Our most read articles of the year

Johnny Weir is getting married to an Atlanta boy. Weir, who rarely discusses his private life, told GA Voice that he has been coming to Atlanta regularly to court his boyfriend.

“My boyfriend, fiancé now, has only recently come out and he’s 28 years old and it’s been an uncomfortable, rocky road for him,” Weir says.

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WPATH announces new standards of care for transgender and gender nonconforming people

There were champagne toasts and rounds of applause as the World Professional Association for Transgender Health released on Sunday its newest Standards of Care for the Health of Transsexual, Transgender, and Gender Nonconforming People  at a symposium at the Emory Conference Center in Atlanta.

WPATH revision committee chair Eli Coleman launched the 7th version of the standards of care to some 300 people who attended the symposium as part of a partnership with the Gay & Lesbian Medical Association and the Southern Comfort Conference, the largest transgender conference in the nation that takes place annually in Atlanta.

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Shorter University employee speaks out on new policy on homosexuality

Shorter University’s new “personal lifestyle statement” has left employees afraid of witch hunts, according to one gay man who works at the Southern Baptist college in Rome, Ga.

“We now will live in fear that someone who doesn’t like us personally or someone who has had a bad day will report that we’ve been drinking or that we are suspected of being gay,” said the employee, who declined to reveal his name due to the policy.

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[Video] Fox 5: Bishop Eddie Long had fifth accuser in gay sex scandal

An investigative report by Atlanta’s Fox 5 news station states a fifth accuser in the Bishop Eddie Long sex scandal played a role in the  negotiations that ended in a secret settlement between the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church preacher and four other men who sued him for sexual coercion.

Senior I-Team reporter Dale Russell reported Wednesday, July 27,  that Centino Kemp, 22, met Long years ago when he was a college student.

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Gay employees banned at Ga.’s Shorter University

Shorter University has adopted new “faith statements” that include an effective ban on gay people working for the Southern Baptist college, which is located in Rome, Ga.

New documents approved by the university’s Board of Trustees on Oct. 21 include a “Personal Lifestyle Statement” for university employees, as well as other statements and new logo stressing the college motto of “Transforming Lives Through Christ.”

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Lawsuit: Sheriff’s department took lesbian drug addict to evangelist instead of rehab

Lesbian Amanda Booker is suing Bartow Co.

A Bartow County lesbian is suing the Bartow County Sheriff’s Department and others after she alleges her constitutional rights were violated when she was taken to a private residence for ex-gay conversion therapy rather than to a court-mandated psychiatric hospital for her drug abuse.

The lawsuit, filed May 13 in the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Georgia by Amanda Booker, names as defendants Bartow County, Bartow County Commissioner Clarence Brown, Sheriff Clark Milsap and sheriff department employees Mark Mayton, Nathan Gibbs, Pam Ploof and Amanda Pedifer. Individuals Gary Allen Covington, Chris McDowell and Donna Dupree McDowell are also named as defendants.

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Eddie Long’s ‘fifth accuser’ in sex scandal writes book; screenplay in works

Centino Kemp writes a book

Centino Kemp, who was identified as the fifth accuser in the Eddie Long sex scandal that involved four young men suing the world-known preacher and founder of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church for sexual coercion, has written a book about his experience being “seduced by a powerful religious figure who becomes not only the father figure he never had, but also his lover.”

Kemp, 22, who is openly gay, posted today to his Facebook page a synopsis of an autobiography he co-wrote titled, “The First Lady.”

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Gay Atlanta men attacked in St. Lucia hate crime

st lucia house where atlanta men robbed

Michael Baker will never forget the last night of his recent vacation in St. Lucia. He recalls the sunset as the best yet of his trip, but what happened next may haunt him for the rest of his life.

Baker serves as director of advancement at Positive Impact, an Atlanta HIV agency. He was visiting St. Lucia, an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea,  with his boyfriend, Nick Smith; the pair stayed with another friend from Atlanta, Todd Wiggins, at a mountain-top cottage Wiggins had rented. Wiggins has also been an HIV advocate, including helping found the AIDS Vaccine 200 bicycle fundraiser.

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Lesbians having sex in Columbus State library are arrested

CSU students charged

Two women at Columbus State University are facing charges of public indecency after being caught having sex in the campus library, according to TV station WRBL.

The station reports that Nakita Holt, 21, and Jessica Bass, 18, both made bond from the Muscogee County Jail. They are both students at the university.

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Atlanta drag personality arrested on human trafficking charges

Pasha Nicole faces legal troubles

Atlanta drag personality Pasha Nicole and gay bar go-go dancer Steven Donald Lemery were recently arrested in Douglas County, Ga., for allegedly “trafficking human beings for the purpose of sexual servitude.”

According to the Douglas County Sheriff’s website, which identifies Pasha Nicole as Christopher Thomas Lynch, the two are charged with trafficking minors and Lemery has been charged with trafficking an adult. Douglas County is located about 20 miles west of Atlanta.

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Honorable Mention

Mike Ritter Cartoon: Protecting Our Students

Mike Ritter's editorial cartoon

Mike Ritter’s editorial cartoon from our June 10, 2011 issue created quite the stir on religious and atheist blogs and forums across the net. Ritter’s cartoon was viewed more than 50,000 times in the two days after it was published.