On the list are such notable individuals and groups as Dr. Christina Bucher, Lorraine Fontana, Mark S. King, Evelyn Mims, Charles Stephens, the Atlanta Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and Charis Circle.
All will be featured in the annual Parade that takes place at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 13.
Here’s a look at some of the 2013 Grand Marshalls:
Dr. Christina Bucher
Dr. Christina (Tina) Bucher lives in Rome, GA, where she is an Associate Professor of
English, Rhetoric, and Writing at Berry College. For most of her 18 years at Berry, she has been one of many people who have worked persistently to gain official status for Listen, an LGBT student organization. This goal was finally achieved in September 2012.
She functioned as an advisor to LGBT students and allies for the years when a group was still unofficial, wrote for campus publications and spoke on panels raising awareness on LGBT issues, collaborated with the Dean of Students to bring Safe Space training to the campus in 2008, and served with other dedicated colleagues and students on the committee whose work led to approval of Listen last fall. The group made its inaugural march in the Atlanta Pride Parade in October 2012.
In addition, Dr. Bucher created Berry’s first course in gay and lesbian literature, now listed in the college catalog. She served as a PFLAG representative in Rome from 2007-2012 and is an active member of the board for the AIDS Resource Council of Rome. She shares life and adventures with her partner, Sherre Harrington.
Lorraine Fontana
Lorraine Fontana was raised in a working class Italian family in Queens, NYC. She became a supporter of the Civil Rights and Black Empowerment Movements and an anti-war activist early in life.
Joining VISTA in 1968 is what brought her to Atlanta and she came out there among other leftist and feminist women who together founded the Atlanta Lesbian Feminist Alliance (ALFA – 1972 to 1994), and later DARII (Dykes for the Second American Revolution).
Her legal training (1976-79) at the People’s College of Law in L.A. led to work as a staff person with the National Jury Project, a brief period doing poverty law with Georgia Legal Services, and later using her legal skills as a paralegal back in NYC for the EEOC (Oct 1999 to Jan, 2004), and in Georgia as a Legal Assistant for Lambda Legal Education & Defense Fund (2006-
2012). In the mid ‘70s and ‘80s she often served as an ALFA rep to coalition/partnership projects with both others in the growing “out”-LGBTQ community as well as the larger progressive community. More recently she became a member of the short-lived Queer Progressive Agenda (QPA), and has endeavored to be an ally to queers of color-led organizations in the ATL. She’s also member/supporter of First Existentialist Congregation of Atlanta’s Social Justice Guild, the Georgia Peace & Justice Coalition, Charis Books, the Atlanta Grandmothers for Peace, SAGE Atlanta, and Southerners on New Ground.
Evelyn Mims
A longtime friend and supporter of Atlanta’s LGBT community, Mims has been a regular contributor to WXIA for several years, During her career she has served as the only African-American chapter president of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.Her television career spans more than 30 years. A graduate of Jackson State University in Mississippi, her first job was at NBC affiliate WLBT. She later rose to Program Coordinator of WXIA, another NBC affiliate in Atlanta. Working in front of the camera as well behind the scenes, Mims has received three Emmy nominations for her role as the “Soap Sultress” on 11Alive’s top rated ‘Noonday’ show, which has lead to guest appearances on the daytime soap opera “Days of Our Lives.”