Queer activists with Southerners on New Ground as well as the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights and Project South will hold a press conference and rally Tuesday demanding President Obama put an immediate end to detentions and deportations.
The press conference and rally will be at 10:30 a.m. at the Atlanta Detention Center, 180 Spring St.
I'm in love. And I hope we all say, 'I do.' And how could you not to such a dapper looking group of people asking for our help to continue to fight for equality for all people.
Southerners on New Ground, celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, is honoring the Supreme Court rulings on same-sex marriage by urging LGBTQ people and allies to "Marry the Movement."
Check out this great video released the day after the historic SCOTUS rulings on DOMA and Prop 8 that features Atlanta-based LGBTQ leaders including Pat Hussain, Paulina Helm-Hernandez, Ashe W. Helm-Hernandez, Step Guillod and Holiday Simmons.
The LGBTQ organization Southerners on New Ground, signers of a letter to the judge asking no more jail time be served by the young men who attacked Brandon White, issued a statement July 18 on its website explaining the motivation for doing so.
The letter was given to Fulton Superior Court Judge T. Jackson Bedford before the sentencing hearing held July 12-13. The letter was also read aloud in court. The attack took place in southwest Atlanta on Feb. 4. The assailants can be heard shouting, "No faggots in Jack City" as the three young men pummeled White as he tried to escape.
The three defendants — Christopher Cain, 18; Dorian Moragne, 19; and Darael Williams, 17 — were sentenced to five years in prison and five years probation by Fulton Superior Court Judge T. Jackson Bedford on July 13.
Southerners on New Ground, which is based in North Carolina and Atlanta, created a video to say it and its members are not defeated by the passage of Amendment 1. The state constitutional amendment states that marriage is only between a man and a woman.
S.O.N.G. works to empower LGBTQ people living in rural areas of the South on such issues as immigration rights and transgender non-discrimination says instead that Amendment 1 unified all people in the state to fight for LGBTQ equality as well as form a movement to work for the rights of all disenfranchised people.
Activists protesting an Arizona-style immigration law becoming a reality in Georgia will hand-deliver petitions with some 10,000 signatures to Gov. Nathan Deal on Monday, April 11.
Protesters are planning to meet at the Gold Dome (facing Washington Street) at 9:30 a.m. to hold a mock funeral for “all that Georgia would lose” should Deal sign into law immigration legislation. According to organizers, the mock funeral will feature tombstones with messages such as “R.I.P. Tourism,” “R.I.P. Conventions,” and “R.I.P Southern Hospitality.” They will then deliver the petitions to Gov. Deal, Lieutenant Governor Casey Cagle and House Speaker David Ralston.
Yesterday, we reported on early calls from national gay groups planning to boycott the state if the legislation is signed into law. The National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, Southerners on New Ground and the National Day Laborers Organizing Network have announced plans to boycott the state.
The Georgia House is expected to vote on a controversial immigration bill today.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Matt Ramsey, is similar to a laws passed in Arizona last year that drew national criticism from privacy advocates and pro-immigration groups.
Opponents of the bill range from medical advocacy organizations to gay rights groups. Paulina Hernández, co-director of Southerners on New Ground, says HB 87 as just as bad, if not worse, than Arizona's legislation.
Hernández believes HB 87 will especially impact transgender people and individuals who do not fully pass in their gender presentation. Hernández says the bill will set “the cross-hairs on folks already vulnerable in our community.”