LGBT community, allies come out in force for Atlanta Equality March

Atlanta’s LGBT community and allies came out in force Sunday afternoon to take part in the Atlanta Equality March, a sister event to the Equality March for Unity & Pride in Washington, D.C. and others taking place nationwide. Roughly 1,000 people crowded the Park Tavern for the rally before taking to the streets of Midtown for the march – an impressive showing considering event organizers Jami and Jennifer Maguire of My Sister’s Room put it together in just five days.

A number of LGBT politicians were on hand to speak at the rally, including state Rep. Park Cannon (who paid tribute to the late Fulton County Commissioner Joan Garner), state Rep. Sam Park and Atlanta mayoral candidate and former Atlanta City Council President Cathy Woolard. Ally and Atlanta mayoral hopeful state Sen. Vincent Fort also addressed the audience.

The headliner though was 6th District Congressional candidate Jon Ossoff, who is locked in a highly publicized and expensive race against former Secretary of State Karen Handel that’s drawn national attention. Handel drew the ire of the LGBT community during her run for governor in 2010, when she denied being a member of the Log Cabin Republicans, came out against gay marriage and expressed support for legislation that would ban gay adoptions.

“Policy matters. Elections matters. And you can count on on me stand up for you every day. I will never shy away from standing with the LGBT community publicly, forcefully, with everything I’ve got,” said Ossoff, who was joined at his side by his fiancé, Emory med student Alisha Kramer. “We are building a coalition that is based on working together to get things done. But, there can be no compromise on civil rights. There can be no compromise on human rights. And you’ll be able to count on me to fight for all of our civil rights and human rights.”

Hit the gallery below for a photo blow-by-blow of the big day.