a house with the flexibility of choosing the type of housing one wants. Likewise, hotels offer conveniences, such as cleaning services or free breakfasts.

While hotels win on affordability, Airbnbs are still a huge appeal for tourists.

According to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis, only 10 percent of current listings have applied for permits, and fewer than 3 percent received one in the beginning months after the ordinance went into effect, leaving the future of the Airbnb market murky and unclear.

For queer travelers concerned about finding LGBTQ-friendly hosts, Airbnb does not currently have a filter to do so. However, a variety of other outlets provide useful information for finding LGBTQ-friendly housing. Gay Atlanta allows users to search for LGBTQ-friendly hotels in addition to bars and clubs. Hotels.com also provides lists of LGBTQ-friendly hotels and Airbnb hosts.

Finding a gay realtor through the Gay Real Estate website can help secure an agent for more long-term accommodations.

In spite of the negative impact of the prevalence of Airbnbs in recent years, there are numerous benefits to Airbnbs — for those traveling in large groups or who want

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APRIL 22, 2022 ADS 13

OLD GAY MAN CLIFF BOSTOCK

ARCHITECTURE CREATES YOU Cliff Bostock Read the full column online at thegavoice.com.

In the mid ’80s, I spent two miserable years editing a gigantic, regional home and garden magazine in Houston, Texas. Overall, the city had fallen into a bleak recession, but our market was international oil zillionaires who continued living in the kind of luxury that Liberace and Tammy Faye Bakker are enjoying with Dead Jesus.

I encountered a lot of playful and beautiful architecture in the city and became obsessed with questions about the relationship between people and space. When I returned to Atlanta for a second term of editing “Creative Loafing,” I decided we needed an architecture critic. I put the word out and had good response. I gave all the candidates the same essay assignment: a critique of John Portman’s architecture. I’m talking about Peachtree Center, the Hyatt Regency Hotel in particular. Not a single candidate — not even the academics — would write the essay, all claiming it would ruin their careers.

This shocked me. Peachtree Center, at least at that time, was everything architecture should not be to my eyes. It was literally designed in the ’60s to keep the external environment out of contact. You could move from one blank building to another by way of walkways in the sky. There were in the very beginning no spaces to hang outside, no privacy anywhere. The hotel’s huge open lobby made it a favorite place for people to jump to their deaths. Is it coincidence that such a sterile, otherworldly space would host the theatrics of suicide?

No, it is not. Sterile affectations block the imagination and kill the soul.

The same is true with our homes. Gaston Bachelard, author of “The Poetics of Space,”

14 COLUMNIST APRIL 22, 2022

was a French philosopher of the imagination who wrote that the primary function of the home is to provide a space for reverie — daydreaming. The images generated in each home follow us throughout our lives, often unconsciously. Not long after my parents died 15 years ago, I took a road trip to Charlotte, North Carolina, where I spent most of the first 13 years of my life. We lived in three very small homes. As I faced the first house, I noticed what I recalled as a huge window in the front, and I immediately was visited by an image. I would have been five or six, when my mother had already carted me to a psychiatrist. I was looking out the window and saw a group of kids raking up fallen leaves, running and jumping into the piles. I can still feel the longing to join them, but also the more powerful dread of being rejected. I’m still behind the window.

The second house was only a block away, and when the owner there let me into the house I was bombarded by images, many of which I’d forgotten. Outside, there was the huge dogwood tree whose blooms represented the death and resurrection of Jesus, according to a neighbor. I had no idea who Jesus was. There was at the end of the street a large mimosa tree. I regularly ran away from home and sat in the tree until my mother lured me home with cookies. Most startling to me was my bedroom. I remembered it being off the kitchen, but now I saw that it was actually a large pantry. In that room I first became aware of invisible beings, specifically the Muffin Man who was living in my chest of drawers. I was terrified to open the drawers. This is where my mother’s nightly screams came to an end.

During my youngest brother’s pregnancy, she awoke every night from a nightmare in which a clock was counting down the minutes until his birth as a “Mongolian idiot.” For whatever reason, her doctors had (incorrectly) told her to expect that. As I stepped into the room he shared with our middle brother, I realized

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that I was the only person in our family of five who had his own bedroom ever, whether by necessity or choice. Before I left the house, I stood in the hall and took a deep whiff, smelling the hundreds of books my mother had stored there after her parents died. They were gone, of course, but attics became my refuges.

It was not the memories per se that astonished me during my road trip, but the way feelings that have been with me my entire life reappeared in images. It was a perfect example of the way awareness is created by both the subject and object of consciousness.

This is the reverie that Bachelard refers to. It propels us forward to the next house.

Or maybe it doesn’t. Like Peachtree Center,

much new housing in Atlanta is built without the intention to nourish the imagination.

Beehives in Midtown may offer striking views of other buildings, techy amenities, and stylish furnishings, but they are largely not built with the intention of fostering reverie.

Anybody who has ever ridden with me around Midtown knows that I point out countless old and odd apartments that I have rented over the last 40 years. I have long noticed that my dreams are often set in rooms within these different places. I have even thought of writing a memoir of the way these homes and the ones of my early youth created the person I am and will become.

The moral of my story? The nature of spaces creates us as much as we create them. Don’t live in a box.

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THE FRENCH CONNECTION BUCK JONES

BUYING ‘UNE MAISON’

in France Buck Jones To quote Alex Baldwin’s character, Jack Donaghy, from NBC’s 30 Rock, “With real estate there are no rules, it’s like check-in at an Italian airport.”

As such, the current seller’s market seems to favor those with the sharpest elbows and fattest wallets.

We began our search to buy an apartment in Paris years ago. As you can imagine, the cost for an apartment in the City of Lights is astronomical, with the cost per square foot in most of the city exceeding $1,000. The consequence of this fact was to limit our research to apartments that averaged between 250 to 450 square feet. Yes, I know. Studios with a kitchen in a good neighborhood, or even better with a small bedroom off a main room became the Holy Grail for us. We saw innumerable apartments from the Bastille to the Boulevard Saint-Germain before we finally found one that was perfect at a price we thought fair. In the heart of the third arrondissement was this precious secondfloor apartment that had hardwood floors,

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a small but functional kitchen, a large living room and acceptable bedroom in a good neighborhood. We made the offer immediately, and the clunky apparatus of the French bureaucracy kicked into motion.

One of the first things an American realizes when doing anything in France is the amount of paperwork involved. Original copies of various documents, signed and stamped by clerks, notaries, and officials are shoveled into the voracious gaping abyss of our “dossier” and as a deadline approaches the communication silence is broken by a frantic demand for yet another piece of paper in a seemingly endless shuffle of affidavits, responsibility, and the elusive prize of a piece of Paris real estate.

Once the process begins, unlike in the U.S. where the buyer already has a pretty good idea about what they can afford because their bank is their actual partner, in France the seller is at the mercy of the buyer to come up with the financing because French banks don’t pre-approve loans for real estate. Besides requiring a down payment of at least 20 percent of the agreed-upon price, the buyer in search of a loan must present as little risk as possible to be approved.

Self-employed, gay foreigners working in a

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cyclical industry are apparently among the riskiest applicants, which we found out the hard way. The stress level of having dozens of documents submitted to a marginally competent loan officer mounted daily as the three-month deadline approached to have the funds in hand, only to be denied by the banks we had approached.

As horrible a let-down we felt when our “dream home” in Paris evaporated, it must have been even more difficult for the hapless sellers who had to start over in the game of Three-card Monte that is Paris real estate.

Frustrated at the prospect of going through the process again in order to buy what is essentially a glorified broom closet, we decided to focus our sights on more attainable properties. While Paris remains prohibitively expensive, the rest of France is significantly less so. My husband and I decided to look for a house in a charming village. We began taking weekend trips to various corners of France, refining our criteria for what exactly we were looking for. After a couple of years, we decided we wanted to have a charming older house in a functioning village (this being France, a functioning village is defined as having a bakery within walking distance, as well as several cafes, a pharmacy,

and hospital access within a 40-minute drive).

We settled on the historic region of Brittany in the west of the country, a three-hour escape from Paris by way of high-speed train.

The COVID pandemic created a mini migration of Parisians in search of country living, to be surrounded by fresh air and nature instead of coughing strangers and pollution. As a result, there has been a spike in real estate prices for the most desirable houses, but the asking prices are still much lower than Paris prices. We found a cute older house with a huge yard in a seaside village for $174 per square foot (so, about one-sixth of Paris’ cost). It is a bit of a fixerupper, having not been updated since the 1970s, but that will be part of the fun for us as we make this house into our home.

We’ll begin the renovation work later this year, but in the meantime, we’ll be getting our morning croissants and daily dose of gossip at the boulangerie down the street and biking down to the harbor and beach, leaving the troubles of Paris behind us. Sometimes it ends up better not getting what you initially wanted, or at least that is the lesson we have taken from the whole experience. I’m sure even Jack Donaghy would approve.

APRIL 22, 2022 COLUMNIST 15

IN THE GARAGE CASEY WILLIAMS

Electric Vehicles Are Taking Over Our Roads — Are You and Your Home Ready?

Casey Williams Electric vehicles are taking over our roads.

You may not believe it by looking at all the gas-powered vehicles still driving by, but just wait. By 2030, we’ll be saturated with EVs. Are you and your home ready?

According to Consumer Reports, 71 percent of drivers have an interest in EVs, but only two percent actually signed on the line in 2020. Flash forward to a new survey from CarMax, which found that 55.9 percent of car owners aim to buy an EV or hybrid as their next vehicle. They cite environmental concerns as the primary reason, but have reservations due to higher initial cost and a lack of charging stations. Acceptance has only grown due to recent high gas prices.

You may not see many EVs other than Teslas on the road, but you’ll surely notice a greater variety by the middle of this decade. Chrysler plans to be building only EVs by 2028.

Mercedes, Cadillac, Jaguar Land Rover, and Volvo will exit gas-powered vehicles by 2030. Honda, General Motors, and BMW will follow suit by 2040. The transition from gas to electrons will happen quickly … if EVs can roam far enough.

Driving range varies greatly, depending on model and price. At the lower end is the new Mazda MX-30, a stylish and fun crossover that’s affordable at under $35,000, but can only travel 100 miles at a charge. a range of 250–300 miles is more typical of reasonably affordable models, including the $31,500 Chevy Bolt, with luxury cars like the Mercedes-EQE and Lucid Air reaching 300 and 500 miles, respectively. However, the top Lucid costs nearly $170,000!

Teslas like the $130,000 Model S plaid that goes 396 miles per charge and zaps from 0-60 mph in 1.99 seconds made EVs viable,

16 AUTOS APRIL 22, 2022

The Chrysler Airflow

COURTESY PHOTO

but Ford will make them ubiquitous.

The Mustang Mach-E, an all-electric crossover with galloping performance, slays its gasoline-powered namesakes. The Ford F-150 Lightning is an all-electric version of the world’s best-selling pickup that goes 300 miles and can charge to 80 percent in 40 minutes. It’s also convenient, with a plug-in generator for camping plus a “frunk” (front trunk) for storing golf clubs and shopping bags. The Lightning starts at under $40,000.

General Motors offers an electric Hummer this year, followed by the Cadillac Lyriq crossover with a 300 mile range, hands-off cruising, a wide OLED information screen, and a price under $60,000. A futuristic allelectric Silverado pickup will offer a 400mile range and ability to add 100 miles in 10 minutes. It runs 0–60mph in 4.5 seconds and can tow 10,000 pounds. Expect an

initial $105,000 price for sporty models and under $40,000 for work trucks next spring.

Or, go for the sleek Equinox EV crossover for around $30,000.

Tesla’s real rival may be the Ford- and Amazon-backed Rivian. that builds the R1T and R1S pickup and crossover. They offer a 300 mile range, serious towing, and run 0–60 mph in just 3.5 seconds. There’s also an electric grilling station that pulls out of the side — all for a base price of $74,000.

Chrysler kicks it old-school with the Airflow concept, which takes its name from an advanced aerodynamic sedan from the 1930s. It debuted during the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and boasts an airy connected cabin carried by batteries that give it 350- to 400-mile range.

Foreshadowing the 2030s, it’s designed for autonomous driving.

BMW kicked off its iX vehicle with a Super Bowl ad starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Salma Hayek. It’s hideous, but goes 324 miles per charge, 0–60 mph in 4.4 seconds, and retails for a $83,000.

Kia’s EV6 crossover is a more affordable $45,000 with top GT models running 0–60 in 3.5 seconds. Later this year, Subaru gets in with the Solterra — a twin of the Toyota bZ4X that offers standard all-wheel-drive, 220 miles driving range, and $45,000 starting price.

So, how do you prepare your home for electric vehicle ownership? Fortunately, automakers are offering garage charger installation for free or at a reasonable cost that can be financed with the vehicle. Electricians can also install 240v chargers independently, with parts and labor typically costing under $2,000. After that, you’re wired to go. Drive in, plug in, and never see a gas pump again.

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Join us A new way to Symphony!

A Group for LGBTQ & Friends $55/person includes: • 1 concert ticket • Post-concert private cocktail reception • Musician Meet & Greet $20 for current ticket holders

422-AD-GA Voice.Unison.indd 1

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MAY 19 | THU: 8pm

VERDI: Rigoletto Aida

ACT III

ACT III

Nicola Luisotti, conductor Michelle Bradley, soprano Denyce Graves, mezzo-soprano Jasmine Habersham, soprano Santiago Ballerini, tenor Clay Hilley, tenor Reginald Smith Jr. baritone Burak Bilgili, bass

aso.org/ unison 4/18/22 2:53 PM

APRIL 22, 2022 ADS 17

A&E FEATURE

ONE ON ONE WITH

ADAM LAMBERT Katie Burkholder

Adam Lambert has been a longtime icon and favorite of the LGBTQ community.

In the years since finishing as the American Idol runner up in 2009, Lambert has risen to stardom, releasing four studio albums, receiving a Grammy nomination for “Whataya Want From Me,” winning a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Music Artist, and even performing with the legendary band Queen.

Now, the superstar is bringing his talents to Atlanta. Ahead of his show at The Eastern on May 6, Lambert talked to Georgia Voice about the upcoming performance, filling the shoes of Freddie Mercury, and championing diversity through his music.

Hi Adam! Thanks for talking with me today.

So, tell me about your upcoming show. What can fans expect from the performance?

I’m really excited to get back out there.

Obviously, it’s been a weird couple of years, so to finally be moving around and doing shows, I’m thrilled. I know that fans that come see the show will get to share that excitement with me.

As for the material I’m going to do, I’m going to give you a mix of a bunch of different things. People that have been on this ride from the beginning, since American Idol, that is a very special fan that has been that loyal for that long, so I always try to keep them in mind and pull some memories from the Idol days and give them the rock ‘n’ roll they want.

[There will] definitely be a little bit of Queen

18 A&E FEATURE APRIL 22, 2022

in there; I’m going to be on tour with Queen later this summer in Europe, so I’m getting myself warmed up for that. [There will also be] some surprises, some new covers and stuff, too, and stuff from my most recent album, “Velvet,” which unfortunately, because of the pandemic, sort of got washed away with the timing of all that. But it’s an album that I’m really proud of.

Since you mentioned it, I would love to hear about your experience touring with Queen.

That must be such a surreal experience, especially filling the shoes of such a legend like Freddie Mercury.

It’s such a dream. I always say, there’s no real replacing Freddie; he’s irreplaceable. And I don’t try. I try to get up there and say, okay, I’m going to sing the songs that Freddie and the band created the best I can, as me.

Luckily, Brian [May] and Roger [Taylor] from the get-go were like, we’re not looking for an impersonator, we’re not looking for somebody that does it exactly like Freddie did it, because that would be weird. So, I’m very grateful that they’ve given me the space to interpret the songs as me.

Absolutely. So, to shift back to your upcoming show in Atlanta: are you excited to come to Atlanta? What’s your relationship to the city like?

I love Atlanta! I haven’t been in a while, but I remember being on tour there years ago, and we were there for Fourth of July and my band, dancers and I were there — it was my first tour — and we were on a roof of some hotel watching fireworks. It was such a nice night, so I always have that nice Fourth of

Adam Lambert

COURTESY PHOTO BY JOSEPH SINCLAIR

July memory associated with Atlanta. I love it.

We love you, and we’re excited to have you here!

I am so excited to be back, and apparently this venue [The Eastern] is supposed to be gorgeous and brand new.

Yes! I’ve been once, and it’s an amazing venue. I’m excited for you to see it.

I’m sure the acoustics will sound beautiful.

Definitely. Do you have anything you’d like to add about the performance or life in general?

Please come prepared to witness some fashion! Some glam, everybody needs a little dose of glam right now. And if you feel so inclined, please step it up and dress to impress as well. I love looking out into the audience and seeing people feeling themselves.

With my shows, the thing I’m really thankful for is the diversity in the audience. I have fans from every walk of life, and it’s a very safe space. So, please come — no matter

who you are or what your background is, I always try to create that sense of family. With everything going on right now, like in Florida, for example, there’s messaging going on and it’s sad! People are confused by it, people are being led astray by certain narratives. I think now more than ever it’s a time where we have to get down to the heart of what acceptance and love look like. Because there’s a lot of very scared people out there that are doing things out of fear. I would hope that when you come to a show of mine, we can leave all that at the door and connect and feel a sense of unity and celebrate everybody for how they’re different, unique, and special.

Atlanta is a very diverse city, and we value those things as well. So, we’re really excited to have you here championing those values.

Yay! Good, thank you.

You can purchase tickets to see Adam Lambert at The Eastern on May 6 through his website, adamlambert.net.

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MEMPHIS MUSEUM

OF SCIENCE & HISTORY

O P E N I N G

new dates

MAY 14 – JUNE 12, 2022

by

EVENTS THAT IGNITED A MOVEMENT J U N E

4 T H

ROBERT O’HARA MARTIN DAMIEN WILKINS

directed by

TICKETS ON SALE NOW 887 West Marietta St. NW, Atlanta

actors-express.com

FROM THE NEWSEUM/FREEDOM FORUM P R E S E N T I N G

S P O N S O R S

This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this exhibition do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

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APRIL 22, 2022 ADS 19

ACTING OUT JIM FARMER

‘Project Runway’ Designer Mondo Guerra to Attend Dining Out for Life Event welcome. I had never felt that in my life. I was an outsider, doing my own thing. When I was put in that space, it really allowed me to spread my wings and I will forever be grateful.”

Jim Farmer During season eight of “Project Runway,” Armando “Mondo” Guerra became an instant fan favorite with his bold designs and passion for fashion. He endeared himself to watchers even more so later in the season when he revealed during a runway show that he was HIV-positive.

When he came out as HIV-positive on “Runway,” he knew it was time.

“When I was asked what my story was, it felt like I was living my creative truth,” he said. “I knew if I did not reveal the true inspiration behind the positivity print, I would not be fulfilled.”

These days Guerra is a national spokesman for Dining Out for Life, which raises money for community-based organizations serving people living with or impacted by HIV. He will be in Atlanta on April 27 to promote the local program, where over 50 participating Atlanta-area restaurants will donate a portion of their customers’ bills from meals all day to benefit Open Hand Atlanta.

It was the Monday night before the episode aired that he shared the news with his family.

It was an awakening moment for him.

“I told them I was HIV-positive and was happier than I have ever been in my life,” Guerra said. “There was silence and my mother said, ‘I know and we are so proud of you.’ The most amazing was that my family — a fifth generation Mexican family in Denver who had never talked about HIV — had the opportunity to put a face to the disease.”

He is now in his eighth year with Dining Out For Life.

“Once I got off the show, after revealing my HIV status, I really wanted to find a way to continue the conversation,” Guerra said. He had already participated in his hometown of Denver.

An event such as this one is a way for people to contribute, he said, and is also effective at reaching people with new information.

“Knowing my story and that I am an advocate for HIV, it’s an easy way to help and an amazing way to have a conversation about HIV/AIDS,” he said. “For me, it’s important to use this opportunity to invite someone for a meal that may not have access to this information or knowledge of HIV.” Guerra, who used to come to Atlanta for “Project Runway” casting interviews, grew up as a classical pianist with a dream to write

20 COLUMNIST APRIL 22, 2022

‘Project Runway’ Designer Mondo Guerra

COURTESY PHOTO

music for film. When he was 18, though, he began looking for a new outlet to express his creativity, burned out by practicing eight hours a day.

“Fashion found me,” he said. “I started when I was 19. I sewed zippers into purses, and I think got paid $1.25 per zipper. That’s when it started, and it’s been 25 years now.”

He auditioned for season seven of “Runway” and made it all the way through until the end when it was time for individuals to be cast.

Producers called him and said they went with someone else. However, they put him on the short list for the next season. Guerra

auditioned again the following year and this time, “it was a happier call.”

“I had been a fan of the show, but I didn’t really know what to expect,” he said “Looking back, it was really hard work. It was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever been part of and the most rewarding.”

It changed his life in many ways.

“It validated who I was as a creative, me as a human, and I knew I could live my truth and be honest, open and not afraid to be vulnerable,” Guerra said. “All the other designers gave me support and made me feel

Yet Guerra was terrified when he got off the runway, because there was an HIV stigma, especially growing up in a small community.

Yet once the episode aired, he received thousands of messages from viewers who supported him, shared their own stories, and asked questions.

Controversially, he was the runner-up that season to Gretchen Jones, but later came back and won the first season of “Project Runway All Stars.” Many people feel the reason “All Stars” started was because of the injustice of Guerra not winning his season.

For the designer, it was nonetheless a nervewracking competition.

These days, besides his design work, Guerra is happy that he can be an HIV/AIDS advocate.

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APRIL 22, 2022 ADS 21

REELING IN THE YEARS MARÍA HELENA DOLAN

THE ACCOUNT OF

ZHENG HE, EUNUCH ADMIRAL María Helena Dolan Read the full column online at thegavoice.com Does testosterone make the man? Certainly not in the case of Ma He, a ten-year-old Hui (Chinese Muslim) boy who lost his genitalia while a war captive circa 1381, as part of his journey to becoming the Admiral Zheng He — a man who sailed a fleet of 317 vessels with 37,000 men to fulfill his emperor’s charge “to proceed all the way to the ends of the earth to collect tribute from the barbarians beyond the seas,” according to Transgenderzone.com.

It was a task the 6’ 5”, massive-chested beardless man executed with great vigor, cunning and diplomatic perseverance, with the largest armada equipped with some of the heftiest ships the world would know until over five centuries later.

His war vessels were multimasted monsters the size of one-and-a-half football fields, made of watertight teak. Tribute ships groaned with offerings brought from the lesser rulers, sometimes even including actual rulers Zheng replaced with puppets installed on their former thrones, as well as emissaries seeking favor at the court of the Yongle Emperor.

Beginning in July 1405, Admiral Zheng made a series of seven voyages, sailing from Nanjing to Japan and Korea, then down through the South China Sea, fighting and executing pirates, and past Vietnam to Thailand, Java, Sumatra, and Sri Lanka — where he battled Vira Alakesvara of Gampola and brought him back to China.

Subsequent voyages took Zheng down and west, to the west of India, up the Arabian Sea, then into the Red Sea and finally the eastern coast of Africa, to what are now Somalia and Kenya, as evidenced by the ostriches, giraffes and zebras he brought home. There are claims that he rounded the Cape of Good Hope, made it to the Americas, and even to Australia.

His cartographers created a series of 24 maps

22 COLUMNIST APRIL 22, 2022

Zheng He, Eunuch Admiral HISTORICAL IMAGE that projected from the east coast of China to the north and east, then south through and past all the largely Arab and Indian routes, and even into some Genovese sea routes (the city-state of Genoa must have quaked at the thought of Zheng’s floating war city of 37,000, compared to its entire mostly nonmaritime population of 100,000).

The explorer-diplomat-warrior-admiral was buried at sea in 1433 on his return from Kenya.

Three companions published accounts of his travels and his name is widely known today.

But what happened to his fleet? Indeed, what happened to China?

His emperor died in 1424, and the successor was a Confucian who wanted quiet harmony in all things, within China’s borders. The Confucian scholars and bureaucracy that came into power with him wanted the money required for exploration to remain at home, and they want to rein in the power of the eunuchs.

Eunuchs came from the many war captives — and those who volunteered their manhood in hopes of achieving favor at court. They numbered about 100,000 individuals and were enmeshed in the running of both the Forbidden City and its administrative empire. They were pro-expansionist, like the preceding emperor.

Traditionalist Confucian court members wanted nothing to do with that world, so a eunuch who changed the balance of power across half the globe was a Confucian nightmare. They literally let the ships rot at dock as they expunged Zheng’s name from the records.

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APRIL 22, 2022 ADS 23