Tag: LGBT

The theme of Atlanta Pride’s 55th annual celebration in Piedmont Park, from October 11 to 12, is “Rooted in Resistance”—a response to the current political climate. During Georgia's 2025 legislative session, conservative lawmakers passed a “religious freedom” law. LGBTQ+ Georgians consider it to be legalized discrimination because the law gives individuals and businesses a legal defense to ignore antidiscrimination protections.

Out Front Theatre, Atlanta’s queer-led performance company, has embraced its role in sustaining the idea that “joy is an act of resistance.” Its season-closing production, this month’s world premiere of Trick! The Musical, based on the 1999 film, trains the spotlight on the bright side of LGBTQ+ life.

Backstreet’s infamous 10,000-plus nights of dancing, drag, drugs, and debauchery, spanning the years from 1975 to 2004—recounted by the people who owned the club, worked there, documented its life span, and, of course, partied inside the legendary Atlanta nightspot.

The first Atlanta Pride was held in Piedmont Park 50 years ago to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall Uprising. Our LGBTQ+ community has made many strides over the last half-century. But we have far to go.

Atlanta has reigned supreme on the national Black LGBTQ+ Pride circuit by attracting stars like Nicki Minaj and Brandy and by evolving into a bona-fide summer festival with food and retail vendors in Piedmont Park—as LGBTQ+ families sprawl across picnic blankets like they once did in Henri McTerry’s backyard.

Just one story tall and tucked between 7th and 8th streets on Peachtree, a tiny gay bar has built a reputation that towers over many of the skyscrapers that surround it.

“I have always been very clear on this. I do not believe being gay is a sin. This is the way people are born. God doesn’t mess up. We are all a part of God’s creation and need to be celebrated as such.”

Friends, family, lovers, and strangers stitched colorful, personal, and heartfelt tribute panels measuring three feet by six feet—the approximate measurements of a grave, Jones says—that when stitched together create a 1.3 million square foot symbol as iconic as the red ribbon worn to raise awareness about the disease.

On the first anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall Riots, roughly 100 Atlantans, frustrated by discriminatory treatment against LGBTQ people on local and national levels, began marching on Peachtree Street.

"I always wished, 'God, make me not a homosexual,' since I could imagine no life as that. And I told [my LGBTQ] workshop participants, once you accept and cherish who you are, you shine like [a] star."