(APN) ATLANTA — Today, State Rep. Simone Bell (D-Atlanta) announced she will leave the House to go work for Lambda Legal, the nation’s oldest legal organization working on LGBTQI issues, as southern regional director. Former Rep. Ralph Long (D-Atlanta) tells Atlanta Progressive News that he is already putting his hat in the race. No one will comment, yet, about […]
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(APN) ATLANTA — A small time developer has attempted to destroy a community garden that plays an important role in Atlanta’s radical LGBTQI community. On Saturday, October 17, 2015, Ehsan Razavi, owner of RZI Properties, bulldozed most of the garden at Open Space Church, also known as the Homostead, while police stood by and refused to intervene. “Years […]
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With additional reporting by Matthew Charles Cardinale. (APN) ATLANTA — 2015 was a watershed year for the LGBTQI equality movement in the U.S., with the ruling of the Supreme Court of the U.S. in favor of same-sex marriage as a fundamental right under the U.S. Constitution. But LGBTQI advocates lament that the State of Georgia has a long […]
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(APN) ATLANTA — Atlantans joined with activists in other U.S. cities for Trans Liberation Tuesday on August 25, 2015, with nearly one hundred supporters gathering at Underground Atlanta for the event. Organizers of the event spoke with Atlanta Progressive News about problems with the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) and the Atlanta Police Department (APD) the transgender community […]
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With additional reporting by Anna Simonton and Matthew Charles Cardinale. Photograph by Steve Eberhardt. (APN) ATLANTA — The Georgia General Assembly wrapped up the 2015 legislative session on Thursday, April 02, 2015. There were a few progressive highlights in the majority-Republican Legislature, including a solar power lease agreement bill; a limited medical cannabis bill; and more flexibility for MARTA […]
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(APN) ATLANTA — When HB 29 and SB 129 were introduced in the Georgia House and Senate this year, respectively, advocates of LGBTQI equality immediately waxed hyperbolic, calling it the Hate the Gays bill. Atlanta Progressive News ran a lengthy analysis in early January 2015 explaining that the bill was more broadly encompassing and more substantively complex than its […]
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With additional reporting by Matthew Charles Cardinale (APN) ATLANTA — On Thursday, March 05, 2015, the full State Senate voted to engross SB 129, the controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Bill, in a vote of 38 yeas to 17 nays. The bill passed the Senate in a vote of 37 to 15. Engrossment means that the bill cannot be changed; […]
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(APN) ATLANTA — On Monday, March 02, 2015, the Senate Judiciary Civil Committee passed an amended version of SB 129, the Georgia Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The amended version states in the legislative findings but not in the operative text of the bill that courts “have consistently held that government has a fundamental, overriding interest in eradicating discrimination.” […]
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(APN) ATLANTA — On Monday, January 20, 2015, Atlanta’s annual Martin Luther King, Jr., Day parade was imbued with a spirit of resistance this year, as local members of the Black Lives Matter network took action to “Reclaim MLK.” As protests have continued nationwide, in response to heightened awareness surrounding police murder of young people of color, community leaders […]
Read more(APN) ATLANTA — The Lost-n-Found Youth homeless shelter founded by local activists and drag queens has expanded in recent months with a new thrift store and drop-in center, and is currently planning to expand their housing component. Lost n Found was founded in 2011, with street outreach to “homeless lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youths to age 26,” as […]
Read moreWith additional reporting by Matthew Charles Cardinale. (APN) ATLANTA — Mike Ritter, art director of the GA Voice magazine; an award-winning editorial cartoonist; and LGBTQI rights activist, died Sunday March 30, 2014 of complications from open heart surgery. He was 48. Ritter was born in Seattle, Washington, on August 21, 1965, and grew up in Ritzville […]
Read more(APN) ATLANTA — Lost-n-Found Youth, Inc. is an Atlanta-based nonprofit corporation whose mission is to take homeless youths who are bisexual, homosexual, or transgender off the streets and transition them into more permanent housing arrangements. Lost-n-Found (LnF) was founded by activists Rick Westbrook of the Atlanta Chapter of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, Art Izzard of the Queer Justice […]
Read moreThis article first appeared on the Inter-Press Service website at: http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/03/u-s-congress-inches-away-from-the-straight-and-narrow/ ATLANTA, Georgia, Mar 26 2013 (IPS) – Even as the issue of gay marriage continues to make waves in the U.S., change is inexorably arriving in the halls of power, with a record seven openly homosexual or bisexual members of the new U.S. Congress. While still small, the number represents […]
Read moreLas Margaritas, a restaurant in Atlanta’s Cheshire Bridge neighborhood owned by Oscar Valdivieso, is hosting a fiesta muy grande today for Cinco de Mayo. According to the event’s Facebook page, the festivities will benefit Joining Hearts, a non-profit organization which supports housing for people with HIV and AIDS. Specifically, Joining Hearts funds two Atlanta non-profits, AID Atlanta and Jerusalem House. […]
Read more(APN) ATLANTA — Outwrite bookstore, Midtown Atlanta’s iconic gay bookstore, will be leaving its 10th and Piedmont location within the next few weeks, signaling a key milestone in Midtown’s second-wave gentrification process. The store opened eighteen years ago, in 1993. “It’s part of the story – as we move into neighborhoods and fix ’em up, we get forced […]
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