The group also includes controversial YouthPride Executive Director Terence McPhaul, whose questionable leadership practices have fueled community concerns about the stability of the organization founded to serve LGBT young people.
There is no representative from the transgender community on the working group, although several transgender woman spoke out against the banishment legislation.
McPhaul refuses to talk to GA Voice. An interview in December with the chairperson of the two-person board, Theresa Willis, led to no significant answers about YouthPride is doing. Willis promised a follow up interview after the holidays in February. Attempts to get that promised interview have failed.
We’ve asked city officials how McPhaul was selected for the board and are awaiting a response. According to a city of Atlanta press release, the members of the Working Group were appointed by the City’s Chief Operating Officer, Duriya Farooqui, and Councilmember Michael Julian Bond, chairman of the Atlanta City Council’s Public Safety and Legal Administration Committee.
Check back for more details as they become available.
The full list of the working board:
Kristin Wilson, Innovation Delivery Team, City of Atlanta
Candace Byrd, Chief of Staff, City of Atlanta
Melissa Mullinax, Public Affairs/Office of Chief Operating Officer, City of Atlanta
Amber Robinson, Law Department, City of Atlanta
Lt. Scott Kreher, Atlanta Police Department, City of Atlanta
Alice Johnson, Atlanta Police Department, City of Atlanta
Raines Carter, City Solicitor, City of Atlanta
Rosalie Joy, Public Defender, City of Atlanta
Stephanie Davis, Executive Director, GA Women for a Change
Peggy Denby, President, Midtown-Ponce Security Alliance
Xochitl Bervera, Director, Racial Justice Action Center
Jeff Graham, Director, Georgia Equality
Terence McPhaul, Director, YouthPride
Douglas Dean, Resident, Pittsburgh Community
Bill Cannon, Resident, Booker T. Washington Community
Donna Hubbard, Pastor, Women at the Well Transition Center