National Advertising Rivendell Media (908) 232-2021 sales@rivendellmedia.com
Russell Bowen-Youngblood Sales Agent russ@alphabetsoupmarketing.com
EDITOR’S NOTE
New look, same mission
EDITOR'S NOTE
If you’re a regular reader – or a new one – greetings and salutations. Over the holiday period, the Georgia Voice officially became part of the Rough Draft Atlanta media family and transitioned to a monthly print schedule. We’ve freshened up the look, but the mission to provide the LGBTQ+ community in metro Atlanta and Georgia with vital news and entertaining features continues. If you haven’t already, be sure to visit the new website (which you can still find at thegavoice.com), which will be updated regularly.
As the new editor of the Voice, let me introduce myself: I’ve been a journalist for nearly 40 years, which is a shock even to me. My career began at 16 when I had my first story published in the longgone Sunday Magazine in the Atlanta JournalConstitution. Since then, I spent a dozen years with the Marietta Daily Journal and Neighbor Newspapers, before becoming editor at the Voice’s sister publication, Atlanta Intown, in 2002.
community in the state. We’re not going to shy away from the politics and decisions being made at both a state and national level that will affect the readers who depend on us. We will welcome letters and editorials to express a wide range of opinions and views in the pages of the Voice.
Since we were putting this issue together over the hectic holidays, not all of the familiar voices are here, but Melissa Carter and Maria Helena Dolan’s columns will return soon, as will Gregg Shapiro’s entertainment features. Katie Burkholder and Jim Farmer are still with us, and you’ll notice some additional bylines from our Rough Draft team and our media partners, including the Washington Blade, Georgia Recorder, Capitol Beat, Healthbeat Atlanta, WABE, and the Atlanta JournalConstitution.
As we enter 2025, we’re also excited to launch Crosswalk, a free weekly newsletter curated by Dyana Bagby, a former editor of the Voice and its forerunner Southern Voice. The newsletter will hit your inbox every Wednesday. You can sign up by scanning the QR code or at roughdraftatlanta.com/newsletters.
Along the way, I’ve published six poetry collections and three novels, as well as freelancing for publications too numerous to list here. Journalism was my first love, so the fact that I’m still leading a print publication after all these years is humbling and a privilege.
And while I am excited to take the helm of the Voice, I also recognize the challenges that lie ahead over the next four years.
The Republican party used LGBTQ+ people – especially the trans community – as a divisive and fearmongering wedge issue. There are legitimate fears about medical care, marriage, and other hardwon rights being stripped away by the incoming administration. At least one member of the Supreme Court has expressed his interest in overturning Obergefell vs. Hodges, the landmark decision that made same-sex marriage the law of the land.
The Voice will offer news, opinion, and features for and about the LGBTQ+
Having lived through the AIDS pandemic and a frequent presence at marches and protests over the last 35 years, this ain’t my first time at the rodeo. The water might seem deep, but my goal is to continue to make the Voice a lighthouse in the storm.
The LGBTQ+ community must pull together and support each other more than ever. We are resilient and stronger than the hate and division. United we stand.
COLLIN KELLEY
At the much-missed Outwrite Books with owner Philip Rafshoon and poet Karen Head in 2012.
Anti-LGBTQ+ bills expected to return in Georgia legislative session
By Katie Burkholder and Dyana Bagby
Lawmakers return to the Gold Dome on Jan. 13 and advocates and organizations are preparing for another year of anti-LGBTQ+ bills, including legislation targeting transgender young people.
Last year, approximately 20 antiLGBTQ+ bills were introduced in the Georgia legislature, including a “don’t say gay” bill targeting LGBTQ+ topics in schools, bathroom bans targeting trans students, a bill to define “sex” to exclude trans identities, and bills to further restrict access to gender-affirming care.
Lawmakers last year also tried to revive the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) bill. Georgia is one of only three states with no statewide non-discrimination law. If such a law is passed, LGBTQ+ advocates argue the religious liberty bill could create a broad license to discriminate on the basis of faith with no necessary protections against discrimination based on race, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, or country of origin.
None of the proposed anti-LGBTQ+ bills were passed into law, but Jeff Graham, executive director of Georgia Equality, the state’s largest LGBTQ+ advocacy organization, said he expects to see a return of “most if not all” of these bills this session.
“I believe in the real resiliency of the LGBTQ+ community,” Graham said. “I believe in the resiliency, especially of those of us who live in the South. I know that we have each other. I know that we will continue to build solid majorities of people that are behind us, but nonetheless, I worry in the short term about the impact of these
political attacks on folks,” he said.
Transgender students and sports
At the top of LGBTQ+ advocates’ radars is expected to be a bill banning transgender students from participating in girl’s sports in high schools and colleges.
The Georgia High School Administration ruled in 2022 that athletes can only compete on teams based on their gender assigned at birth. But five recommendations released last month from the Senate Committee on the Protection of Women’s Sports include taking away the authority of high school athletic associations to regulate participation in girls’ sports and giving it to the state legislature.
Other recommendations by the Senate committee:
■ Provide protections and statutes for the protection of women’s sports in Georgia at the secondary and collegiate levels, including rules that, based on the athlete’s biological sex at birth, people assigned male at birth cannot compete in sports designated for
women.
■ Require schools that host or sponsor sporting events to provide separate changing and dressing facilities for male and female athletes based on their biological sex at birth.
■ Provide enforcement options for rules regarding women’s sports participation and separate changing and dressing facilities, including grievance for proceedings and civil remedies for agreed participants and the authority to withhold state funding from schools that fail to abide by these rules.
■ Adopt other rules as necessary to ensure that the regulation of sports is based on promoting and preserving competitive fairness and protecting student safety and that female student-athletes have fair opportunities to demonstrate their strength, skills, and athletic abilities and to obtain recognition, accolades, college scholarships, and the numerous other long-term benefits that result from participating and competing in sports.
“It is indisputable that there are biological differences between men and women,” said committee chair Greg Dolezal, a Republican from Cumming, at the Dec. 13 meeting.
“Those biological differences result in men being able to jump higher, throw farther, run faster, swim faster, do a number of other things due to the increased bone density, larger lung capacity, the increased muscle mass that resulted in Title IX and the recognition that we needed to have a category that was carved out specific to women,” he said.
Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, head of the state Senate and creator of the special Senate committee, said in a written statement, “Protecting women’s sports and their rights will remain a priority in the Georgia Senate as we head into the 2025 Legislative Session.”
“The Senate continues to lead on efforts to protect women’s sports and all of the work they put into competing and becoming elite athletes ... and thank [the special committee] for their work to ensure that in the future, females participating in Georgia sports are protected at any level,” Jones said.
Repercussions of anti-trans sports legislation
While the recommendations and the subsequent legislation that may be introduced are damaging enough for transgender young people, they open the door for more harm and discrimination, Graham said.
“I think that the thing that is very troubling about this has to do with banning the use of locker rooms, which could easily turn into a full bathroom ban or a ban on the use of a number of facilities,” Graham said. “So, we’re very concerned that this legislation could go further than simply who gets to play on sex-segregated teams.”
The effects of this kind of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation could be grave, even if not passed. According to the Trevor Project, anti-transgender laws and the rhetoric surrounding them significantly increased incidents of suicide attempts among transgender and non-binary youth by as much as 72% from 2018 to 2022.
State Sen. Kim Jackson, an LGBTQ+ Democrat whose DeKalb County district includes parts of Brookhaven and Tucker, said anti-LGBTQ+ bills only serve to distract from real issues Georgians face, including access to health care and affordable insurance, affordable housing and quality education.
“Specifically regarding the LGBTQ+ community, we know that some truly
damaging messaging and legislation will be coming down the track during session,” Jackson said.
“I’m really hoping to move the focus away from this unnecessary fixation on the trans community. If we want to have conversations about ‘fairness in sports,’ let’s do that. Let’s talk about equity in sports across our state, from disability access to economic access to equity in girls’ sports,” Jackson said.
“Instead of continuing this harmful hyper-focus on the trans community, we need to be looking into policies that could actually help hundreds of kids across our state gain access to sports.”
Jackson said she plans to host roundtables in the new year to collect input from girls’ team coaches and athletes “so that we can really turn this into a true ‘fairness in sports’ conversation.”
Jeff Graham
State Capitol (File)
Sen. Kim Jackson
Graham said he and other LGBTQ+ advocates hope that anti-LGBTQ+ bills will again fail this session. But he fears the re-election of Donald Trump, who heavily campaigned on anti-trans policies, has the potential to encourage the GOP-controlled Georgia legislature to use transgender people as a wedge issue.
“I think that just Trump winning Georgia is going to exacerbate the situation here, even though Democrats did continue to pick up two seats in the House of Representatives here in Georgia,” Graham said. “I do worry that conservatives will feel emboldened to spend a lot of time on these sorts of social issues that the LGBTQ+ community has borne the brunt of.”
Jamie Roberts of Atlanta is a transgender woman, attorney, and activist. Trump’s anti-trans agenda helped put him back in the White House despite his own scandalous
past and those in his inner circle accused of sexual assault against women, she said. Roberts’ concerns about her humanity being the focus of federal discrimination are also being felt at the state level. Georgia lawmakers touting their intent to target trans young people and prohibit trans girls and women from competing in sports is “essentially trying to solve a problem that doesn’t exist,” she said.
“There are very few trans athletes that are even competing, and even less of those compete at an elite level,” she said. “So not only is this profoundly unfair, but it is depriving trans women and girls an opportunity to compete like other kids,” Roberts said. “It’s singling out a very small and vulnerable minority of young people ... and it’s extremely unfair.”
There are also no significant studies that state transgender women have an advantage over cisgender women when it comes to athletics. Roberts, an attorney, also said she would also expect such bans, if passed, would violate Title IX. Passed in 1972, the federal civil rights law ensures schools and colleges provide equal opportunity based on sex for all athletic programs.
Trans people are not a threat to cisgender people, and trans women are not a threat to cisgender women, Roberts said. In fact, transgender people are over four times more likely than cisgender people to experience violent victimization, including rape, sexual assault, and aggravated or simple assault.
“We want the same things that everyone else does and we’re just trying to live our life the best we can,” Roberts said. “Young trans people deserve to have a happy childhood just as much as anybody else.”
NEWS ROUNDUP
Banning trans youth from sports won’t be easy
President-elect Donald Trump repeatedly said during the campaign that, if elected back to the White House, he would pursue a ban on transgender youth participating in school sports that align with their gender identity.
As he prepares to take office, experts and LGBTQ+ advocates said the effort would face significant delays and challenges as legal pushback from LGBTQ+ advocacy groups can be expected every step of the way.
The Trump-Vance transition team did not offer any concrete details when asked about specifics but shared a statement from spokesperson Karoline Leavitt.
“The American people re-elected President Trump by a resounding margin giving him a mandate to implement the promises he made on the campaign trail,” Leavitt wrote. “He will deliver.”
The U.S. Education Department, under President Joe Biden, released updated regulations to Title IX in April that strengthen federal protections for LGBTQ+ students. The final rule does not explicitly reference trans athletes’ sports participation — a separate decision the administration put on hold.
The Education Department said Dec. 20 it was withdrawing a proposed rule
that would have allowed schools to block some transgender athletes from competing on sports teams that match their gender identities while also preventing across-theboard bans.
Title IX is a landmark federal civil rights law that bars schools that receive federal funding from sex-based discrimination.
The president-elect has pledged, while speaking about trans students’ sports participation, to reverse the Biden administration’s final rule for Title IX on his first day back in office.
– Georgia Recorder
Atlanta Pride appoints four new board members
Atlanta Pride, the nonprofit organization that serves the LGBTQ+ community and hosts the annual Pride Parade and celebration, recently announced the addition of four new members to its board of directors.
Elected during Atlanta Pride’s fall board meeting, the nonprofit appointed Ben Ackerley, Chris Ruiz, Tony Uceda and Farah Witt to its executive committee.
Ackerley, founder of Katsura Creative, is a non-binary activist with extensive experience in queer advocacy through their time with organizations like TransParent, Georgia Rainbow Families and the Mayor of Atlanta’s LGBTQ+ Advisory Board.
Ruiz, the Staff and Community Development Coordinator at Georgia Tech, has over a decade of experience with the Atlanta Pride Committee as a volunteer, board member and former vice chair. He was also among the leaders during Atlanta Pride’s return to in-person events following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Uceda, Senior Director of Institutional Giving for U.S. Soccer, brings knowledge in “advancing LGBTQ+ economic empowerment and health initiatives” through his leadership roles with the National LGBTQ Task Force and StartOut, according to Atlanta Pride.
Witt, the Director of Finance for the Policing Alternatives & Diversion Initiative (PAD), offers extensive financial management proficiency from her time with the Arizona Department of Economic Security, along with a “passion for public service and community building” that Atlanta Pride said will help guide the nonprofit’s financial stewardship.
In a release, Atlanta Pride said that the four new faces will provide their respective expertise and experiences to the nonprofit, aiding in the organization’s ongoing mission of advancing equity and commemorating LGBTQ+ communities across the state of Georgia.
“We are excited to welcome Ben, Chris, Tony, and Farah to our Board of Directors,” said Chris McCain, executive director of Atlanta Pride. “Their expertise, dedication, and passion for community advocacy will play a crucial role in shaping the future of Atlanta Pride as we continue to uplift and
empower LGBTQ+ voices.”
The newly-announced members, who began their tenure this month (December), join a returning board roster that includes
Secretary Brian Desarro and Board Treasurer Gabriel Martinez, among others.
– Georgia Voice Staff
Jamie Roberts
Ackerly Ruiz
Uceda Witt
Atlanta’s jail diversion program rooted in LGBTQ+ activism
By Dyana Bagby
Atlanta’s jail diversion program resumed services Jan. 6 after a monthslong contract dispute with Mayor Andre Dickens’ office was resolved.
Policing Alternatives & Diversion Initiative (PAD), a nonprofit founded in 2017, assists residents experiencing extreme poverty, mental health issues, or substance abuse to avoid arrest and jail time by connecting them to community resources. The organization’s mobile response teams respond to calls made to the ATL311 hotline and the Atlanta Police Department.
PAD suspended its mobile response services on Jan. 1 after it did not reach an agreement with the mayor’s office on a renewed contract by Dec. 31, when the contract expired.
The mayor’s office delayed executing a $5 million, two-year contract with PAD approved in November by the Atlanta City Council. Administrators said they were concerned PAD’s millions in city funding was not resulting in enough assistance to people in crisis to find housing or jobs and demanded more metrics be included in the contract.
In 2024, PAD said it responded to over 1,800 calls related to poverty, mental health or substance use, with an average response time of 19 minutes. ATL311 customer satisfaction surveys show that of 180 survey respondents in 2024, 97% said that they were likely or very likely to request PAD services in the future.
With the contract executed, PAD said it plans to hire additional staff to expand hours, conduct a public awareness campaign to encourage calls to 311 instead of 911, and implement a public dashboard that will offer transparency and data-driven insights as the program grows.
“We are committed for the long-haul and we are just getting started,” said PAD Deputy Director Denise White. “Doing this work allows us to transform a system of punishment into one of restoration.” PAD’s foundations rooted in LGBTQ+ activism
The model PAD uses to assist some of the city’s most vulnerable residents traces its roots to Black and Brown queer and transgender activists.
In 2013, the city council considered an ordinance to banish convicted sex workers, pimps and “johns” from certain areas of the city. The call for the
“banishment ordinance” came from some Midtown residents and businesses who complained about a “gang of trans prostitutes” disrupting their quality of life.
In response to the proposed antiLGBTQ+ legislation, local queer and trans groups such including the Racial Justice Action Center, Women on the Rise, LaGender and Trans(forming) came together to form Solutions Not Punishment Collaborative (SnapCo.).
SnapCo., a coalition of queer, trans and gender non-conforming people of color often targeted and profiled by police, led a grassroots campaign to defeat the banishment ordinance.
The group also successfully rallied a broad coalition of Atlantans to demand criminal justice reform and propose more effective approaches to public safety, said PAD Executive Director Moki Macías, who identifies as a queer femme.
“It is relevant that PAD evolved from a vision by Black, Brown, queer and transgender people seeking safety in their communities and that their vision could include all people who are deeply marginalized and criminalized,” Macias said.
SnapCo.’s work resulted in community leaders, legal system partners and elected officials going to Seattle in 2015 to learn about Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD). The LEAD model focuses on community-based alternatives to jail and prosecution for people whose illegal activities stem from unmet needs related to extreme poverty, substance use or mental health challenges.
That year, the Atlanta City Council and Fulton County Board of Commissioners unanimously voted to establish the PAD Design Team.
PAD was officially founded in 2017 and began accepting diversions in four Atlanta Police Department beats. By 2020, PAD was recognized as a model LEAD site and the Atlanta City Council increased the organization’s funding to operate citywide.
Since launching the citywide mobile response teams in 2021, PAD has responded to 6,275 calls which diverted people from law enforcement contact or arrest.
“It’s not just about us providing these services day-to-day. It’s also about the fact that we really built this model with the people who are served by it,” Macias said.
Remembering Jimmy Carter’s LGBTQ+ legacy
By Katie Burkholder
Former President, Nobel Peace Prize winner, and Georgia native Jimmy Carter passed away on Dec. 29 at the age of 100, leaving behind a legacy of progressive values, racial advocacy, and early – albeit imperfect – LGBTQ+ support.
Carter was born on Oct. 1, 1924, in Plains, Georgia, a rural town about three hours south of Atlanta, where he was raised on his parents’ peanut farm. He died in the same town, in the house he and his wife Rosalynn – who passed in 2023 – spent the majority of their lives.
Carter graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1946 and began his service in the Navy as a submariner. He spent seven years in the service before leaving to take over the family business following the death of his father in 1953.
Carter began his political career in 1963 when he was elected as a state senator. He successfully ran for Georgia governor in 1970 before running for U.S. president as a progressive Southern Democrat in 1976.
from working in California public schools. However, Harvey Milk wrote a letter to Carter calling on him to take a stand against Prop 6, and four months later, Carter spoke out against Prop 6 during a campaign speech in support of California Democratic candidates. The proposition was defeated by a vote of 58.4 percent to 41.5 percent.
Carter spent only one term in office, losing to Ronald Reagan in 1980 amid economic problems and the Iranian hostage crisis. However, his humanitarian work and
Carter was an early supporter of the civil rights movement and became a leading voice within the Democratic Party for the end of racial segregation before the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. During his presidential campaign, Carter established what would be a longstanding allyship of the LGBTQ+ community when asked if he would sign the Equality Act into law if it passed the legislature and landed on his desk as president.
“I will certainly sign it, because I don’t think it’s right to single out homosexuals for abuse or special harassment,” he said.
Carter’s administration was the first to welcome gay and lesbian rights activists to the White House. On March 26, 1977, fourteen prominent gay rights leaders from around the country met to provide recommendations to different federal agencies to improve policies and services to the LGBTQ+ community. Carter did not attend the meeting, but White House officials said he was aware of the meeting and supported the efforts of the White House staffers – a group which was then called the National Gay Task Force – who met with the leaders. It was at this meeting that activist George Raya wrote a paper about the effect of hepatitis on gay people at the time – a paper which helped fund a hepatitis research project in San Francisco and provided valuable information to AIDS research, according to the Advocate.
Carter’s early support of the LGBTQ+ community wasn’t perfect. Carter disappointed gay activists at the Democratic National Convention in 1976 when convention officials, at the request of the Carter campaign, refused to include a gay rights plank as part of the Democratic party’s approved platform. Furthermore, LGBTQ+ leaders criticized Carter for being slow to speak out against California’s Proposition 6 in 1978, a ballot measure that would ban gay and lesbian individuals
public support of the LGBTQ+ community only continued after his presidency.
In 2005, he told Sean Kennedy at the Advocate that he was “a worshipper of Jesus Christ, who never mentioned homosexuals in any way… I’ve never looked upon [sexuality] as any sort of reason to condemn a person. I think it’s an inherent characteristic just like other things that we do with our lives.”
In 2007, he called for an end to “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” calling it “the only law in America today that regulates a group of citizens, then prohibits them from identifying themselves and speaking up on their own behalf.”
He was an explicit supporter of marriage equality before the Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court ruling in 2015, telling HuffPost in 2012 (roughly two months before then-President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden voiced their support for same-sex marriage) – “I personally think it is very fine for gay people to be married in civil ceremonies.”
“All of us at the Human Rights Campaign feel an immense loss with the passing of former President Jimmy Carter,” said Kelley Robinson, the president of the Human Rights Campaign. “In recent years, he became a prominent voice in support of LGBTQ++ rights, speaking out for marriage equality at a time when most national leaders in the U.S. still opposed it. For decades after he left the White House, he continued to make public service his enduring priority through his work with Habitat for Humanity and the Carter Presidential Center, cementing his reputation as a champion for human rights and as one of the all-time great former presidents. We extend our deepest condolences to his family and all who mourn him.”
Courtesy The Carter Center
New report says GA ranks first for HIV cases in the country
By Katie Burkholder
New research has revealed that Georgia is the number one state in the country for reported HIV cases.
The study, compiled from CDC data by Universal Drugstore, found that Georgia’s HIV rate is 23.1 reported cases per 100,000 residents, the highest in the country – followed by Louisiana at 18.2 cases per 100,000 and Nevada at 17.7 –and more than double the national average of 11.8.
Within Georgia, the HIV epidemic is particularly severe in Atlanta. The metro Atlanta area had the third-highest rate of new HIV diagnoses in 2021, according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution interview with Jeff Cheek, the director of the Fulton Country Department of HIV Elimination.
The Atlanta area accounted for more than half of all the new HIV diagnoses that year. As of 2022, 43,257 people were living with HIV in Atlanta, and Black Atlantans were disproportionately impacted; despite making up 33 percent of the population, Black Atlantans made up 72 percent of HIV cases.
According to a report published in
the National Library of Medicine about the disparities in HIV care between Black and white men who have sex with men in Atlanta, the higher rates of HIV among Black people are “hypothesized to be driven by structural racism and barriers to care.”
“When you look at the population as a whole and racial disparities, there’s no racial justice in HIV, and I think it’s important to focus on Black and brown people,” Joshua O’Neal, the Sexual Health Program Director of the Fulton County Board of Health, told Fox 5.
Due to an increased focus on HIV prevention and access to care, however, HIV rates have dropped both in Georgia and across the U.S. by 12 percent (from 2018 to 2022) and 13.5 percent (from 2018 to 2020), respectively.
Along with HIV, Georgia also ranked high for monkeypox cases with 17.4 cases per 100,000 residents, making it the second-highest state in the country following New York at 20.8. Overall, Georgia ranked sixth in the country for sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
Regionally, the Southeast is the worst affected by STIs in the country, with eight
North Carolina
You can read the full research from Universal Drugstore at universaldrugstore. com/health-news.
Atlanta City Council approves feasibility study for new cultural center
By Collin Kelley
Winston, Matt Westmoreland, and Alex Wan on behalf of the administration authorized the mayor to enter into an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) with the Atlanta Fulton County Recreation Authority (AFCRA) for one year to conduct and fund the study with $150,000.
“Atlanta has one of the largest and most thriving LGBTQ+ communities in the nation, and the city deserves a thoughtful and tangible place to honor the legacy and contributions LGBTQ+ Atlantans have made to our culture,” Dickens said in a statement. “I look forward to working with our Administration’s LGBTQ Advisory Board, my Senior Leadership, and members of our LGBTQ+ community to chart a smart, forward-looking plan that memorializes Atlanta’s prominent role as a welcoming and inclusive city.”
According to a news release, the City of Atlanta is the first-known municipality in the United States to require annual
LGBTQ Cultural Humility Training for employees and elected officials, with over 14,000 completions, covering at least 83% of our workforce.
The Dickens Administration launched Atlanta’s first-ever LGBTQ+ youth mentorship pilot and hosted Youth Pride, providing young queer people and families with resources and activities. The administration also launched the city’s first-ever Employee Resource Group, COA Pride, which now has more than 200 members.
Last October, the city updated Atlanta’s famed Rainbow Crosswalk at 10th and Piedmont in the heart of Midtown with a new design, including black and brown stripes to honor LGBTQ+ communities of color, as well as the colors of the trans flag.
The LGBTQ+ Community Center would be operated by AFCRA on the city’s behalf and is slated to open by 2030.
While a location for the cultural center hasn’t been announced, Dickens said the historic building on Ponce de Leon Avenue that once housed The Eagle nightclub should be preserved as a museum. The former Eagle site and adjacent Kodak building were damaged during two fires last summer.
of the top ten states for STI cases located in the South:
Mississippi
Louisiana
South Carolina
A feasibility study proposed by Mayor Andre Dickens for the city’s first LGBTQ+ Community Cultural, Educational and Recreational Center has been approved by the Atlanta City Council.
Legislation sponsored by Councilmembers Amir Farokhi, Jason
Photo by Towfiqu Barbhuiya/Pexels
Kodak and Eagle buildings on Ponce (Photo by Dyana Bagby)
Mayor Andre Dickens at the Rainbow Crosswalk (Courtesy City of Atlanta)
GEORGIA VOICE RESOURCE GUIDE
This list of resources for the LGBTQ+ in Atlanta community and Georgia will be regularly updated on our website, TheGAVoice.com, or by scanning the QR code below.
LGBTQ+ Arts Organizations
Atlanta Queer Arts Alliance aquaa.org
Atlanta Freedom Bands atlantafreedombands.com
Atlanta Philharmonic Orchestra atlantaphilharmonic.org
Full Radius Dance – DisabilityInclusive Dance Company fullradiusdance.org
OurSong — The Atlanta Gay and Lesbian Chorus oursongatlanta.org
Out Front Theatre Company 999 Brady Ave NW Outfronttheatre.com
Out On Film outonfilm.org
Voices of Note – Atlanta Gay Men’s Chorus and Atlanta Women’s Chorus voicesofnote.org
Business Organizations
Atlanta Business League –Black-owned businesses 931 MLK Jr. Drive SW atlantabusinessleague.org
Atlanta Women’s Network facebook.com/ atlantawomensnetwork
Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
270 W Peachtree St NW ghcc.org
Greater Women’s Business Council 50 Sunset Ave NW #92442 gwbc.org
Metro Atlanta Association of Professionals maapatl.org
Out Georgia Business Alliance outgeorgia.org
Urban League of Greater Atlanta 230 Peachtree St #2600 ulgatl.org
Health Organizations
The Galano Club, Inc.
LGBTQ+ 12-step recovery programs 585 Dutch Valley Rd NE Galano.org
AIDS Research Consortium of Atlanta
131 Ponce De Leon Ave NE Aidsresearchatlanta.org
Aniz, Inc.
236 Forsyth St SW #300 Aniz.org
Emory Hope Clinic
500 Irvin Ct #200 Hopeclinic.emory.edu
Empowerment Resource Center
230 Peachtree St NW Ste 1800 Erc-inc.org
Feminist Women’s Health Center 1924 Cliff Valley Way NE Feministcenter.org
Georgia Harm Reduction Coalition
1231 Joseph E. Boone Blvd NW Georgiaharmreduction.org
1065 Ralph David Abernathy Blvd SW Ste 200 Sparkrj.org
Stonewall Bar Association of Georgia Stonewallbar.org
Young Democrats of Georgia LGBTQ Caucus @ydglgbtq on Instagram
Religious Organizations
All Saints’ Episcopal Church 634 W Peachtree St NW Allsaintsatlanta.org
Atlanta Friends Meeting 701 W Howard Ave Atlantaquakers.org
Atlanta Shambhala Center 1447 Church St Atlanta.shambhala.org
The Cathedral of St. Philip 2744 Peachtree Rd Cathedralatl.org
Central Congregational United Church of Christ 2676 Clairmont Rd Central-ucc.org
Clifton Sanctuary Ministries 369 Connecticut Ave NE Cliftonsanctuary.com
Congregation Bet Haverim 2074 Lavista Rd Congregationbethaverim.org
Drepung Loseling Monastery 1781 Dresden Dr Drepung.org
Druid Hills Presbyterian Church 1026 Ponce De Leon Ave NE Druidhillspresbyterian.org
Emerson Unitarian Universalist Congregation 4010 Canton Rd Emersonuu.org
The Episcopal Church of the Epiphany 2089 Ponce De Leon Ave NE Epiphany.org
First Existentialist Congregation of Atlanta
470 Candler Park Dr NE https://www.uua.org/offices/ organizations/first-existentialistcongregation-atlanta
Gentle Spirit Christian Church 1500 McLendon Ave NE gentlespirit.org
Hapeville First United Methodist Church 3510 Atlanta Ave Hapevilleumc.com
Inman Park United Methodist Church 1015 Edgewood Ave NE Inmanparkumc.org
Kadampa Meditation Center 741 Edgewood Ave NE Meditationingeorgia.org
New Covenant Church of Atlanta 1600 Eastland Rd SE Newcovenantatlanta.com
Northside Drive Baptist Church 3100 Northside Dr NW Northsidedrive.org
Oakhurst Baptist Church 222 East Lake Dr Oakhurstbaptist.org
Ormewood Church 1071 Delaware Ave SE Ormewoodchurch.org
Park Ave Baptist Church 486 Park Ave SE Parkavebaptist.com
Shrine of Immaculate Conception 48 MLK Jr Dr SW Catholicshrineatlanta.org
Soka Gakkai Buddhist Temple 421 17th St NW Sgi-usa.org
Saint Mark United Methodist Church 781 Peachtree St NE stmarkumc.org
St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church 1790 Lavista Rd NE Stbartsatlanta.org
St. John’s Episcopal Church 3480 E Main St stjohnscollegepark.org
St. John’s Lutheran Church 1410 Ponce De Leon Ave NE Stjohnsatlanta.org
St. Luke Lutheran Church 3264 Northside Pkwy stlukeatlanta.org
St. Luke’s Episcopal Church 435 Peachtree St NE Stlukesatlanta.org
St. Patrick’s Episcopal Church 4755 N Peachtree Rd Stpat.net
The Temple 1589 Peachtree St NE the-temple.org
Trinity Center for Spiritual Living
1095 Zonolite Rd NE #100th
Trinitycenteratlanta.org
Trinity United Methodist Church
265 Washington St SW atlantatrinity.org
Unitarian Universalist
Congregation of Atlanta 2650 N Druid Hills Rd Uuca.org
Unity North Atlanta 4255 Sandy Plains Rd Unitynorth.org
Service Organizations
Atlanta Pride Committee Atlantapride.org
Charis Circle
184 S Candler St Chariscircle.org
CHRIS 180 1030 Fayetteville Rd SE Chris180.org
In The Life Atlanta 1530 DeKalb Ave NE facebook.com/inthelifeatl
Lost-n-Found Youth 2585 Chantilly Dr NE Lnfy.org
Raksha, Inc. Raksha.org
Southerners on New Ground 561 W Whitehall St SW Southernersonnewground.org
SAGE
Resources for LGBTQ elders Sageusa.org
SOJOURN
565 Greenland Rd NE Sojourngsd.org
Touching Up Our Roots tuorqueeratlanta.org
ZAMI NOBLA Zaminobla.org
LGBTQ+ Sports Organizations
All Stripes
LGBTQ+ fan organization for Atlanta United Allstripesatl.com
Atlanta Bucks Rugby Club Atlantabucksrugby.org
Atlanta Poolplayers Association Atlanta.apaleagues.com
Atlanta Rainbow Trout atlantarainbowtrout.com
Atlanta Tennis Team Association Atta.org
Dogwood Invitational
Bowling Classic Dogwoodbowl.org
Front Runners Atlanta Frontrunnersatlanta.org
Gay Gamers of Atlanta and Friends meetup.com/gaygamers
GO Kickball Gokickball.com
Hotlanta Soccer facebook.com/groups/34244209984
Hotlanta Softball League hotlantasoftball.org
Hotlanta Squares
LGBTQ+ square dancing
Hotlantasquares.org
Hotlanta Volleyball Association opensports.net/hotlanta-volleyball
National Gay Flag Football League Nffla.com
Southern Softpaw League southernsoftpaw.com
Wilderness Network of Georgia meetup.com/wildnetga
Transgender Organizations
LaGender, Inc. facebook.com/lagenderinc
PINKessence
Social network for trans individuals Pinkessence.com
Sigma Epsilon
Support group for cross-dressing adults
sigmaepsilonatlanta.org/public
Trans Housing Atlanta Program Transhousingatlanta.org
Journalist Mike Fleming dies after cancer battle
By Katie Burkholder
Local LGBTQ+ journalist
Mike Fleming passed away in December at the age of 59 after a battle with cancer.
Fleming was a writer, editor, and publisher for 27 years, splitting his time among iconic LGBTQ+ publications like Southern Voice, David Atlanta, and Project Q. He was copublisher at Project Q during his battle with cancer, before announcing that the publication would be on hiatus in May 2022 after 14 years.
“I met Mike when he moved here over 20 years ago and worked with him at Southern Voice, Project Q, and David,” Jim Farmer, the festival director of Out On Film and longtime LGBTQ+ journalist, told Georgia Voice. “He was an excellent journalist and editor, a great advocate for Atlanta and its LGBTQIA+ community, and — most importantly — a good friend that we will all miss tremendously.”
Fleming spent 11 years at Window Media, from 1998 to 2009, starting as the publisher of the Houston Voice before becoming editor at the New Orleans office of Southern Voice in 2001. He began in the Atlanta office of Southern Voice as Arts Editor in 2002 and simultaneously served as editor of David Magazine in 2005 for almost four years. He then became an equity partner at Project Q Atlanta in 2009.
Along with an inspiring career, Fleming leaves behind a legacy of generosity. Fleming often fundraised for Pets Are
Loving Support, an organization giving ongoing care and support to the pets of Atlantans living with disabilities, illnesses like HIV/AIDS, and people 65 and older by covering expenses relating to pet food, basic care, and vaccinations.
“Mike will be missed by so many who may never have met him,” said friend and photographer Russ BowenYoungblood. “His voice and reporting about our community stretch back decades. I will miss his edgy EAV vibe and love for the fringe members of our community. I know his fur babies will miss him. I will miss discussing the latest best shows on TV. He was in so much pain these last few years and he can rest now.”
In a memorial post on Farmer’s Facebook, members of the community remembered Fleming as a hero, a kind soul, a complete champion of queer arts, a lovely man, and a fantastic journalist. Farmer recalled his friendship with Fleming, saying they liked to “talk about pop culture” and “Atlanta gay matters/gossip,” and he could always make Farmer laugh.
Fleming
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Costumes & Couture
Two must-see exhibitions continue at SCAD FASH
By Sammie Purcell and Isadora Pennington
If you haven’t had the opportunity to visit the Savannah College of Art & Design’s Museum of Fashion + Film (SCAD FASH) two big exhibitions, there’s still time before they disappear.
Costume
Designer Sany Powell
Oscar-winning costume designer Sandy Powell’s creations are on display at SCAD FASH until March 16.
“Sandy Powell’s Dressing the Part: Costume Design for Film” is the debut exhibition of Powell’s work, paying homage to her nearly 40-year film career with more than 70 costumes from films like “Velvet Goldmine,” “The Wolf of Wall Street,” and “Carol.” Powell began her film career on Derek Jarman’s 1986 film “Caravaggio,” and has won three Academy Awards – for “Shakespeare in Love,” “The Aviator,” and “The Young Victoria.”
The exhibit is set up to feel cinematic, the costumes placed in black boxes and lit from the bottom to evoke the feeling of watching a movie in a theater. The first costume you see is from “Caravaggio,” Powell’s first feature film and the start of her collaboration with Jarman, the gay English filmmaker.
“I didn’t know how to make films,” Powell said about her initial time on that
After “Caravaggio,” the exhibit moves on to 1992’s “Orlando,” Powell’s first Oscar nomination and another collaboration with the actress Tilda Swinton (“Caravaggio” was also Swinton’s film debut). SCAD Director of Fashion Exhibitions Rafael Gomes said he believes Swinton might be the most represented actor in the exhibit, but Powell has had a number of collaborators throughout her career, both actor and filmmaker alike – Martin Scorsese, Todd Haynes, Cate Blanchett, and Julianne Moore are just some of the names that pop up over and over again.
Powell said she enjoys working with directors who are very visual. When she first comes onto a new project, she breaks down the script before speaking with the director about their vision. How that vision is expressed can vary from director to director. Scorsese, for instance, sends boxes of books to read and films to watch, she said. She remembers that during her time on “Gangs of New York, there was a specific detail of a stripe on a collar that he wanted to emulate from a certain French film – Powell couldn’t remember what the film was, exactly, but she remembered the stripe.
“I was like, no I don’t know that [movie],” she said. “The next day I get sent
set. “I didn’t know what we were doing.” Her time on “Caravaggio” influenced her approach to her work moving forward, she said. It was a very collaborative set – if the scenic artists were done painting, they would come and help make costumes. Everyone pitched in with different departments other than their own.
“It was a lot more like working on a theater project,” Powell said. “ I’d come from theater, but small sort of arthouse theater, where everybody mucked in, and that’s what it was like. I thought that was what filmmaking was like.”
crowned Miss Cameroon 1960 in addition to working as a flight attendant.
Ayissi showed an early interest in fashion when he, as a child, deconstructed his mother’s elaborate pageant gowns in order to learn more about their construction. “He grew up with a very glamorous mother,” explained Education and Programs Manager Stephanie Ray as she led me through the museum to a special display.
Tucked around a corner is one of the most treasured creations from his youth; a beautiful 80s-inspired dress Ayissi constructed for his mother using fabric his father brought back from a trip to Nigeria.
Despite his innate interest and passion for fashion, Ayissi was initially focused on his love of dance. As a child he joined the Ballet National du Cameroun, later gaining acclaim and touring with Patrick Dupont and other singers and choreographers across the globe.
During his travels, Ayissi fell into modeling as well. He eventually settled in Paris where he modeled for some of the world’s most elite fashion brands including Dior, Lanvin, Givenchy, Yves Saint Laurent, and Valentino. Ayissi began to make appearances in fashion features and advertising campaigns around Europe. At the same time, he was simultaneously developing his own namesake Imane Ayissi Couture brand which he formally launched in 2004.
In 2020, Ayissi was invited to join the Fédération de la haute Couture et de la Mode as a guest member. He is the first sub-Saharan designer featured in the official haute couture calendar. And now, Ayissi’s designs are prominently featured here in Atlanta in the SCAD FASH museum.
“I am very honored that SCAD has chosen to dedicate an exhibition to my work, the first exhibition by a major fashion museum entirely devoted to the work of an African designer. I would like to thank Paula Wallace, Rafael Gomes, and SCAD FASH for their enthusiasm and pioneering vision,” said Ayissi in a statement.
the film and have to watch the entire film to find the collar. But, brilliant! You know what I mean?”
Couture from Imane Ayissi
The exhibition “Imane Ayissi: From Africa to the World” continues through Feb. 23 and showcases more than 40 creations that celebrate African culture and traditions viewed through a haute couture lens.
Originally from Cameroon, Ayissi has always been a creative at heart. His father was a champion boxer and his mother was
Incorporating traditional African fabrics, textures, colors, symbols, and styles, Ayissi’s creations challenge the viewer to consider the influence of Africa on global fashion trends and invite us to consider the farreaching impact of Africa’s ongoing cultural renaissance.
By working with artisans in Africa to curate fabrics, designs, and dyes and then bringing those elements to be constructed in his Coutier in Paris, Ayissi has continued to provide opportunities for celebration of the African diaspora in the world of couture fashion.
For more information about both exhibitions, visit scadfash.org.
Sandy Powell with her costumes from “Orlando.” (Courtesy SCAD FASH)
Couture from Imanyissi (Photo by Isadora Pennington)
Atlanta Gay Men’s Chorus director uplifts transgender voices
By Dyana Bagby
For Donald Milton III, the choral room is not just a space. It’s a sanctuary where he can fully express himself and forge meaningful connections through music.
As the artistic director of the Atlanta Gay Men’s Chorus, he is committed to using that transformative power to uplift the transgender community.
“Choir rooms are inherently queer spaces,” said Milton, who took the helm of the AGMC in 2018. “There’s a high level of acceptance and care that allows people to be themselves in a way that may not feel safe anywhere else.”
It’s a philosophy he’s carried with him since discovering the joy of singing in high school. Before then, Milton described himself as a “boring kid” — more interested in basketball and video games than artistic expression. But once he found his voice in the choir,
everything changed.
“The choral space made me realize I could have emotions and express them freely around other people,” he said. “It wasn’t an individual space; it was a communal space.”
Inspired by that experience, Milton pursued a career in music education, determined to create those same kinds of welcoming environments for others. His expertise in working with adolescent changing voices has proved invaluable in his work with transgender singers, he said.
“It’s incredibly similar,” Milton said. “When teaching middle and high school groups, the voice changes are dramatic. The larynx can grow up to 200% in cisgender male adolescents. That’s what happens when trans men take testosterone.”
Milton encourages his transgender singers to embrace those vocal shifts, rather than trying to avoid them.
“The way to stop your voice from cracking is to let it crack 10,000 times,” he said. “You’re strengthening that muscle by letting it happen.”
“It’s about curiosity and letting your voice do what it does, instead of trying to make your voice do a thing,” he said. “Maybe a beautiful metaphor for life in general — you want life to be what it is, not what you’re trying to force it to be.”
In recent years, the AGMC has seen a growing number of transgender and nonbinary singers join its ranks. For Milton, it was a natural evolution and one he was eager to embrace and support.
“It happened organically,” he said.
“Trans guys started joining the AGMC, and it was a beautiful compliment to the chorus that it had become a safe space for
people to be themselves and sing.”
Rather than focusing on the challenges faced by the transgender community, Milton and the chorus decided to celebrate their stories and experiences. The result was “Transformations,” a concert performed last year that wove together the personal narratives of the AGMC’s transgender members with joyful, affirming music.
“We didn’t want to talk about the plight of the trans community,” Milton said. “We wanted to celebrate what the
AGMC has been celebrating for 44 years — the truth of queerness is beautiful, and people being themselves is beautiful.”
The concert struck a deep chord, not just with the AGMC’s transgender singers, but with the broader community as well. Milton said older gay men in the chorus expressed newfound understanding and support for trans and nonbinary people after the performance.
“Some were in tears and they said, ‘I didn’t get it, and now I do,’” Milton said. “To have that change happen in real time is really, deeply important.”
Milton is also grateful for the way he has been embraced by members of the AGMC. As a cisgender, straight male, he wasn’t sure if he’d be welcomed into the chorus’s predominantly LGBTQ+ community. His predecessor at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Atlanta, where Milton also works as the musical director, suggested he would be a good fit for the position.
“I went in, and it just felt so good,” he said of the audition process. “In the end, it just really works, and I feel privileged to be welcomed into the queer community in the way that I am.”
Donald Milton III has been the artistic director for the Atlanta Gay Men’s Chorus since 2018. (Photo courtesy AGMC)
Milton (Courtesy AGMC)
BEST BETS
The next OUT @ Lunch Networking: Buckhead is set for Jan. 15 at noon hosted by Zac Pasmanick at Postino Buckhead. This OUT Georgia Business Alliance networking program gathers small groups for lunch across Georgia. Information: outgeorgia.org.
Wussy and City Winery at Ponce City Market are hosting the Ariana Grande Drag Brunch on Jan. 18 at noon featuring performances by Brigitte Bidet, Christina Leon, Cici Nicole, Drew Friday, and Eros Étoile. Tickets: citywinery.com/ Atlanta.
Electric Avenue: 80s Movie Soundtrack Night is coming to Variety Playhouse on Jan. 18. If you love 80s movies and music, this mash-up is for you. Tickets and information: variety-playhouse.com.
Head to Athens, GA on Jan. 21 for a one-night-only production of “Tina Turner: The Musical” on Jan. 21 at The Classic Center. Tickets and information: classiccenter.com.
Charis Books & More and Auburn Avenue Research Library welcome Juanita Tolliver in conversation with Josie Duffy Rice for a discussion of “A More Perfect Party: The Night Shirley Chisholm and Diahann Carroll Reshaped Politics,” a riveting account of the once-in-an-era party, hosted by Diahann Carroll for Shirley Chisholm’s 1972 presidential campaign, that laid out a blueprint to return power to the people and level the playing field for Black women in politics. The event will be held Jan. 22 at 6:30 p.m. at the library, 101 Auburn Ave. Information: charisbooksandmore.com.
The Safe Spot, a social mixer where it’s all about open transparency about queer sexual health from top to bottom, is Jan. 22 at 6:30 p.m. at Empowerment Resource Center, 230 Peachtree St. Information: erc-inc.org.
The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s In Unison programming for the LGBTQ+ community will include the Beethoven Project: Symphonies 1+3 conducted by Nathalie Stutzmann on Jan. 23 at 8 p.m. followed by a reception. Tickets and information: aso.org.
Suzi Award-winning musical “Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812” returns to Horizon Theatre from Jan. 24 to Feb. 23 for a third run. The story is inspired by a love triangle from Tolstoy’s “War & Peace.” Tickets and information: horizontheatre.com.
Queer southern writer Maria Zoccola will launch her debut collection of poetry, “Helen of Troy, 1993”, on Jan. 25 at 3 p.m. at A Cappella Books. The collection reimagines Helen of Troy from Homer’s “Iliad” as a disgruntled housewife in 1990s. Information: acappellabooks.com.
Celebrate a brand new season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” at My Sister’s Room on Jan. 25 at 9 p.m. with special guests Crystal Envy and Hormona Lisa. Information: mysistersroom.com.
Midtown Art Cinema is hosting a screening of “Boss Up, The Musical” at 7 p.m. on Jan. 29 followed by a reception. The filmmaking debut of Tony Talks is based on his glam character Cassandra,
who suddenly finds herself fired from her prestigious job. Tickets and information: outonfilm.org.
Out Front Theatre presents a production of Bryna Turner’s “At the Wedding” from Jan. 30 to Feb. 15. Join Carlo as she attempts to make it through the night without drinking too much, talking too much, or trying to win back the bride. Out Front is located at 999 Brady Ave. Tickets and information: outfronttheatre.com.
Crystal Envy and Hormona Lisa at My Sister’s Room (Courtesy MSR)
“Boss Up, The Musical” (Courtesy Out on Film)
Courtesy A Cappella Books
Courtesy Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
How does one measure Elton John’s impact on Atlanta?
By the books, say Emory University librarians
By Kristi York Wooten | GPB News
How should Atlanta measure the impact of one of its most famous former residents?
That question looms large after superstar Elton John sold his multi-floor penthouse here for $7.22 million in 2023.
The British musician and EGOT (winner of Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony awards) was a part-time resident of the city for more than three decades and left a deep and lasting impression on its culture.
Familiar highlights from John’s tenure in Atlanta include his founding of the Elton John AIDS Foundation and walking in the Atlanta AIDS Walk with Mayor Maynard Jackson in 1991; noshing often at Buckhead Diner and Umi and shopping at Tower Records; writing and recording his 2004 Peachtree Road album and formulating music for movie soundtracks and Broadway musicals; collaborating with hip hop artists such as Lil Nas X and 6lack and staging unforgettable concerts, including in Piedmont Park, at the Tabernacle and a pair of farewell performances at State Farm Arena in 2018 and the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in 2022.
After John and husband David Furnish vacated their Buckhead property this year, they auctioned off more than 900 items for charity, including scores of fine art images, stage boots, a Banksy, furniture and Gucci clothing that together raised more than $20 million.
Meanwhile, John’s collection of photography books, stored in the building on floor-to-ceiling shelves overlooking the Atlanta skyline, needed a home.
So, where did the books end up when the singer moved? That’s where Emory University comes in.
A generous collector of photography and books
Elton John is an avid collector of photographs and was influenced by Atlanta gallerists while he lived in town. In 2000, the High Museum of Art mounted “Chorus of Light,” a comprehensive show of the framed works that hung in the halls of his Georgia pad.
But John’s love for books is legendary, too, and his photography titles covered a large swath of art history.
Kim Collins, who leads the research, engagement, and scholarly communications division at the Emory libraries and as serves as its art historian, said the university jumped at the chance to acquire books donated from the Sir Elton John and David Furnish Photography Collection.
“The theme that I want to communicate today is gratefulness,” she said. “His photography collection directors [Newell Harbin and Jordan K. Putt] said [to Elton], ‘What do you want to do with all these books?’ And he said to give first right of refusal to Emory.”
Collins headed the acquisition, and Randy Gue, an Emory curator in collection development, viewed the books in John’s former residence this summer, where he identified approximately 2,000 items for Emory, encompassing commercial, rare
and signed books and anthologies of artists’ work — from early modernist innovator Man Ray to 1980s celebrity photographer Patrick McMullan. (Many of John’s general interest books were donated to a local public library).
Accessing the collection
Emory is still processing the books.
Collins said already-catalogued books can be found on the Emory libraries website with the search query “gift of Sir Elton John” and are available to researchers and photography enthusiasts. She said they are also listed on World Cat, a global library catalog database, allowing readers across the planet to see the titles John collected.
Although anyone can see which books are a part of John’s gift, they are not on physical display.
“Right now, it’s not a physical browse of the bulk collection on campus,” said Dr. Christopher Palazzolo, a director of collections and open strategies at Emory. Many of the books are located in the university’s library service center, shared with Georgia Tech in Midtown. “We do allow visitors, of course, and they can request materials… We also have courtesy or bartering privileges that people can actually pay for as well, actually check out the books. So right now, it’s on an item level.”
The university published a blog in August about sifting through the materials.
“Some books had their own custom clamshell cases, sticky notes left on certain
pages, or letters from publishers about Elton John himself,” wrote Mia McCown, an intern from Agnes Scott College who assisted with the work.
When storing the books, Emory decided not to use the glossy paper dust jackets. Instead, to celebrate the 51st anniversary of Elton John’s 1973 album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road in October, the libraries organized a collage and zine-making session, where students and faculty pored through the sleeves ranging from Japanese animal photography to portraits of Marilyn Monroe and JFK to historical anthologies and Polaroids.
Emory graduate student Laura Varela Mejia said helping to catalog the works gave her a new appreciation of Elton John’s reputation as an endlessly curious collector.
“It is a beautifully eclectic collection of photography,” she said. “But other than them being photography books, it’s really hard to find a lot of — let’s call them underlying themes, which is amazing. You get to see so many different styles, time periods, points of view, and it’s an opportunity to get lost and explore.”
Connecting art and music
Mejia said she and other students, staff and faculty jammed to Elton John tunes while cutting shapes from the book jackets. Connecting the love of art to the man behind the music reminded her of the songs she loved growing up.
“I’ve always had a fondness for ‘Your Song’, and that is because it just happens to be my mom’s favorite song by him,” Mejia said. “But as someone who was also born in the 1990s and grew up with a lot of Disney movies, I am very fond of The Lion King soundtrack. ‘Can You Feel the Love Tonight?’ is just very sweet. ‘Rocket Man’ is also pretty fun… He has a lot of really great songs, admittedly.”
Donating books to Emory University may not top Elton John’s list of philanthropic contributions to Atlanta. Yet, at a time rife with book bans, when the ability to access historical works isn’t always at students’ fingertips, the librarians looking after John’s gift to Emory hope it continues to leave his mark on Atlanta for future generations.
Above, Sir Elton John lived in Atlanta for more than 30 years. After moving away from the city in 2023, the singer donated his photography book collection (right) to Emory University in 2024. (Photos via Ralph_PH/ Wikipedia/ Creative Commons and Emory University)
Left, Students and faculty participate in a collage and zine-making exercise utilizing the dust jackets of books donated by Sir Elton John. (Courtesy Emory University)
COME TAKE A LOAD
The best LGBTQ+ movies of 2024
“Challengers”
By Jim Farmer
While the box office is still not where it was pre-pandemic, audiences more and more seem to be returning to see movies. 2024 didn’t produce any instant queer classics like “Carol” or last season’s “All of Us Strangers,” but it was nonetheless a very solid year for LGBTQ+ fare. Here are 10 of my favorites.
a horrible attack, only to run into the man responsible months later, with a score to settle. The first time I saw this, I wanted more of a standard revenge thriller, but on the second I admired its complexity and ambiguity.
High Tide: Marco Pigossi stars as an undocumented Brazilian immigrant living in Provincetown in this compelling drama, directed by Marco Calvani and featuring a superb supporting cast including Bill Irwin and Marisa Tomei.
Challengers: Luca Guadagnino’s “Queer” boasts an excellent performance from Daniel Craig, and some steamy sex scenes, but its second half left me cold. Far better in my opinion was the director’s playful, erotic “Challengers.” It’s a love triangle between a tennis trio – Zendaya, Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor – with plenty of homoeroticism. There wasn’t a sexier scene in 2024 than a make-out session between the main characters.
Crossing: A retired teacher who has promised to find her niece travels to Istanbul and forms an unlikely bond in this gem, one of the year’s most tender and surprising films, from “And Then We Danced” director Levan Akin.
Emilia Perez: It’s a musical, a crime story and drama, with a transgender character — Karla Sofía Gascón as the titular lead – at its unforgettable center. Jacques Audiard’s film doesn’t all work but when it does it’s sensational, also starring Selena Gomez and a never-better Zoe Saldana.
Femme: In Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping’s debut feature, a drag artist survives
I Saw the TV Glow: Jane Schoenbrun, whose 2021 “We’re All Going to the World’s Fair” received acclaim, scored again with this drama about two young teenagers who discover a life-changing late night TV show, complete with a vibrant trans sensibility.
Love Lies Bleeding: Kristen Stewart stars as the manager of a gym who gets involved with a bodybuilder (Katy M. O’Brian) headed to Las Vegas. Directed by Rose Glass, this is a sexy, dark ride with plenty of chemistry between its two leads.
My Old Ass: Writer/director Megan Park turns what could have been a simple story into something richer and more emotional in this comedy-drama, with 18-year-old queer-identifying Elliot (Maisy Stella), high on mushrooms, getting a visit from herself as a 39-year-old (Aubrey Plaza).
The People’s Joker: Vera Drew’s film, in which a clown forms an anti-comedy troupe, is a queer comic book parody and audacious triumph for its co-writer/director, who also stars.
Will & Harper: In Josh Greenbaum’s beautiful documentary, Will Ferrell and his long-time friend/colleague Harper Steele go on a road trip just after Harper comes out to her friend as transgender. This has a real chance at a Best Documentary Oscar® nomination.
“Emilia Perez”
The Best New Atlanta Restaurants of 2024
By Beth McKibben
Welcome to Rough Draft’s inaugural edition of Best New Restaurants!
I spent the last year dining at new restaurants across Metro Atlanta. After multiple visits to more than a dozen serious contenders, four restaurants and a pop-up, captured my attention again and again.
Restaurants in contention opened between Oct. 1, 2023, and Oct. 1, 2024. Like our coverage areas for Rough Draft, restaurants under consideration included those in the cities of Atlanta, Brookhaven, Tucker, Sandy Springs, and Dunwoody, along with restaurants in greater Fulton, DeKalb, Clayton, and southern Cobb and southern Gwinnett counties.
Nearly four years after the pandemic began, 2024 proved a turning point for Atlanta restaurants. While established places finally settled into a recalibrated groove this year, new restaurants shed light on the emerging trends, service models, chefs, and cuisines Atlanta can look forward to in the future.
Our dining scene is thriving, with the 2024 award winners bringing something special to the table, including FrenchCaribbean dishes, Honduran street food, Scottish and Southern-inspired cuisine, Viet-Cajun barbecue, and Polish fare with a seasonal twist.
Introducing Atlanta’s Best New Restaurants of 2024!
local and Haitian mushrooms tossed in herbaceous epis (sauce similar to sofrito.)
Scallop étouffée comes served in a savory roux garnished with delicate Carolina Gold rice crisps, green onions, and parsley. Entrees like Poulet Colombo pull in flavors and ingredients from the eastern Caribbean, including brown mustard and coconut.
Wines range from buttery chardonnays to bold syrahs, while cocktails and nonalcoholic mixed drinks feature ingredients like sorrel syrup, plantaininfused rum, and fresh local herbs.
Despite being open for nearly a decade in Inman Park, Bread & Butterfly is new in all but name under Brown and Blanchard, and dinner here shouldn’t be missed.
La Glorieta Honduran Restaurant Opened December 2023 4010 Lawrenceville Highway, Tucker facebook.com/laglorieta504
Owned and operated by brothers Nelson and Edgardo Flores and their families, La Glorieta brought Tucker a taste of Honduras when it opened on Lawrenceville Highway last December. What the small, counter-service spot lacks in square footage, La Glorieta more than makes up for on the menu.
of the day is breakfast, and La Glorieta keeps it traditional with desayuno catracho (Honduran breakfast) comprised of eggs, beans, fried plantains, queso fresco, avocado, and tortillas. Baleadas – a popular Honduran street food often eaten on the go in the morning – come layered with refried beans, queso, and crema bundled in a lightly fried tortilla with the option to add scrambled eggs, avocado, chicken, or steak. During lunch, pollo chuco con pechuga sees fried green plantains crowned with shredded cabbage, tomatoes, pink sauce, pickled vegetables, chismol (pico de gallo), and fried chicken.
You can easily miss La Glorieta traveling down Lawrenceville Highway. Now that you know where to look, put this little gem on regular rotation when visiting Tucker.
Nàdair
Opened May 2024 1123 Zonolite Road, Woodland Hills nadairatl.com
Gunshow chef Kevin Gillespie pays tribute to his Scottish and Southern roots at Nàdair. Here, Gillespie returns to leading a kitchen and the cooking he became known for years ago at Woodfire Grill.
Bread & Butterfly
New ownership/new dinner launched October 2023
290 Elizabeth Street, Inman Park bread-and-butterfly.com
You might be forgiven for sleeping on dinner at Bread & Butterfly since Chef Demetrius Brown and Brandon Blanchard took over the restaurant last year from Chef Billy Allin. The August 2023 transaction was so low key, that the change of ownership went mostly unnoticed for weeks. Brown and Blanchard retained the restaurant’s name and much of Allin’s French-leaning breakfast and brunch menu. But Brown launched a new dinner service three months later, expanding on the French-Caribbean dishes served at his popup, Heritage Supper Club.
Dinner at Bread & Butterfly continues Brown’s mission to spotlight the culinary depth and breadth of the African diaspora, including food traditions of enslaved Black people and nations in Africa and the Caribbean colonized by the French. Brown was born into a proud Trinidadian family, driving him to dig deeper into the roots of Afro-Caribbean cuisine.
Start with feathery soft plantain buns accompanied by Georgia cane syrup butter or a seasonal salad of local greens and ancient West African grains like fonio dressed with shallot vinaigrette. Brown’s take on djon-djon comprises rice, peas, and
Colonialism and ancient trade routes by land and sea infused the country’s Mesoamerican cuisine with flavors, ingredients, and dishes from Spain, the Caribbean, and Africa. While La Glorieta serves a few crossover dishes from neighboring Central American countries, Honduran specialties lie at the heart of the restaurant’s tight menu.
For many Hondurans, the main meal
Nàdair offers a choice of a threecourse or an ambitious six-course tasting menu; both include an amuse bouche and interludes of palate cleansers between dishes. Tastings start with lighter courses of Scottish cheese dumplings served with a wood-roasted Vidalia onion sauce, while peach-braised pork belly accompanies wood-grilled scallops. Delicate filets of North Georgia rainbow trout in a brown butter jus with a fried peanut crumb or
Djon djon: a Haitian dish made at Bread & Butterfly in Inman Park with Carolina Gold rice, local and Haitian mushrooms, and French beans. (Courtesy of Bread & Butterfly)
Roasted lamb loin and fire-roasted carrots from Nàdair. (Photo by Angie Mosier)
Scottish red stag served as a duo of grilled loin and a meaty bon bon round out heavier courses. Dessert might include Gillespie’s riff on his grandmother’s banoffee pie or a decadent trifle of cake, seasonal fruit, and hand-made custard.
Wine lovers would be wise to order the pairings with their tasting, guided by Michelin award-winning sommelier Ashleigh McFadden. With the bar led by longtime Atlanta bartender Eric Simpkins, cocktails range from light and refreshing twists on the G&T and Gimlet to a black tea and malted milk-washed bourbon Old Fashioned.
The restaurant’s name comes from the Scots Gaelic phrase “dòigh nàdair,” or “the way of nature.” And while Gillespie showcases the best of what’s in season on the menu, the phrase also nods to how natural and in his element Gillespie is at Nàdair.
Gene’s
Opened July 2024
2371 Hosea L Williams Drive, East Lake genesgenesgenes.com
What began as a popular pop-up hosted at Kimball House, Bogg’s Social and Supply, and Poor Hendrix transformed into Gene’s the restaurant boasting lines out the door. Branded and named for owner Avery Cottrell’s pudgy orange and white cat, Gene’s combines barbecue cooked on a hot pink smoker with dishes inspired by the seafood shacks of Cottrell’s upbringing in southeast Louisiana. The vibe, music, and decor of flea market finds and collectibles at Gene’s melds the dive-bar energy of the Flora-Bama with the comfortable familiarity of your favorite roadside barbecue joint. But don’t let Cottrell’s animated, yet down-to-earth personality fool you into thinking he doesn’t take his food seriously. Cottrell flexes with flavors in the sides, sandwiches, and smoked meat trays at Gene’s. Order a meat-and-three meal loaded with chili-brined chicken skewers, pulled
sticky ribs caramelized in fish sauce, and tender brisket with sides of Vietnamesestyle smashed cucumbers, beef tallow refried beans studded with brisket scraps, or Serrano pepper coleslaw. Potato salad comes dressed in green goddess sauce, and waffle fries are dusted with dehydrated Tabasco mash. Layered with vanilla wafers and Biscoff cookies, Gene’s banana pudding is based on a recipe from co-owner Matt Christensen’s grandmother.
Christensen, one of the owners of Kimball House, isn’t the only member of the award-winning Decatur restaurant partnered in Gene’s — or contributing to the menu. Veteran Atlanta barman Miles Macquarrie created the cocktails, including a savory martini using Atlanta-produced Murrell’s Row Gin Gin, a rye Manhattan with apricot brandy, and a Bushwacker, Hurricane, and margarita served frozen from a slushie machine.
It’s hard not to get excited when you walk into Gene’s — or absorb Cottrell’s energy when he talks about his food and new restaurant. It all manifests into a damn good time in East Lake.
Beksa Lala
Launched November 2023
Burle’s Bar, 505 North Angier Avenue, Old Fourth Ward instagram.com/beksa_atl
Cooking has been a part of Basia Piechoczek’s life since childhood. She cooked alongside her Polish grandmother growing up, later finding work at restaurants in Jacksonville, Florida. But operating a pop-up restaurant wasn’t part of the plan when Piechoczek moved to Atlanta in 2020.
Last December, a longtime restaurant colleague reached out to Piechoczek, asking her to cook Polish dishes for a pop-up Christmas event at Burle’s Bar in the Old Fourth Ward. Taking inspiration from foods served during wigilia (Polish Christmas Eve vigil meal) Piechoczek’s menu featured
traditional dishes like pierogi and her grandmother’s tangy barszcz (beetroot soup) with wild mushroom-filled uszka (dumplings).
The success of the 2023 Christmas event led to Piechoczek launching Beksa Lala – a Polish food pop-up bearing her childhood nickname (crybaby) blending traditional dishes with modern takes on the Central European country’s cuisine.
In residence most Fridays and Saturdays at Burle’s Bar on the Eastside Beltline, Piechoczek posts up beside the patio, serving a delightfully playful menu of Polish favorites. Her pierogi come stuffed with creamy whipped potatoes and smoky farmer’s cheese. Smoked quail, Rycki Edam cheese, local mushrooms, and garlicky Polish pickles top toasted zapiekanapka (open-faced sandwich), while pickles and pork rinds garnish smoked deviled eggs. Expect seasonal dishes, too, including salads of local greens, edible flowers, and micro herbs and bigos (hunter’s stew) brimming with pork and beef kielbasa, mushrooms, and cabbage.
Piechoczek isn’t afraid to lean into her flavors, play with ingredients, and push boundaries to celebrate the foods of her Polish roots, making this pop-up one to visit and Piechoczek one to watch.
Gene’s in East Lake combines Viet-Cajun barbecue with dishes inspired by the seafood shacks in southeast Louisiana. (Photo by Andrew Thomas Lee)
NextGen Bus Network
My Sister’s Room: Atlanta’s landmark lesbian bar continues
By Dyana Bagby
My Sister’s Room has been a cornerstone of Atlanta’s LGBTQIA landscape since it opened in 1996 at Midtown Promenade. Originally opened as My Sister’s Room: A Parlor for Women, the bar quickly became a sanctuary for queer women and their allies.
Over the years, My Sister’s Room (MSR) faced the challenges of rising rents and urban development, relocating numerous times to ensure its survival. Each move — from Midtown to Decatur to East Atlanta and then back to Midtown, before finding its present home on Crescent Avenue — was made as a commitment to creating a welcoming environment for LGBTQ+ people, said Jen Maguire, who owns MSR with her wife, Jami Atlanta. Maguire is known in Atlanta by her stage name, Chase Daniels.
The couple purchased MSR from Susan Musselwhite in 2011, eventually moving it from its then-current home in Decatur to Glenwood Avenue in East Atlanta Village. In 2018, they relocated the bar again to 12th Street in Midtown. MSR was forced to relocate yet again in 2022 when developers announced the bar on 12th Street would be torn down for a new condo development. MSR took over the former Publico space on Crescent Avenue just around the corner.
“Being back in Midtown is like coming full circle,” said Daniels. “Where we are now is our favorite location. It has lots of foot traffic, a large stage for shows and performances, and a view of Atlanta’s
skyline.”
Each transition also underscores the precarious nature of LGBTQ+ spaces in a city that is constantly evolving, Daniels said. And in a time when lesbian bars in the U.S. have dwindled from around 200 in the 1980s to less than 35 today, MSR stands as one of the few remaining establishments dedicated specifically to the needs and experiences of queer women.
“We say we’re a lesbian bar where everyone is welcome,” Daniels, 49, said. “We’re a melting pot and pride ourselves on being one of the more diverse bars. We are very big on welcoming everyone, especially our transgender family.”
The “secret sauce” to MSR’s longevity as one of the country’s few lesbian bars is being good business owners, Daniels said. That includes the ability to adapt to the needs of different generations of partygoers at MSR. These days, the bar hosts more burlesque performances, comedy nights, women sports watch parties, karaoke, drag king and drag queen shows, and, of course, plenty of dance parties.
Food is important, too, and the bar sells about a thousand of its signature extra-crispy wings each week. Homemade pizzas are popular. Vegan options are also available now at MSR. It’s part of the mission to make the bar as inclusive as possible and focus on taking care of people.
But My Sister’s Room is more than a nightlife venue in Atlanta. It’s become a space that people can come to for connection, representation and empowerment within the lesbian
MSR serves 1,000 of its popular wings each week.
community and the broader LGBTQ+ spectrum, Daniels said.
“When you come here, you are in a safe space,” she said. “We are like a second, chosen family. We have a lot of people who come here who call us their moms. It’s a good feeling knowing they always have a place to come to.”
Native Atlantan Royce Soble, a photographer and artist, was there when MSR first opened in Midtown nearly 30 years ago. It was a small space where lesbians gathered to drink martinis, smoke
cigarettes and talk for hours. But, most importantly, MSR offered the opportunity for community.
“MSR was a very big part of my younger years. I would go there after work or after class at Georgia State and understood the importance of an establishment where I knew these were my people,” Soble said.
Soble, 51, now identifies as non-binary and no longer visits MSR. But they are grateful MSR still stands in Atlanta, especially for new generations of LGBTQ+
people to have a place to come and express themselves without fear as they navigate figuring out their sexual orientation and gender identity.
It’s also important for lesbians to know where they can go to meet other women in Atlanta.
“Kudos to Jami and Jen for keeping MSR going and honoring what they can do for their community,” Soble said.
“They have kept the name going and continue to give people a place to connect and convene and for people to
express themselves whether they are queer, lesbians, transgender or non-binary,” Soble added.
For Daniels and Atlanta, they’re grateful and humbled by the support for MSR and want to continue being a place that lifts up the LGBTQ+ community in the city and beyond.
“We couldn’t do what we do without the people of Atlanta,” Daniels said.
My Sister’s Room is located at 1104 Crescent Ave. in Midtown. For more information, visit mysistersroom.com.
The patio at My Sister’s Room includes views of the Midtown skyline. (Photos courtesy MSR)
MSR hosts weekly events, including drag king and queen shows and dance parties. (Photo by Dyana Bagby)
