The ACLU of Georgia is urging the Gwinnett County Public School System to stop filtering LGBT websites from students or...
On the heels of Bishop Eddie Long's settlement with four young men who sued him for alleged sexual coercion, Bernice King confirmed Tuesday that she is leaving New Birth Missionary Baptist Church.
"I know there has been lots of speculation and comments about my departure from New Birth," King told radio host Rhodell Lewis on Praise 102.5 FM. King is the daughter of the late Martin Luther King Jr. and late Coretta Scott King.
"Let me start by just clarifying to let all your listeners and others who may be listening in that ... after eight years and eight months my last Sunday as a member of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church was this past Sunday," King said.
The City of Atlanta is apparently rushing to finish an investigation that’s been open for two years into the police raid of the Atlanta Eagle that happened in September 2009.
Patrons and employees who were in the gay bar the night it was raided on Sept. 10, 2009, filed complaints in the days following the raid with the Atlanta Police Department’s Office of Professional Standards. That OPS investigation remains open.
When the city settled for more than $1 million in December with plaintiffs who sued because they said their constitutional rights were violated, part of the settlement agreement included a specific clause that the city had 180 days to complete an investigation into the raid.
SAGE Atlanta is hosting a community forum on Sunday, May 22, at the Phillip Rush Center for a webcast with other activists to discuss ways to meet the needs of elderly LGBT people. The forum begins at 2:30 p.m.
SAGE (Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders), a national organization with 20 affiliates across the nation including the newly formed Atlanta affiliate, will be broadcasting a live meeting online from the New York LGBT Center to screens at the Phillip Rush Center.
Participants in Atlanta will have a chance to watch the meeting along with other affiliates and take part in a national conversation to learn about what SAGE is working for in its mission to finding ways to meet the needs of aging gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.
Atlanta will be the home for Ben Cohen's StandUp Foundation as well as his StandUp brand, it was announced today.
Cohen, the hunky — and straight — rugby star (now retired) from England, has been in Atlanta this week as part of his “Acceptance Tour 2011” to bring awareness about bullying against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender young people and to find ways to stop it.
“I have a big following, I have a voice, I want to use it,” he said. “I’m in a privileged position and I want to set a precedent. Being gay is not a disease, it’s not a choice," he told the GA Voice in a recent interview.
Making Atlanta the home base for his foundation was a simple choice, Cohen said in statement released late Friday. Because Atlanta has been dubbed in the past as the “gayest city” in America by The Advocate and is home to the civil rights movement, the city "too busy to hate" was the best place.
“I can think of no better place to base our operations and make the differences we intend to make,” Cohen said.
Cohen said he is also the first straight athlete to focus his energy on LGBT causes and anti-bullying measures.
“The Foundation is believed to be the world’s first organization dedicated solely to the cause of anti-bullying, wherever and to whomever it occurs,” states a press release from the StandUp Foundation.
Jim Galloway, writer of the Political Insider column for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, says that the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials won't support boycotts of the state as part of opposition to passage of the law.
GALEO is headed up by openly gay man Jerry Gonzalez.
According to Galloway, Gonzales issued a statement that states:
Lesbian-owned Charis Books & More is the first Atlanta business to sign on as a Buy Spot and Sanctuary Zone to protest Gov. Nathan Deal's recent signing of the controversial immigration bill HB 87.
"We are agreeing to be noncompliant," programming director Elizabeth Anderson told CBS Atlanta on May 16. Deal signed the bill into law on Friday, May 13.
Buy Spots and Sanctuary Zones are being organized by a new group called We Are Georgia that is part of a movement including the Somos Georgia Campaign, the Georgia Latino Human Rights Alliance and the LGBT group Southerners On New Ground.
The Atlanta Police Department's LGBT Advisory Group is stepping up to speak on Zone 5 Commander Major Khirus Williams' behalf after it was made public he was being "forced into retirement" for leaking internal information to eliminate community-oriented policing.
According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Major Williams claims to have been “forced into retirement” after leaking an internal proposal that would have eliminated community-oriented policing. The AJC also reports that Williams was a 26-year veteran of the force and was considered as a possible replacement for Chief Richard Pennington after his retirement in 2010.
A Public Safety Committee meeting is set for today at Atlanta City Hall at 3 p.m. in Committee Room 2.
Cynthia Tucker, former editorial page editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and now tucked away in Washington, D.C., as the paper's national political columnist, doesn't mince words when talking about Eddie Long.
Long, the minister at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, was sued for allegedly coercing young male church members into sexual relationships. A settlement between Long, the church and the four men is reportedly close at hand. Long denied all accusations.
But in her blog today, Tucker calls out Long as a "homophobe, narcissist and a con artist."
"Given Long’s extremely flexible ethics over the years, it’s no surprise that he chose to engage in hush-hush negotiations aimed at settling the sexual misconduct allegations brought against him by four young men," Tucker writes.
"If the civil cases are settled — a settlement is reportedly close — they will likely require non-disclosure agreements by all parties. Long would then continue to insist that he did nothing wrong."
The gay Stonewall Bar Association of Georgia is praising the decision by King & Spalding to not follow through with...
Les Zuke, director of communications for King & Spalding, issued a statement this morning that the firm founded in Atlanta would no longer defend DOMA.
“Today the firm filed a motion to withdraw from its engagement to represent the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group of the House of Representatives on the constitutional issues regarding Section III of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act. Last week we worked diligently through the process required for withdrawal," Robert D. Hays Jr., the firm's chairperson, said in a statement.
“In reviewing this assignment further, I determined that the process used for vetting this engagement was inadequate. Ultimately I am responsible for any mistakes that occurred and apologize for the challenges this may have created," Hays added.