Nothing makes one appreciate the good times more than remembering the difficult trials that have been endured. While Atlanta Pride...
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Dyke March and Trans March today in Piedmont Park
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As a semi-retired member of the drag troupe the Armorettes, Tony Kearney doesn’t don his heels and wigs as frequently as he used to. However, there’s a magic to the Starlight Cabaret that closes Atlanta Pride that makes him rush to his closet to unleash his drag alter ego, Wild Cherry Sucret.
“It’s just, when you look out and there’s a sea of people, and they’re every race, and color, and age,” Kearney said of the Starlight Cabaret, which takes place at 7:05 p.m. on the Coca-Cola stage Oct. 9. “There’s a lot of different kids that come to it who never get to see Atlanta’s drag shows.
“Atlanta used to be like the hub of drag in the country, and it’s kind of different now without the big bars and the big stages,” Kearney added. “It’s an opportunity for a lot of people to shine, and a lot of people come out who normally wouldn’t see them perform.”
At Pride you’ll have as many food choices as the ex partners you might see. There will be all the festival food that you crave, like funnel cakes, gyros, and my favorite — jalapeno corn dogs that they batter dip in front of you. Get your fare, find a grassy knoll and have a people-watching picnic.
If you want to sit down in a restaurant instead, or you need to entertain guests in town for Pride weekend, options are plentiful surrounding Piedmont Park.
Near the park with great patios
Willy’s Mexicana Grill: You can’t get closer to Pride than this. Located in the front of Piedmont Park facing Piedmont Avenue, Willy’s won best burrito by the AJC and has a large patio. Choose either chicken, tofu, or grilled steak. I like lots of their chunky guacamole and visit the salsa bar. The burritos are big enough to split which would give you a healthy huge fresh meal for under $8. Good place to bring the kids and dogs.
There were many poignant moments Sept. 19 as about 200 Atlantans gathered in Piedmont Park to mark the end of the U.S. military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. But few were as touching as when Danny Ingram, national president of American Veterans for Equal Rights, brought to the podium the very officer who had discharged him from the Army for being gay almost 20 years ago.
Ingram was discharged in 1994, one of the first victims of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” He explained how now-retired Colonel Kelly R. Jimenez, who is Latino, called him into a meeting with him and the second in command, who was African-American.
“My granddaddy had to get his ass kicked so I could serve in the U.S. Army,” Ingram recalled Jimenez saying.
What a difference a year makes.
“Hopes dim for ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ repeal this year,” read a headline in last year’s GA Voice Atlanta Pride issue, which hit the streets on Oct. 1, 2010.
Headline on page 36 of this Pride issue? “Atlanta celebrates end of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
Of course, the end of the military’s discriminatory ban on openly gay service members was years in the making. Efforts to repeal the ban began as soon as it was passed in 1993 as a disappointing compromise after newly elected President Bill Clinton had pledged to let gays serve in the military.
Clinton’s election played a small but meaningful role in my own coming out story. I never doubted my parents’ love, but they weren’t exactly thrilled in 1991 when they found out I was gay.