GA Voice editor Laura Douglas-Brown was featured on AM 1690 | The Voice of the Arts this week in a new bi-weekly segment highlighting upcoming arts and entertainment events and LGBT community news.
In this week's segment, Laura discusses our second annual Pet Issue and how being on the cover has affected our office dog Sophia.
I still have stretch marks. They’re not from pregnancy or weight loss. Instead, my stretch marks came in the early ‘80s during a very painful growth spurt. And this week’s final space shuttle landing reminded me of that time.
My love of all things space began at a young age, and my first dream was to be an astronaut. Of course, at the same time my biggest fear was flying so I soon realized the only way I was ever going to see space was by watching “Star Trek.”
My room back in 1981 was filled with images of all things celestial and in my mind those walls doubled as NASA Control. Scotch tape framed images of the space shuttle Columbia, whose maiden voyage had just taken place, at about the time the aching of my growing legs kept me up at night in tears. And to see those images of Columbia’s dusty landing at Andrews Air Force Base helped focus my mind on something other than being elongated in torture like Stretch Armstrong.
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 community news featured in GA Voice.
In the latest segment, Laura previews our 50 ways to beat the heat (and boredom) this summer and previews other upcoming content in our newest print edition.
I really didn’t think they would do it. Yet while it is historic that New York legalized gay marriage, you would think it would already be legal there by now and even be allowed in California (and we saw how that worked out with Proposition 8).
I mean, both of these states pride themselves on being more progressive than the rest of the country on most everything. I think a majority of the United States would agree with them, especially Georgia.
But the fact that New York and California still fight it out on whether gays should be allowed to marry in their state proves to me they aren’t as progressive as they would like to think. And Georgians should not assume that we have to wait in line behind the Northeast and West before we get our turn at anything, including gay marriage.
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 community news featured in GA Voice.
In the latest segment, Laura previews our second annual Best of Atlanta issue, introduces our new columnist Melissa Carter and gives insight into how certain stories make it into each print issue.
Last year, nearly 100 people crammed into Radial Café, many sitting on the floor, for WABE’s “Out & Out Loud” event featuring lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people sharing their stories as part of the NPR affiliate’s StoryCorps program.
“The StoryCorps event was a smashing success — the idea of people gathering in a room to just listen to stories of other community members — that’s not really something you can do at [Atlanta Pride in October] and be effective,” said James Sheffield, executive director of Atlanta Pride.
This year’s free event is set for Wednesday, June 22. Food will be available from Radial Café and people will have the chance to sit in a more spacious setting at the recently expanded Phillip Rush Center.
GA Voice editor Laura Douglas-Brown was featured on AM 1690 | The Voice of the Arts this morning as part of a continuing bi-weekly interview segment highlighting upcoming LGBT arts and entertainment events featured in our latest print issue.
In this week's segment, Laura discusses the upcoming events surrounding Atlanta's Stonewall Week and previews some of the arts and entertainment content in this week's paper.
GA Voice editor Laura Douglas-Brown was featured on AM 1690 | The Voice of the Arts this morning as part of a continuing bi-weekly interview segment highlighting upcoming LGBT arts and entertainment events featured in our latest print issue.
In this week's segment, Laura discusses the impact of 30 years of HIV/AIDS, previews our interview with CNN news anchor Don Lemon and highlights upcoming Memorial Day Weekend events in the LGBT community.
Progress is being made under the Gold Dome in the fight for LGBT equality, but sometimes “it’s a slow process,” said Candace Campen, director of community affairs for state Rep. Karla Drenner. Campen made the comments at the second annual Atlanta event to honor International Day Against Homophobia on May 17.
Campen, who is also Drenner’s partner, went on to explain at the event held at Unity Fellowship Church that Drenner, who could not attend because she was teaching a class a DeVry, works hard on both sides of the aisle to build coalitions.
In the waning days of the last state legislative session, Drenner introduced the Georgia Fair Employment Practices Bill, HB 630. The bill currently has 70 sponsors and cosponsors, including 12 Republicans and one Independent, according to Georgia Equality. It would cover Georgia’s 174,000 state employees. Currently 21 states bar job discrimination against state employees based on sexual orientation, while 12 also ban job bias against state employees based on gender identity, Georgia Equality noted.
Betty Couvertier, 63, has been part of Atlanta’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender activist scene since the mid-1990s when she moved here from Brooklyn.
Couvertier is the host of “Alternative Perspectives,” an LGBT radio show that airs Tuesdays from 7-8 p.m. on the community-owned and operated station WRFG 89.3 FM. She also organized the state’s first International Day Against Homophobia last year. The second IDAHO event is slated for May 17 at Unity Fellowship Church.
What kind of jobs have you held in the past?
I was a New York City correction officer and retired early and have been able to explore many things, from bartending, to event organizing, line cook, managing restaurants, raising children and a DIYer (do it yourself).
Why did you start ‘Alternative Perspectives,’ which debuted in 2006?
“Alternative Perspectives” started from a notion that our news was important news and that our voices together could get a message out to the public — to the folks that we work with, play with, shop with, live next to, go to school with.