Cathy Woolard shares her ‘Crossroads’ moment about coming out

Longtime Atlanta LGBT activist ‘shocked out of complacency’ in 1986

In the newest edition of The Atlanta 100, a series of stories told in 100 words or 100 seconds, Cathy Woolard shares what prompted her join the front lines in fighting for LGBT equality.

“My crossroads came in 1986 when I had to come out publicly. I still didn’t even know what that meant until I fell in love with a woman when I was in college. The sun came out and I realized why people wrote love songs,” she says.

It was the Bowers v Hardwick ruling by the Supreme Court that stated the Constitution does not protect gay people from engaging in consensual sex that, Woolard says, made her join the fight because she believed the ruling was wrong.

“In 1986 the Hardwick decision came down from Supreme court. I felt the need to get involved. I was shocked out of complacency,” she says.

She became the local leader in the fight, meaning she had to come out publicly and to her parents, and she helped organize the second March on Washington in 1987 for lesbian and gay rights.

“1986 was my crossroads. Though I lamented the Supreme Court’s decision, I guess i have them to thank for it,” Woolard says.

Woolard became the first openly gay elected official elected to office in Georgia when she won a seat on the Atlanta City Council in 1997. She also became the first woman to be the president of the Atlanta City Council in 2001. In 2004, she became the first openly gay person in Georgia to run for Congress but lost to Cynthia McKinney.

She currently serves as interim executive director of AID Atlanta and has been a lobbyist for Georgia Equality and Planned Parenthood.