The ACLU of New Jersey and Garden State Equality, the leading LGBT advocacy organization in New Jersey, as well as religious and civic leaders are calling for a thorough investigation of an Atlanta man shot and killed by an undercover police officer in a well-known gay Newark cruising park.
First Marietta gay Pride festival today at LeBuzz
Thursday’s LGBT forum with top Atlanta police officials ended with a testy exchange between Mayor Kasim Reed and the attorney representing the Atlanta Eagle. The gay bar filed a federal civil suit against the city and the Atlanta Police department over last year’s controversial raid.
Acting Atlanta Police Chief George Turner understands there is a rift between LGBT residents and his department, and he hopes a town hall meeting organized by the police and openly gay Atlanta City Council member Alex Wan will help mend that fracture.
The meeting was scheduled for July 22, after Georgia Voice press time.
“We’ve not had a specific meeting for the GLBT community and so we felt it appropriate to building a relationship,” Turner said July 19.
“We’re getting the LGBT advisory board back up and want to work on a partnership,” Turner said.
The nine-member board may start meeting as soon as this fall, said Senior Patrol Officer Patricia Powell, the department’s new LGBT liaison.
After a three-year stint in the Army, Patricia Powell was managing her brother’s barbecue restaurant, Hecky’s in Evanston, Ill., when she got a phone call from her sister in Atlanta.
“She said I should move down here, they were hiring police officers. I said, ‘Me, a police officer?’ She said you’d be good, you’re in shape,” Powell said.
Powell, who played basketball for the Army (position: guard), was ready to move from the cold climate of Chicago and the restaurant business and try something new.
So at 35 she packed her bags, moved to Atlanta and began the process of becoming an APD officer. Some 11 years later, she was named the department’s LGBT liaison officer.
A long-awaited National HIV/AIDS Strategy document the White House released July 14 calls for devoting more funds and attention to HIV prevention programs that target four high-risk population groups, especially gay and bisexual men.
The 45-page strategy document that took 15 months to prepare says state and federal AIDS prevention programs have so far failed to adequately target gay and bisexual men and transgender people.
Gay performers Alan Kilpatrick and Glenn Rainey aren’t technically joined at the hip, but they’ve acted a lot like it lately. Their collaboration in the musical “Hairspray” (opening at The Strand Theatre this week courtesy of Atlanta Lyric Theatre) is their third in the past nine months.
In “Hairspray,” they play husband and wife. Kilpatrick plays Wilbur Turnblad and Rainey plays the immortal Edna Turnblad. Rainey joins a list of heavyweights who have played that role onstage including Tony winner Harvey Fierstein, Bruce Vilanch and “Cheers” star George Wendt.
Rainey actually auditioned to understudy for Edna when he was living in New York. Although he has played women before, this is unique.
After two years in drought-caused exile, Backpack in the Park returns to its original home in Piedmont Park on Aug. 1 with a bigger event and bigger goals than ever before.
Backpack in the Park is one of two annual signature events hosted by For the Kid in All of Us, a nonprofit founded in 2003 to bring gay men, lesbians and gay rights allies together to help underprivileged children.
Backpack in the Park provides thousands of students with backpacks and school supplies. After collecting 1,600 supply-filled backpacks last year in Grant Park, For the Kid President Jorge Esteban wants to beat that record this year.
There won’t be as many athletes marching behind the Team Atlanta banner when Gay Games VIII opens in Cologne, Germany, but participants say the spirit of camaraderie and competition remains strong.
Some 160 athletes from Atlanta participated in the last Gay Games, held in Chicago in 2006. Thanks in large part to the longer distance — and therefore increased costs and vacation time requirements — only about 30 will make the trek to Germany for this year’s Games, which get underway July 31 and run through Aug. 7.
The Atlanta Queer Literary Festival traces its roots to a one-day special event held at the Atlanta-Fulton County Public Library in 2006. From there, the event has blossomed: Last year’s festival drew a crowd of more than 500 to see 70 participating authors, including keynotes Staceyann Chin and Manil Suri.
After producing the Gay Community Yellow Pages in Atlanta and South Florida, Carma Productions recognized that customers are no longer turning just to printed directories to find the businesses and services they need.
But what started as simply an additional product for their existing print advertisers quickly took on a life of its own: Gayborhood, the company’s smart phone app, launched on May 15 and has already been downloaded more than 4,000 times.