(Vicki Powell again spins at this year's official Atlanta Pride kick-off part at the Georgia Aquarium. Photo by Brent Rence Corcoran/RNZ Photography)
FRIDAY, OCT. 11
Fifth Annual Official Atlanta Pride Kick-off Party at the Georgia Aquarium
7 p.m. – 11:30 p.m.
This event is a great way to kickoff the Atlanta Pride weekend with over 4,000 of your closest friends! In 2012, this event won the prestigious event industry ALLIE AWARD for Best Themed Party in Atlanta.
This is an amazing way to experience the Georgia Aquarium with special evening hours and exclusive admission pricing just for Atlanta Pride. Imagine exploring the world’s largest, most magical aquarium with dim lighting and the sounds of Atlanta’s very own DJ Vicki Powell. This year DJ Chris Griswold will be adding to the experience with his signature sound in our Oceans Ballroom located on the second level.
Editor's Note: This story and photo were submitted by Erik Friedly, a gay American living in Uganda working in health communications. You can read an interview the GA Voice conducted with him last year by clicking here.
The second annual Ugandan Gay Pride celebration kicked off on July 31 and ran through Aug. 4, featuring film screenings, HIV counseling and testing, a parade, and, of course, plenty of partying.
Most of the events took place at the expansive Botanical Gardens in Entebbe, located about 45 minutes from the capital, Kampala. Because the Botanical Gardens stretch along the shores of Lake Victoria, the celebration took the name "Beach Pride Uganda 2013" with the theme "Still Here, Going Strong."
There's nothing like marching bands to celebrate a presidential inauguration. And nothing makes a parade a celebration like gay and lesbian musicians and color guards marching out and proud to the sound of their own drummers.
President Barack Obama's inauguration is set for Monday with a celebration to include a parade with 28 bands including the Lesbian and Gay Band Association and its seven members from Atlanta. The LGBA is the only LGBT band in the parade.
Marching with the LGBA in Monday's parade are Atlanta Freedom Bands members Eddie Young and Bob Derickson, piccolo; Karen Helbling, trumpet; John Peterson, trombone; Robert Corona, color guard; Danielle Steele, honor guard; and Cliff Norris, sousaphone. Young and Norris are section captains on the artistic leadership team for the weekend.
President Obama includes Stonewall, marriage equality in inaugural address
As a field general during the earliest battles of the modern LGBT rights movement, Harvey Milk’s primary weapon was a red and white bullhorn. The Fanon Transistorized Megaphone became a part of Milk’s political combat uniform, used to rally an army of San Francisco queers, street kids and liberals against centuries-old oppression of homosexuals.
The iconic megaphone amplified Milk’s words so loudly that they still echo today, almost 35 years after Milk was killed for fighting on behalf of gay liberation.
Milk’s election to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors made him one of the first openly gay elected officials in America, but a conservative fellow lawmaker assassinated him in 1978. Now Milk has a new type of megaphone to make sure his message and spirit remain as boisterous as they were when he was riling up a rebellion in the streets of San Francisco during the 1970s.
Atlanta’s Pride festival wouldn’t be complete without the annual parade, which kicks off at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 14. Each year, the parade draws tens of thousands along the traditional route down Peachtree Street to 10th Street and Piedmont Park.
Organizers say more than 200 entrants have signed on this year, ranging from local nonprofit organizations to politicians, gay-friendly businesses and multi-national corporations.
The grand marshals for the 2012 parade are trans activist Vandy Beth Glenn; Rev. Joshua Noblitt, minister of social justice at Saint Mark United Methodist Church; Jeff Graham, Georgia Equality executive director; Danny Ingram, American Veterans for Equal Rights executive director; Dr. Julie Kubala, senior lecturer and director of undergraduate studies for the Women’s Studies Institute at Georgia State University; Anita Rae Strange, “AKA Clermont Blondie”; the Alpha Chapter of Sigma Omega Phi Fraternity, Inc. and drag fundraising troupe The Armorettes.
Annual event draws tens of thousands to Midtown