For 15 years, the Atlanta Eagle sign has marked the bar's nondescript presence above its entrance on Ponce de Leon Avenue in Midtown, but heavy rain and winds on Wednesday broke the sign off its pole.
One fan of the gay leather, levi and bear bar, Katrina Nicole Presko, started a campaign to raise $2,000 to replace the signage. Robby Kelley told Presko via Facebook the sign cost $2,000 when it was purchased 15 years ago. So the amount of the fundraiser may change when a new sign is picked out.
From the gofundme.com page she started:
When police raided a Fort Worth, Texas, gay bar on June 28, 2009, it was just the beginning of angry City Council meetings, protests and rallies — and, eventually, healing and change.
“Raid of the Rainbow Lounge,” a documentary that chronicles what happened in Forth Worth following the police raid, premieres in Atlanta on Oct. 7 as part of Out on Film.
Director Robert Camina said he looks forward to bringing his film to Atlanta because of the similarities he sees in Texas raid and the one at the Atlanta Eagle, just 10 weeks later. Camina and Atlanta Eagle attorney Dan Grossman will join a panel discussion after the film.
The annual Southeast Black and Blue weekend is a time for the gay men in the leather community to embrace and celebrate the kink, sex and fetish side of their community. And those competing for Southeast LeatherSIR, Southeast Leatherboy and Mr. Southeast Rubber did not disappoint with fantasy scenes that included BDSM and erotic consensual play.
Winners of the competition held Saturday, Aug. 11, at the Atlanta Eagle, were:
Three seats are open on the Atlanta Police Department’s LGBT Advisory Board after two-year terms expired.
The board, founded in 2010 by Mayor Kasim Reed during the fallout of the unconstitutional Atlanta Eagle raid, allows two-year terms for members.
Those not seeking to renew their terms are Terence McPhaul, executive director of YouthPride; Betty Couvertier, radio host for Alternative Perspectives; and Ebonee Bradford Barnes, who has been absent for four meetings.
Those who wish to remain on the board are current chairperson Glen Paul Freedman; Josh Noblitt of St. Mark United Methodist Church; AID Atlanta Executive Director Tracy Elliott; Melissa Carter; and Philip Rafshoon.
Documents released by the city of Atlanta show that the city paid out more than $1.2 million for an independent investigation into the botched raid of the Atlanta Eagle.
The documents show that high-profile law firm Greenberg Traurig charged the city more than $1.2 million for its three-month investigation and 349-page report of what happened at the Eagle the night of Sept. 10, 2009, when the gay bar was raided by the Atlanta Police Department after anonymous allegations about illegal sex and drug use at the bar. No drugs were found and nobody was arrested for illegal sex.
The investigation was mandated as part of a $1.025 million settlement the city reached in December 2010 with 26 patrons of the bar who said their constitutional rights were violated when they were detained for no reason, forced to the ground and had their IDs checked.
Third annual event at Atlanta Eagle this weekend