Richard Rhodes lauded for Lifetime Achievement, other winners announced tonight
The Atlanta Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce announced today its 2012 Community Award nominees and will announce the winners at its special awards dinner on Sept. 14 at the W Atlanta Midtown hotel.
And the nominees are:
Atlanta’s chapter of Parents, Families, & Friends of Lesbians & Gays will host its first-ever “Out with the Stars” awards dinner on Saturday, June 23, to honor educators, students, parents and nonprofits that have advocated acceptance and tolerance for gays and lesbians in Atlanta.
“This event is our chance to say ‘thank you’ to them for all they do,” said Conal Charles, co-president of PFLAG Atlanta.
The gala at Labella at Lambert Place will double as a fundraiser for PFLAG Atlanta, which celebrates its 26th year of service to the community this year. PFLAG Atlanta was founded in 1986 to give parents of LGBT children a network of support.
One weekend during the summer of 1982, Peter Aliberti went to an apartment complex near Monroe Drive and Dutch Valley Road to lounge poolside with a group of friends, and he wound up leaving as part of a group of prophets.
“I’ll never forget that day because it was the day that everything changed,” Aliberti recalled during a recent interview in Midtown. “We were just kids – we were in our late twenties, early thirties. We’d go there every Saturday and Sunday and be silly, lie in the sun, drink cocktails, whatever.”
The typically lighthearted banter between Aliberti and his friends turned frightening on this particular day, as the men shared news they were hearing from friends in New York and San Francisco about gay men in those cities suddenly dying of a mysterious disease.
The Atlanta Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce filled the ballroom at the W Midtown Hotel on the evening of Friday, Aug. 26, to celebrate the organization and announce the winners of its 2011 Community Awards.
The AGLCC presented Philip Rafshoon, owner of Outwrite Bookstore & Coffeehouse, with its Lifetime Achievement Award. In remarks accepting the award, Rafshoon acknowledged his mother, who was in attendance, discussed the tough times facing Outwrite and the bookstore industry, and joked about feeling too young to receive a “lifetime” achievement award until he learned that Madonna won one at age 28.
The lifetime achievement award was announced in advance, while winners in the following categories were revealed during the dinner:
Help us choose the winners out of the top three in each of our Best of Atlanta categories
We're now accepting nominations for GA Voice's 2011 Best of Atlanta awards
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The motto of the Atlanta Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce is simple but powerful: “advocacy through economics.” On Aug. 20, the organization hosts its 12th annual Community Awards Dinner, which honors leaders, companies and organizations that bridge the two.
“We’re trying to build the gay dollar and build businesses working together and supporting each other, and the dinner definitely raises that awareness and shows the importance of looking out for each other, making sure our voices are heard, and making sure we are putting money back into our community,” says Ted Bruner, AGLCC president.
AGLCC solicits nominees from its members and others in the community in the categories of Business Woman of the Year, Business Man of the Year, Member of the Year, Corporate Ally and Guardian Angel (which goes to a nonprofit).