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Occupy Atlanta moves in with lesbian couple facing foreclosure

The Georgia Voice Editors
Politics
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Occupy Atlanta protesters in Woodruff Park

Activists with Atlanta's Occupy movement will occupy the Riverdale home of Brigitte Walker and her partner, Ajai Craig, the group announced this week.

Walker, an Iraq War veteran, is on 90 percent disability stemming from injuries she sustained while serving in the military and is facing foreclosure from her mortgage holder. Organizers say that her fixed income, along with her bank's refusal to negotiate new terms, have put her home “deep into the foreclosure process.”

Occupy Atlanta will host a press conference at Walker and Craig's home later today, organizers said.

Occupy Equality aims to unite LGBT economic protesters

The Georgia Voice Editors
National
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A lesbian activist in New York is trying to unite LGBT members of Occupy Wall Street protests across the country to highlight the economic issues gay and transgender people face for simply being who they are.

Jessica Naomi, 60, from Catskills, N.Y.,  started the Occupy Equality movement, an Internet gathering of LGBT activists involved in the nationwide OWS protests, a month ago and has held several working group meetings online.

“We’re trying to connect the street to the net,” Naomi said in a phone interview. “We’re using it as a way to do direct action.”

Naomi said a disability makes it difficult for her to walk and attend OWS protests, which is why she turned to the Internet for a way to become involved.

“I’m disabled, I can’t even go to these things. My ability to walk is very limited, which is why I’m trying to connect the Internet to the street. We should all have a voice,” Naomi said.

Occupy Atlanta protesters plan to return to Woodruff Park

The Georgia Voice Editors
Politics
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Occupy Atlanta protesters in Woodruff Park

Despite being forcefully removed from Atlanta's downtown Woodruff Park, Occupy Atlanta protesters plan to return to the park on Nov. 5, 2011, according to the group's website. The move comes after the Atlanta Police Department, on orders from Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, arrested some 53 protesters for refusing to vacate the park in the early morning hours of Oct. 26 after Reed revoked an executive order which allowed the protesters to remain in the park beyond the city's 11 p.m. curfew for parks.

Calling the movement's participants “the new world,” organizers say their message will not be silenced by the APD or the threat of more arrests. A message posted on the Occupy Atlanta website today states:

We are the 99 percent, too

The Georgia Voice Editors
Community
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Occupy Wall Street protesters at Mayor Reed's press conference

Early Wednesday morning, the Atlanta Police Department, acting on orders from Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, arrested 53 Occupy Atlanta protesters who defiantly remained in the city's Woodruff Park beyond an 11 p.m. curfew.

During an early morning press conference, Reed said that the city was forced to take action against the protesters after Occupy Atlanta organizers attempted to host a free hip-hop concert in Woodruff Park over the weekend without a proper security plan.

When Reed announced Oct. 24 a reversal of his earlier order allowing protesters to remain in Woodruff Park beyond the 11 p.m. curfew for the city's parks, activists accused the mayor of misrepresenting the reasons for booting the protesters.

Why LGBT people are the 99 percent, too

The Georgia Voice Editors
Editorials
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As LGBT people, we are unfortunately used to living in the minority. But as economic protest movements spread from Wall Street to Atlanta and around the world, we are firmly in the majority: We, too, are the 99 percent.

The slogan of the Occupy Wall Street movement comes, of course, from staggering statistics about the divide between the richest 1 percent of Americans and the rest of us.

According to Think Progress, this richest 1 percent owns 40 percent of the nation’s wealth, takes home 24 percent of national income, owns 50 percent of stocks, bonds and mutual funds; has only 5 percent of the nation’s personal debt; and their share of national income is higher now than at any other time except the 1920s.

Podcast: ‘We are the 99%, too’

The Georgia Voice Editors
Culture
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GA Voice editor Laura Douglas-Brown was featured on AM 1690 | The Voice of the Arts this week in a bi-weekly segment highlighting upcoming arts and entertainment events and LGBT community news featured in our upcoming issue.

In this week's segment, Laura discusses our cover story, "We are the 99%, too" highlighting LGBT involvement in the Occupy Atlanta movement, our interviews with actress Meredith Baxter and author Gregory Maguire, and upcoming LGBT-specific Halloween events.

Atlanta mayor to kick OWS protesters out of Woodruff Park

The Georgia Voice Editors
Atlanta
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Rabbi Joshua Lesser at City Hall

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed announced this afternoon that he was reneging on his promise to allow Occupy Wall Street protesters freedom to remain in Atlanta's Woodruff Park until early November.

During a press conference at City Hall, Reed said that events over the weekend led to his decision to revoke his previous executive order. A two-day hip-hop concert, called Atlanta Hip-Hop Day Free Concert Festival, was scheduled to be held in Woodruff Park on Oct. 23-24, but organizers failed to provide the city with an adequate security plan, according to the mayor. The use of a power generator without a permit was also a cause to shut down the event, Reed added.

Around a half-dozen Occupy Atlanta protesters were present during the often-heated press conference. OWS Atlanta members shouted several times that Reed was lying or fabricating his reasons for the eviction.

Religion blog: A pastoral thought

The Georgia Voice Editors
Faith
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The Occupy Wall Street protest seems to have taken on a life of its own, spreading from Wall Street to major cities across the world.

I find it amusing, in an ironic way, that those who supported the Tea Party folks find the Occupy Wall Street protesters repulsive. One would think that both of these movements would literally shout “There is something very wrong with our society!”

With all the mess going on, and the awful things each side are saying to each other, with the news media behaving like vultures and people jockeying for position, we now see this fighting as standing in the way of making sure our country is protected, secure and safe.

LGBT Atlantans join local Occupy Wall Street movement

The Georgia Voice Editors
Community
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Occupy Atlanta movemebt

It all began about a month ago, some 2,000 protesters rallied in Lower Manhattan's Zuccotti Park against corporate greed, bank bailouts and the pervasive nature in which Wall Street investors make their money. The movement, known as Occupy Wall Street, has since taken hold among activists in cities across the world, even here in Atlanta, where protesters who made an encampment at the city's downtown Woodruff Park are entering a second week.

Around a dozen members of the Radical Faeries have joined the local movement, while many more have offered support online. Several of the Faeries have been in Woodruff Park since the local protest began.

A Roara' Thunder, from East Atlanta, said today that Occupy Atlanta's organizers and participating protesters have been wholly supportive of LGBT participation.