Q Magazine Atlanta | July 18, 2019 by Q ATLus Magazine

July 18, 2019

Joining Hearts Drinking Game

inform | inspire

Strong SUIT

Cool swimwear for long, hot summer nights

Miz Cracker if You’re Nasty

They’re a Newbie Enby Coming Out Non-Binary Facing Racism in Queer Atlanta

Queer Agenda Q News The Q Q Shots The Weekly Print Publication of Project Q Atlanta

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EDITOR’S NOTE Q Q MAGAZINE THE WEEKLY PUBLICATION OF PROJECT Q ATLANTA PUBLISHERS INITIAL MEDIA, LLC MIKE FLEMING PUBLISHER & EDITOR MIKE@THEQATL.COM MATT HENNIE PUBLISHER & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MATT@THEQATL.COM RICHARD CHERSKOV PUBLISHER & GENERAL MANAGER RICHARD@THEQATL.COM ADVERTISING SALES RUSS YOUNGBLOOD SENIOR SALES REPRESENTATIVE RUSS@THEQATL.COM

Swim FANS Joining Hearts, original swimwear, bar wars and one salty Cracker

KEEPING UP WITH Y’ALL is not without its challenges, but it comes with rewards great enough to balance the constant hectic pace and occasional tricky situation. This week’s Q offers so many hits from so many corners of the LGBTQ village that our heads are spinning from the variety, but in a good way. When one of our contributors comes out as non-binary, another meets a nationally recognized queer designer for a photo shoot, another rounds up 32 years’ worth of Joining Hearts photos for a preview, and yet another is interviewing queer candidates in local races, it’s a big week.

ART DIRECTOR JOHN NAIL JOHN@THEQATL.COM PROJECT Q ATLANTA PATRICK SAUNDERS EDITOR PSAUNDERS@THEQATL.COM CONTRIBUTORS IAN ABER LAURA BACCUS GABRIELLE CLAIBORNE BUCK COOKE CHARLES E. DAVIS JON DEAN BILL DICKINSON JIM FARMER BRAD GIBSON JAMES L. HICKS BENTLEY HUDGINS TAMEEKA L. HUNTER HEATHER MALONEY ERIC PAULK KYLE ROSE JAMES PARKER SHEFFIELD VINCE SHIFFLETT ALEXANDRA TYLER VAVA VROOM NATIONAL ADVERTISING RIVENDELL MEDIA SALES@RIVENDELLMEDIA.COM 212-242-6863 LOCAL ADVERTISING SALES@THEQATL.COM 404-949-7071

Oh, and let’s not forget a nationally touring drag queen, party pics with bears, doms, gender blenders and the mayor, as well as a stunning display of homophobia and racism at a local bar, just to keep things interesting. MIKE FLEMING EDITOR & PUBLISHER

Bentley Hudgins reveals his journey so far as a non-binary person and sheds light in Q Voices. Photographer James L. Hicks shoots designs by NoRal, and Patrick Saunders meets two candidates hoping to put the Q into ATL metro politics. For my part, I’ve compiled the Joining Hearts pics into a drinking game, pulled the best events of the week into the Queer Agenda calendar, and offered my hot take on a recent altercation at a local bar after the Stonewall March. You know what’s better than all that? The fact that there’s so much more to boot, and that the LGBTQ coverage train never stops around here. Keep your eyes peeled in this issue for the Q Sex Survey ad, then head over to our website to take it and look for the results in our Aug. 8 Sex Issue. In the meantime, keep on living that fabulous life that makes it so easy to find content fodder, smile for our cameras when you see our photographers, visit us for new posts every day at theQatl.com, and shoot me a note with your ideas at mike@theQatl.com. theQatl.com

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

VOLUME 2 ISSUE 34 JULY 18, 2019

DRINKING GAME Joining Hearts sure shots

COVER

23 10

Standing Out Swimwear to get noticed

NEWS

13 14

Queer Candidates

29 Bear Soup

LGBTQs running for off ice in metro Atlanta PEOPLE

16 FEATURES

Q Voice Q News The Queer Agenda Q Shots The Q 6

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8 13 19 29 38

Thin & Salty

32 Well Blended

Miz Cracker cracks My Sister’s Room

38 36 Dom Daddy

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VOICES There’s always been something inside of me that found

They,

power in the ether that lies above binary gender, and I’ve recently allowed myself to step into that power.

THEM

One person’s continuing journey to non-binary self-acceptance

AS A NEWLY OUT NONBINARY QUEER PERSON, it’s been a little harder moving about in this new world than I had anticipated. It reminds me of the difficulties of standing firm in my bisexuality in my college years, but it just feels different this time. It was as confusing for me now as it was then. I knew I was attracted to more than just cisgender women, but the default for not being straight, as it is traditionally understood, was being gay. All I knew is that people’s parts weren’t as important as their humor, their smile, or the way they liked my food when I cooked for them.

encounter from every circle when I came out as non-binary. Even after reminding folks of my preferred pronouns (they/ them), people still insist on always using he/him.

I find myself wiping off eyeshadow in the morning because I’m too worried about the negative attention I might get

in the walk back to my car after the workday. The building

I work in has no gender-neutral bathrooms, and I’ve yet to find a single-use restroom either.

So I hide behind a man-body and present myself in a way

that makes it less dangerous to move about the world. I save up this energy for drag performances as “SHI” where my

gender fluidity is appreciated and celebrated. I’m not the only one who feels and lives this way. Countless trans folks and gender-nonconforming people hide the beauty inside

of them, just to feel safer, but doing so chips away at the soul inside of us. BENTLEY HUDGINS

Close friends and family have jokingly referred to my process of stepping into my sexual orientation publicly as a “glass door closet case.” Even though I tried my hardest to hide it, it was pretty obvious to most that I wasn’t straight. However, the vast majority of people were set referring to me and thinking of me as strictly gay.

Still, I don’t think I was ready for the bullshit that I would

I don’t know what’s next for me in my jour-

ney. I want to celebrate every part of myself, but sometimes it isn’t safe for me to do so,

and I don’t know if I’d survive another assault.

I don’t have all of the answers, but I do know a few things:

If you are in the position to hire people, employ more trans and GNC (gender non-conforming) people and pay them what they are worth. Give them a safe work environment and benefits.

“Gay” and “straight” both feel equally as inappropriate to me personally, and I’ve had many a conversation with fellow bi folks who feel similarly.

If it’s late at night, offer to give people a ride home.

Through the art of drag, I’ve been able to express parts of myself that have been tucked deep inside of me for years. Those beautiful genderless presentations, along with those more feminine and even more masculine than my daily life, have reawakened the baby Bentley that thrived in the fluidity of gender in child’s play: Frequently switching back and forth from different gender roles in the school yard, wearing a beach towel as a makeshift wig, twirling amongst the tomatoes in the vegetable garden.

and cared for.

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Public transit and rideshares can be dangerous alone. Check in on us. Make sure we know that we are valued Make sure to use people’s preferred pronouns and correct people who don’t, even if we’re not there.

Queer activist and policy advocate Bentley Hudgins also performs as drag alter-ego “SHI.” Reach them at howisshitho@gmail.com.

PHOTO BY MARK MORIN @markmorinii

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10 QUEER THINGS

Creative Accessories

Bandanas

Joining Hearts

DR NKING By Mike Fleming

GAME

Take a shot each time you encounter these sure bets at the July 20 pool party Tank Tops

Group Looks

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Speedo Queens

Hunk Sandwiches

Daddies

Smiles

Trunk Gays

Tattoos

Joining Hearts pool party is Saturday, July 20 at the Greystone in Piedmont Park. Visit joininghearts.org. See the Queer Agenda in this issue for more information on satellite parties all weekend.

(and Daddies â&#x20AC;&#x201D; take two shots!)

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NEWS Q

Friendly Coca-Cola, Cox fight for fired gay Georgia man at U.S. Supreme Court

FIRE

GEORGIA’S LARGEST LGBTQ RIGHTS GROUP AND TWO of its largest corporations filed amicus briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court calling on it to protect LGBTQ workers. Georgia Equality filed its brief on July 8 in the case of Gerald Bostock, a gay man who was fired from his job as a child welfare services coordinator with the Clayton County Juvenile Court in 2013. Bostock claimed he was fired soon after his employer discovered he played with the Hotlanta Softball League, an LGBTQ sports organization. Bostock’s case and two others will be argued before the high court this fall to decide whether employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity is covered under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The court’s decision would have an effect on hundreds Gerald Bostock of thousands of LGBTQ Georgians, according to Eric Paulk, deputy director of Georgia Equality. “Employment discrimination is a real issue impacting the lives of millions of LGBTQ Americans and their families – this includes the estimated 360,600 Georgians who identify as LGBTQ,” Paulk said in a press release. “The court should affirm nationwide legal protection based on their sex because no one should endure discrimination or harassment based on their sexual orientation or gender identity,” he added. Georgia Equality’s 42-page brief argues that anti-LGBTQ employment discrimination leads to increased harassment of LGBTQ employees, which can range from losing out on

jobs and promotions to physical and sexual assault. Atlanta-based law firm Bondurant, Mixson & Elmore provided pro bono work on the brief. Georgia-based Coca-Cola Company and Cox Enterprises joined over 200 other companies in an amicus brief filed in the three LGBTQ employment discrimination cases on July 2. The brief has the most corporate sponsors of any business brief ever filed in an LGBTQ nondiscrimination case, according to the Human Rights Campaign. The three cases represent “a critical moment in the fight for LGBTQ equality,” according to Jay Brown, senior vice president for programs, research and training at the HRC Foundation. “These employers know first-hand that protecting the LGBTQ community is both good for business and the right thing to do,” Brown said in a written statement. “With so much progress on the line, we are grateful that so many major American companies are standing up for the rights and dignity of their LGBTQ employees, family members and customers,” he added. Bostock sued Clayton County in 2016. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia dismissed the case in 2017. The 11th Circuit Court ruled against Bostock and denied his appeal in 2018. Clayton County asked the Supreme Court to ignore the split in lower court rulings and deny Bostock’s petition for review. Oral arguments in Bostock’s case and the other two could be scheduled between October of this year and April 2020, according to Clayton County News Daily. theQatl.com

IN BRIEF

Former state lawmaker wants to be first LGBTQ Gwinnett leader By Patrick Saunders

‘You can be out as bisexual and no one notices. I certainly didn’t hide that from anybody and certainly told folks that.’

BISEXUAL FORMER STATE Sen. Curt Thompson jumped into the race for Gwinnett County

— Curt Thompson

Commission chair by pledging to push for LGBTQ-inclusive

nondiscrimination protections. Thompson would become the

Curt Thompson

second openly LGBTQ member of the commission and the first-ever LGBTQ chair of the county if he wins the 2020

election. He would also become the third LGBTQ elected

official in Gwinnett County. But Thompson’s sexual orienta-

and certainly told folks that.” Thompson, a Democrat, said he assumed his former Senate

colleagues were aware of his sexual orientation. He’s running to succeed Charlotte Nash, a Republican who is retiring after eight years as county chair.

tion was little known until now, with no apparent mention

Thompson said he’ll push for an LGBTQ-inclusive non-

representative and his ensuing 14 years as a state senator.

Doraville, Clarkston, Chamblee and Dunwoody. He co-spon-

of it in previous media reports during his two years as a state Thompson chalked that up to bisexual erasure. “You can be out as bisexual and no one notices,” he told

Project Q Atlanta. “I certainly didn’t hide that from anybody

discrimination ordinance similar to ones passed recently in

sored a statewide civil rights bill that protected LGBTQ people while he was a state senator, but it failed to pass. Thomp-

son also fought against anti-LGBTQ “religious freedom” bills and an anti-LGBTQ adoption bill while in office.

Gay civic activist jumps into crowded Fulton commission race By Patrick Saunders DELTA FLIGHT ATTENDANT RAFER JOHNSON WANTS to become Fulton County’s sole openly LGBTQ commissioner and its first-ever openly LGBTQ male member. Johnson entered the nine-member field to fill the unexpired term of Emma Darnell, Fulton’s District 6 commissioner who died in May. The election is Sept. 17 and a runoff, if necessary, would take place Oct. 15.

— Rafer Johnson

Johnson has run unsuccessfully in the past for Georgia House and South Fulton Mayor. He said he couldn’t resist a third run for public office.

ture and economic development if elected. As an AID Atlanta board member, he also wants to tackle Fulton’s HIV epidemic.

“I had the bug,” he told Project Q Atlanta. “It’s really that, as much as I pulled away from it — and I did that for the last year or so. Service is a calling. It’s something that just keeps pulling at me.”

In 2018, Johnson founded Black Wave America, a political advocacy organization for black LGBTQ people. The organization hopes to organize a political forum during Atlanta Black Pride in August.

“This fits into delivering the service and passion I care about, and making the difference that I think could be made,” he added. Johnson wants to address quality of life issues, infrastruc14

‘I had the bug. … Service is a calling. It’s something that just keeps pulling at me.’

theQatl.com

Johnson’s husband, Kelly, is serving as his finance director and co-campaign manager. District 6 includes Chattahoochee Hills, Palmetto, Fairburn and Hapeville, as well as portions of College Park, South Fulton and Union City.

PEOPLE

Q uote

UNQUOTE

Dilly dilly, y’all. Our favorite Miz Cracker quotes as she heads for MSR unglamorous pickle. So much so, Wussy mag names its

By Mike Fleming

ou may know her best as a blonde, and you might even know her better as a pickle. Arguably eliminated before her time on Season 10 of

Saturday party at My Sister’s Room ‘Valley of the Dills’ in her honor.

As a celebration of her arrival in town and

RuPaul’s Drag Race and definitely unfairly compared to

a preview of the event featuring multiple

an impression that’s lasting well past the series itself and

Cracker quotes, from funny to serious. As the queen

the ultimate season winner Aquaria, Miz Cracker made

performances, we bring you our favorite Miz

the typical 15 minutes.

herself would say, “Dill with it!”

Cracker’s comic timing was sealed as one of her biggest

Valley of the Dills takes place Saturday, July 20 at My Sister’s Room. mysistersroom.com, wussymag.com

assets in a skit where she made the most of being cast as an

‘OK, it’s time for dinner!’

‘They not only know how to tie a corset, but how to untie a crippling anxiety.’

‘Come for the face, stay for the crazy.’ ‘Drag is a contact sport.’

‘Pride is, for me, recognizing that we have so far to go as queer people in America, but we have so fucking much to be grateful for.’ ‘There are no accidents in fisting.’

‘That’s Miz Cracker, spelt like the snack and the racial slur.’

‘I’m thin, white and salty. And that’s what makes me a cracker.’ ‘I’m a Jewish Barbie on bath salts.’ 16

theQatl.com

‘I’m not only dressed as a pickle... I am actually a pickle.’

‘Know yourself.’

theQatl.com

THE QUEER AGENDA The Best Queer Things To Do in Atlanta This Week

Thursday, July 18 – Wednesday, July 24

FRIDAY, JULY 19 Glow

Nonsense ATL’s dance party goes under the blacklight with you in whites and neons @ The Basement, 11 p.m.

SATURDAY, JULY 20 John Burke

Grammy nominated composer John Burke performs selections of new and known

works from piano to electronic video game music @ Out Front Theatre, 7:30 p.m.

THURSDAY, JULY 18

johnburkemusic.com

Head over Heels

The Go-Go’s catalogue backs this musical (photos) with queer Atlanta

performers in the cast @ Actor’s Express, 8 p.m. Runs through Aug. 25. actors-express.com

Big Gay Summer Potluck Picnic

The social group Belong hosts all comers with a dish @ McClatchey Park, 11 a.m. belong.lgbt

Club Y2K

It’s getting’ hot in here. House of Alxndr presents the 2000s dance party you need right now @ Mother Bar, 10 p.m. facebook.com/houseofalxndr Georgia Voice Awards

Q contributors are all up in the nominees for the newspaper’s annual

Best Of Gay Atlanta honors. Come cheer on Brad Gibson, Ian Aber, Bentley Hudgins and Russ Youngblood @ Georgian Terrace, 6 p.m.

FRIDAY, JULY 19 – SUNDAY, JULY 21 Joining Hearts Weekend The legend continues with the 32nd annual pool party and its satellite events. Kick things off on Friday @ Heretic, 10 p.m., then get ready for Saturday’s main event at Greystone at Piedmont Park, 4 p.m., Afterparty @ Buckhead Theatre, 10 p.m., and After Hours @ Xion, 3 a.m. Sweet Spot and the JH Closing Party are on Sunday at District Atlanta, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Some will also hit Sugar @ Loca Luna, 4 p.m. joininghearts.org

Drag Race Weekend Takeover

RuPaul’s Drag Race hits Atlanta twice tonight. The Season 11 Tour

presents the most recent cast (photo) @ Center Stage, 8 p.m., then the Valley of the Dills dance party features Miz Cracker @ MSR, 10 p.m.

Check out the Q ode to Miz Cracker in this issue. centerstage-atlanta.com, mysistersroom.com

SUNDAY, JULY 21 Sweet Spot

Patio Party for Atlanta Pride

with DJs Deanne and Brian Rojas (photo) @ District Atlanta, 2 p.m. Hang

tight. It leads directly into

the Joining Hearts Weekend closing party, 7 p.m. districtatlanta.com

Find more queer things to do in the expanded weekend edition of the Queer Agenda at theQatl.com.

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Coming This Summer...

• Pets (July 25) • Sex (Aug. 8) • Atlanta Black Pride (Aug. 29)

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SWIMWEAR Q

Mixed Jungle Print Two-piece $109 noralapparel.com

WILD Something

Photography: James L. Hicks jlhicksphotography.net

Model: Rocco Lapaire @roccolapaire

Clothing: NoRal Apparel noralapparel.com, @noralapparel

ď ľ

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23 23

SWIMWEAR continued

Metamorphosis Mesh-Back Brief $35 noralapparel.com

Photography: James L. Hicks jlhicksphotography.net 24

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Photographer James L. Hicks and acrobat Rocco Lapaire introduce a national swimsuit sensation to Atlanta By Mike Fleming

f you’re looking to stand out in a crowd of swimsuits during the dog days of summer, look no further than the gayowned NoRal Apparel. Designer LaRon Hickerson, aka Ron Duwayne, brings highend cred from the Columbia College Chicago fashion school to his original print-bythe-pool creations. Hickerson boasts featured looks in the Cinemax series The Jump Off, the competition show So You Think You Can Dance, and shows at Men’s Fashion Week LA and the BET Awards Experience. Most recently, he pro-

duced The Master Style Class by Robert Behar ( Janet Jackson’s stylist and designer). His fashion show is the favored headliner during the infamous Blatino Oasis in Palm Springs. Who better to launch the looks in Atlanta than Q contributor James L.Hicks? His photos with heralded Atlanta entertainer and core-envy acrobat Rocco Lapaire grace the following pages. NoRal’s more traditional brief and boxer cuts are available, but for this debut, we’ve selected just a few of the collection’s specialty looks that can really make sure you’re turning heads this summer. 

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SWIMWEAR continued

Black Rose Jumper $109 noralapparel.com

Photography: James L. Hicks Photos by Russ Youngblood jlhicksphotography.net 26

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ATLANTA BEAR FEST