Picture courtesy of Georgia Voice
Whereas ready for an order at Woody’s Cheesesteaks not too long ago, I had time to meet up with an previous pal. A brand new stack of revered LGBTQ+ newspapers Georgia Voice Simply arrived on the counter. So, whereas a symphony of steak and onions performed within the background, I opened its pages cow For extra on pistol-whipping at 3 a.m. in Midtown’s Rainbow Crosswalks, the tenth anniversary of clothes retailer Barking Leather-based, and the way Atlanta Falcons cheerleader Dante Sanders helps to erase gender stereotypes in sports activities.
In 2024, with a brand new anti-trans invoice threatening to be unveiled and a so-called “spiritual freedom” invoice getting back from the lifeless eight years later — like a legislator’s Freddy Krueger, sprawled below a gold dome — the biweekly reported “LGBTQ Georgia “Premier Media Supply for” is as vital and crucial as ever.
Holding the print concern in my palms took me again to my first byline revealed on this metropolis 30 years in the past. As a younger contributor simply popping out, protecting town’s queer group was equal components an inspiring historical past lesson and reassurance that, as a reporter, I did not have to cover my sexual orientation. Again then, the weekly was known as LGBTQ+ Unbiased Newspaper Southern Voice, launched in 1988 by Christina Money. And we had so much to cowl. AIDS was destroying Atlanta, the queer mecca of the South. Cheryl Summerville was fired from Cracker Barrel for popping out as a lesbian. Activists Pat Hussain and John-Evan Weaver had been attempting to persuade the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Video games (ACOG) to drag volleyball competitions from Cobb County, the place commissioners had handed an anti-gay decision.
I am only a new homosexual journo, however money, then SoVoIts government editor, assigned me balanced tales, commonly pushing me outdoors my consolation zone, each reportorially and personally. In a two-part collection, I explored the well-being of nationwide and native homosexual advocacy teams. I interviewed younger intercourse employees concerning the threat of contracting HIV by carpooling with strangers on Cypress Avenue. And, maybe most terrifyingly, I used to be assigned to interview iconic drag performer Charlie Brown in a backstreet dressing room about allegations of obscenity by an area feminist group.
I carry these invaluable experiences and group sources to my subsequent position, as a reporter Atlanta Journal-Structure, the place I stayed for the subsequent 16 years. as me AJC As colleague Celestine Sibley would later educate me, “Reporting can change issues.” On July 29, 1994, ACOG introduced that it was shifting the preliminary volleyball video games of the 1996 Summer time Olympics out of Cobb County. Due to the event of revolutionary new drug therapies, HIV is now not a dying sentence. And Cracker Barrel—an organization that after required all staff to “exhibit regular heterosexual values”—now celebrates Satisfaction each June.
By way of its editorial steerage SoVo And cow, which he launched in 2010, Chris Money taught me and others the significance of bringing our genuine selves to our reporting and the inherent worth of the queer individuals who cowl our personal communities. Along with the important LGBTQ+ protection it has been providing for 35 years now, that is the true legacy of The Voice.
Richard L. Eldredge is one atlanta Journal editorial contributor and founder-editor of Eldredge ATL.
This text appeared in our July 2024 concern.
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