09/11/20, Vol. 11 Issue 12

IMPORTANT FACTS FOR BIKTARVY®

This is only a brief summary of important information about BIKTARVY and does not replace talking to your healthcare provider about your condition and your treatment.

(bik-TAR-vee)

MOST IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT BIKTARVY

POSSIBLE SIDE EFFECTS OF BIKTARVY

BIKTARVY may cause serious side effects, including:

BIKTARVY may cause serious side effects, including:  Those in the “Most Important Information About BIKTARVY” section.  Changes in your immune system. Your immune system may get stronger and begin to fight infections. Tell your healthcare provider if you have any new symptoms after you start taking BIKTARVY.  Kidney problems, including kidney failure. Your healthcare provider should do blood and urine tests to check your kidneys. If you develop new or worse kidney problems, they may tell you to stop taking BIKTARVY.  Too much lactic acid in your blood (lactic acidosis), which is a serious but rare medical emergency that can lead to death.

Tell your healthcare provider right away if you get these symptoms: weakness or being more tired than usual, unusual muscle pain, being short of breath or fast breathing, stomach pain with nausea and vomiting, cold or blue hands and feet, feel dizzy or lightheaded, or a fast or abnormal heartbeat.  Severe liver problems, which in rare cases can lead to death.

Tell your healthcare provider right away if you get these symptoms: skin or the white part of your eyes turns yellow, dark “tea-colored” urine, light-colored stools, loss of appetite for several days or longer, nausea, or stomach-area pain.  The most common side effects of BIKTARVY in clinical studies were diarrhea (6%), nausea (6%), and headache (5%).

These are not all the possible side effects of BIKTARVY. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you have any new symptoms while taking BIKTARVY. You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit www.FDA.gov/medwatch or call 1-800-FDA-1088.

Your healthcare provider will need to do tests to monitor your health before and during treatment with BIKTARVY.

 Worsening of hepatitis B (HBV) infection. If you have both HIV-1 and HBV, your HBV may suddenly get worse if you stop taking BIKTARVY. Do not stop taking BIKTARVY without first talking to your healthcare provider, as they will need to check your health regularly for several months.

ABOUT BIKTARVY BIKTARVY is a complete, 1-pill, once-a-day prescription medicine used to treat HIV-1 in adults and children who weigh at least 55 pounds. It can either be used in people who have never taken HIV-1 medicines before, or people who are replacing their current HIV-1 medicines and whose healthcare provider determines they meet certain requirements.

BIKTARVY does not cure HIV-1 or AIDS. HIV-1 is the virus that causes AIDS. Do NOT take BIKTARVY if you also take a medicine that contains:  dofetilide  rifampin  any other medicines to treat HIV-1

BEFORE TAKING BIKTARVY Tell your healthcare provider if you:  Have or have had any kidney or liver problems, including hepatitis infection.  Have any other health problems.  Are pregnant or plan to become pregnant. It is not known if BIKTARVY can harm your unborn baby. Tell your healthcare provider if you become pregnant while taking BIKTARVY.  Are breastfeeding (nursing) or plan to breastfeed. Do not breastfeed. HIV-1 can be passed to the baby in breast milk.

Tell your healthcare provider about all the medicines you take:  Keep a list that includes all prescription and over-the-counter medicines, antacids, laxatives, vitamins, and herbal supplements, and show it to your healthcare provider and pharmacist.  BIKTARVY and other medicines may affect each other.

Ask your healthcare provider and pharmacist about medicines that interact with BIKTARVY, and ask if it is safe to take BIKTARVY with all your other medicines.

Get HIV support by downloading a free app at

MyDailyCharge.com

BVYC0218_BIKTARVY_B_10X10-5_Georgia-Voice_Dimitri_r1v1jl.indd All Pages

HOW TO TAKE BIKTARVY Take BIKTARVY 1 time each day with or without food.

GET MORE INFORMATION  This is only a brief summary of important information about BIKTARVY. Talk to your healthcare provider or pharmacist to learn more.  Go to BIKTARVY.com or call 1-800-GILEAD-5  If you need help paying for your medicine, visit BIKTARVY.com for program information.

BIKTARVY, the BIKTARVY Logo, DAILY CHARGE, the DAILY CHARGE Logo, KEEP ASPIRING, LOVE WHAT’S INSIDE, GILEAD, and the GILEAD Logo are trademarks of Gilead Sciences, Inc., or its related companies. Version date: February 2020 © 2020 Gilead Sciences, Inc. All rights reserved. BVYC0218 04/20

DIMITRI LIVING WITH HIV SINCE 2018 REAL BIKTARVY PATIENT

KEEP ASPIRING.

Because HIV doesn’t change who you are.

BIKTARVY® is a complete, 1-pill, once-a-day prescription medicine used to treat HIV-1 in certain adults. BIKTARVY does not cure HIV-1 or AIDS.

Ask your healthcare provider if BIKTARVY is right for you.

See Dimitri’s story at BIKTARVY.com.

Featured patient compensated by Gilead.

Please see Important Facts about BIKTARVY, including important warnings, on the previous page and visit BIKTARVY.com.

5/12/20 9:36 AM

voice

georgia VOL.11 • ISSUE 12

ABOUT THE COVER: Photo by Atlanta Journal-Constitution Photographic Archives. Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library.

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EDITORIAL

Deputy Editor: Katie Burkholder

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Editorial Contributors: Cliff Bostock, Melissa Carter, Jim Farmer, Vandy Beth Glenn, Amy Johnston, Bill Kaelin, Ryan Lee, Rose Pelham

GUEST EDITORIAL

An Overview of Our Origins Dave Hayward, Coordinator, Touching Up Our Roots, Inc. Here in Atlanta, our long LGBTQ march to freedom took all the running we could do to stay in one place.

Carter somewhat redeemed himself in December 2004, when Berl and I camped out at the Carter Center until someone would speak to us. Georgia had just passed a constitutional amendment outlawing same sex marriage, and we asked Carter to come out for same sex civil unions. Perhaps as expiation for July 14, 1971, he did.

Sometimes our natural allies bailed, as in the Judy Collins song, “Send In The Clowns:”

Art Director: Rob Boeger

Making my entrance again with my usual flair Sure of my lines No one is there.

SALES

We always have flair, at any rate.

PRODUCTION

LGBTQ legislation. Later Boykin laughed uproariously — an excellent strategy — as Carter turned all colors of the rainbow, thundering, “No!”

rboeger@thegavoice.com

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Sales Executive: Darryl McNeil

From what the late Atlanta Pride cofounder, Berl Boykin (April 7, 1944–October 6, 2018) told me, after Stonewall, it was only us.

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FINE PRINT

All material in Georgia Voice is protected by federal copyright law and may not be reproduced without the written consent of Georgia Voice. The sexual orientation of advertisers, photographers, writers and cartoonists published herein is neither inferred nor implied. The appearance of names or pictorial representation does not necessarily indicate the sexual orientation of that person or persons. We also do not accept responsibility for claims made by advertisers.

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4 Editorial September 11, 2020

The Georgia Gay Liberation Front exploded into being on August 5, 1969, when Atlanta’s “finest” raided the Ansley Mall MiniCinema showing naked cowboys in love in Andy Warhol’s “Lonesome Cowboys.” The scourge behind the raid, Fulton County Solicitor General and Baptist deacon Hinson McAuliffe, bragged he knew how to make a city “hot for porn” (or cold, actually).

McAuliffe and company defied the Metropolitan Community Church (now the City of Light). When MCC founder Troy Perry came to town and warned “the devil is on the rampage,” it was confusing as to who we were supposed to be: saints or sinners.

Our story here is of standing up to the Bible Belt and prevailing.

Shortly after the raid, a standing room only crowd at Emory Village’s New Morning Cafe birthed the Georgia Gay Liberation Front, prime movers Bill Smith and Steve Abbott calling it the “Georgia” GLF to encompass the entire state.

They were prescient, as a couple of years later the University of Georgia Board of Regents mustered all their might to boot the UGA Committee on Gay Education (COGE) off campus. COGE head Bill

A drag queen performs in 1972 at a Cheshire Bridge Road drag show.

Green fled from death threats, but the COGE endured thanks to foot soldiers from Atlanta and Athens. Under heavy police presence, drag diva Diamond Lil headlined a benefit, showing how pivotal drag and gender nonconforming are to our freedoms, not only for us but for everyone.

Not forgotten is GGLF stalwart Severin, also known as Paul Dolan, starring in our events as he croaked his own composition “I’m Tired of Straight Men Fucking Over Me!” Severin reveled in performing “cosmic drag” in an evening gown and a prodigious black moustache, defiantly nonbinary before we had words for it. Years later he was featured in the 1994 25th anniversary Pride Exhibit at the Seagram Building in New York, as an ecstatic unidentified protester.

Berl Boykin recounted to me how our “city too busy to hate” refused a permit for the first Atlanta Pride in 1971, forcing the 125 participants to “march” on the sidewalks and stop for every traffic light.

When the GGLF appealed to the Georgia ACLU for their help, the local ACLU sneered, “you are not a minority.”

In this age of Trump, we’ve come a long way, baby.

On July 14, 1971, GGLF’s Boykin and Bill Smith and Klaus Smith met with thenGovernor Jimmy Carter to advocate for

Happily ever after, we did secure a permit for the 1972 Pride, and about 400 folks rallied behind GGLF co-chairs Bill Smith and Judy Lambert. Accentuating our “B,” Judy and her husband Phil stood as a proudly bisexual married couple. That summer Lorraine Fontana and others created Georgia’s first lesbian organization, Atlanta Lesbian and Feminist Alliance (ALFA), as “gay” alone did not speak to all our diversity. In 1979 the Gay Atlanta Minority Association (GAMA) also emerged for people of color.

Yet there was drama. We alerted The Cove and the Sweet Gum Head gay bars that we were coming to leaflet about Pride, and the manager, Frank Powell, said “we don’t want any of that radical shit in our bars!” The Sweet Gum Head calmly escorted us out the door, but the Cove goons physically tossed us through the air and out onto the parking lot. After a peaceful Pride march, some of the bars came around, and by the end of the 1970s we were registering voters at Bulldog’s and at the Sweet Gum Head.

Ultimately in September 1972 we achieved a milestone: Georgia’s first openly gay political appointee, in the person of GGLF’s Charlie St. John, to Atlanta’s Community Relations Commission, examining race relations, discrimination, and human relations.

Bill Smith succeeded Charlie on the CRC in 1973, and the rest is history and herstory.

For more information, visit www.touchingupourroots.org TheGeorgiaVoice.com

FEATURE

Retouching My Roots Dave Hayward, Coordinator of Touching Up Our Roots, Inc.

“I’m homosexual and I feel very bad about it!”

I blurted into the pay phone outside my dorm.

“Why do you feel bad about it?” retorted Frank Kameny, head of the Washington, D.C. Mattachine Society, D.C.’s only (at the time) LGBTQ rights group. For a rare moment (as anyone who knows me would know), I was speechless. I don’t have to feel bad. I thought I had to feel remorse, guilt, shame — you name it. Frank Kameny became my burning bush leading me to revelation.

Raised Irish Catholic, I whacked my breast: “through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault,” as we always did in Mass. Yet I never confessed to any priest that I crushed on other boys.

I dreaded never getting out of church for all the “Hail Marys” I’d have to say.

Except for confiding in a few friends, I burrowed into the closet until I was a sophomore at George Washington University. Upon failing to seduce one of my fraternity brothers one sunny afternoon, I became desperate. Sad and mad, I called the Mattachine Society, and Frank Kameny told me where the gay bars were.

If you’ve never heard of Frank Kameny and the Mattachine Society, one of the first LGBTQ rights groups in America, well, that’s the point. Fired by the government in 1957 for being gay, Frank appealed all the way to the Supreme Court, which refused to hear his case in 1961. To paraphrase “As You Like It,” the toad, ugly and venomous, can hold a sacred jewel. Frank’s defeat led him to found the D.C. Mattachine Society and launch annual pickets of the White House and Independence Hall in Philadelphia until Pride took over in 1970.

So, not only did Frank become my gay bar directory, he also inspired me. In 1970, I 6 Feature September 11, 2020

there is a vision, and eyes on the prize.

Photos courtesy of Touching Up Our Roots

Above: Dave Hayward (right), Greg James and Elizabeth Monahan at the 1996 Olympics. Above right: Dave Hayward at the 1976 Atlanta Pride March.

worked alongside him in the Washington, D.C. Gay Liberation Front, and I campaigned for him when he became the first openly gay man to run for Congress in 1971. When handing out fliers and spying one of my classmates and his girlfriend at Eastern Market, I hid in the bushes, but came back out when they were gone. Run sheep run, and live to fight another day: a most excellent strategy.

Frank came to the D.C. GLF and harangued everyone about the protests and lobbying we needed to be doing. Dutifully we listened to our elder statesman, and then went out to dine and cruise men. Even in the bar Frank hammered away (how did he ever have a boyfriend, I wondered).

I resolved I would be an activist and be social,

picketing the Lost and Found bar on Capitol Hill for its quadruple carding policies for women and people of color one week, and drinking and dancing there the next. I’m not proud of that. But I took a stand and then was equally determined to have a life.

A friend once said, “Dave, you have imbecilic determination,” and that’s how to be an activist and take care of yourself.

What’s absent for us now in our community is a beloved community which the civil rights movement embodies, all in this together, all for one and one for all.

Representative Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to Congress, once chided the Black community with the line, “They’re like crabs in a barrel, crawling all over each other so nobody gets to the top.”

So while the vision can fall short, at least

The key to my journey is the consciousnessraising cell groups we hosted in D.C and in the Georgia Gay Liberation Front in the ’70s.

Following Queer Theory, we called out racism, sexism, ageism, and looksism, to look into people as well as at them. We created ourselves and our camaraderie, so we had a personal base to organize our political liberation. Too often now there is just organizing. Hey, we’re all bozos on this bus, and we need to see each other as human. We have to find a way to get in the way in our own groups, and that is sad.

The specter of social injustice in the wide world and in our ranks makes me sad, and in the fulfillment of social justice I rejoice and celebrate with my brothers and sisters.

I recall when Bernice Reagon of the ensemble “Sweet Honey in the Rock” came to town and bemoaned what we could accomplish “if we all didn’t hate each other so much.” I take that inventory to heart. What does the gay faith healer say? Get over it!

For more information on Touching Up Our Roots and their virtual Gay Bar Tour, visit touchingupourroots.org.

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FEATURE

The Herstory of ZAMI NOBLA Katie Burkholder When Mary Anne Adams, the founding executive director of ZAMI NOBLA (The National Organization for Black Lesbians on Aging), came to Atlanta in 1988, the city’s landscape for Black lesbian women was far different from what we see now. She moved to what we now deem the gay mecca of the South in search of herself and a community of women like her, but it proved to be more challenging than she expected.

“When I came here, it was very difficult to find a community [of Black lesbians doing the work I was doing]; they were very closeted,” Adams told Georgia Voice. “People didn’t feel safe [to be out] in terms of their livelihoods, in terms of being in their blood families, in terms of their housing situations.

There was a lot of fear, so much so that people were really insular. It was challenging, initially, to find those women.”

Growing up in Mississippi, Adams was actively involved in Black organizing. It was this organizing experience that built the community she was looking for and eventually led to the foundation of ZAMI NOBLA itself.

“Because I was an organizer, I was able to develop a pact with the women [I met] to say, ‘We need to be more visible. We need to be more out,’” she said. “We developed this pact where there were those of us who would be out, and the other women who didn’t feel safe, for real and factual reasons, would be in the background. That worked really well.

We would meet at Charis Bookstore, which was a safe and inviting space but also a good cover for women who needed a cover.”

One Black lesbian organization Adams was deeply involved with at this time was ZAMI, Atlanta’s premier organization for lesbians of African descent and the predecessor to ZAMI NOBLA. It was her involvement in this organization that led Adams to found the organization that would give Black 8 Feature September 11, 2020

Photo via Facebook

Members of the organization ZAMI NOBLA (The National Organization for Black Lesbians on Aging)

lesbians over 40 a voice.

“After about ten years or so, [ZAMI was] running out of steam,” she said. “I looked around and noticed we were aging in place.

A lot of the sisters I would normally see out and about were slowly disappearing from the Atlanta LGBTQ landscape and they were going in — into themselves, into their homes, into their relationships.”

“I wanted to do something to impact social isolation,” she said. “I wanted to do something to gather in those women, to mobilize.”

Thus came ZAMI NOBLA’s inception in 2011. The organization uses collaboration to create a space where lesbians over 40 feel heard, seen, and valued. Flash forward to 2020, and ZAMI NOBLA is working diligently to preserve the herstory of the past and create a herstory for the future.

To do this, ZAMI NOBLA is amplifies the voices of older lesbians through their podcast, hosted by creative director Angela Denise Davis. “We call it the sound source for Black lesbian herstory,” Adams said.

“We’re going around the country, and we’re

interviewing women, particularly sisters who are in their 70s and 80s.” There are almost 40 interviews to listen to with women like Harlem activist Dr. Wilhelmina Perry, composer and musician Mary Watkins, and psychotherapist and writer Dr. Lourdes Dolores Follins. Interviews cover everything from Black LGBTQ health and cannabis to radical activism and meditation.

Along with its podcast, the organization is conducting community-engaged research and hosting cultural events to bring people together.

“Right now, we’re doing a research project about COVID-19 and Black lesbians,” Adams said. “We’re doing qualitative and quantitative research so that 10 or 20 years from now, when you want to know what people were thinking about COVID-19 and how it was impacting them, you have the voices of these Black lesbians themselves, and that’s extremely important.”

Community outreach programs offered by ZAMI NOBLA include a music program that brings in women from around the country for free ukulele lessons, sponsored by Atlanta Pride; a free ukulele class for Fulton Country residents, open to everyone 18 or older, which will launch

“When I came here, it was very difficult to find a community [of Black lesbians doing the work I was doing]; they were very closeted. People didn’t feel safe [to be out] in terms of their livelihoods, in terms of being in their blood families, in terms of their housing situations. There was a lot of fear, so much so that people were really insular. It was challenging, initially, to find those women.”

– Mary Anne Adams, the founding executive director of ZAMI NOBLA in October; a live online yoga class, tailored to women over 40, every Thursday; and the Audre Lorde scholarship fund, a $1,000 scholarship for Black lesbians 40 and older who are going back to school. It’s through these programs and more that ZAMI NOBLA creates the space for open collaboration and community.

“We believe that collaboration is the reason we do our work,” Adams said. “I believe that the only reason we are on this planet is to help one another. Why else?”

ZAMI NOBLA issues an urgent call for local, state, and federal governments to strengthen and reinforce policies and practices that work toward filling the gaps in the public’s knowledge about lesbian aging and health, and help make visible the lived experiences of black lesbians.

For more information, visit zaminobla. org. Listen to the ZAMI NOBLA podcast at zaminobla.libsyn.com, and register for the virtual Slow Your Roll yoga class by viewing this article on our website, thegavoice.com.

TheGeorgiaVoice.com

TheGeorgiaVoice.com

September 11, 2020 Ads 9

FEATURE

“Little Five Points Was Just Crawling with Lesbians!”

A history of queer women in Atlanta

organization for the Queer community, plus the Sisters of No Mercy.

The First Existentialist Congregation welcomed us to use their space as a venue for dances, art shows, poetry, and political readings.

Maria Helena Dolan Note: the below is an abbreviated tale of a magical place and time, where for over two decades, women did everything imaginable and produced concrete change, some of it lasting.

A self-help group, “Women in NonTraditional Jobs,” allowed us to work in the trades and escape harassment on the job.

The band Moral Hazard (1981) provided lesbian drama, politics and the musical excitement of the early Beatles.

Before the waves of dykes crawled in, Little Five Points (LFP) had fallen on hard times. By the late 1960s, the shopping areas were going to seed, an expressway was threatening to run through its heart, and long-term residents were leaving. Cue the opportunities for counter-cultural types seeking cheap lodging and a sense of alternative community.

One “counter” type was a strong sort of woman, often wearing short hair and sensible shoes. Many of us had fought against the Vietnam War and for civil rights. We’d helped create the radical edge of feminism, and were shaping the movements for both lesbian and gay liberation.

For Southerners, native and otherwise, Atlanta’s LFP beckoned. By 1971, there was a women’s press. By 1972, Atlanta Lesbian Feminist Alliance (ALFA) was formed. We procured a house for the library, pool table, meetings and a mimeo machine. We wanted to grind the patriarchy into the dust and grind our hips, too.

LFP crawlers could live on relatively little money, as we sorted ourselves into lesbian communes.

Without needing much remunerative work, there was more time for creating, consciousness raising, politicking, potlucking and playing.

A community norm evolved. Ill-served by the dominant culture, we built alternatives: self-helping, DIY, nonhierarchical, nonexploitive alternatives.

To get the social-change-lesbian-anti-sexist10 Feature September 11, 2020

Seeking to assert our unique identity, separate from “Gay Pride” marches, we organized the Dyke March, from LFP to Candler Park.

To play softball with our sisters, we founded ALFA Omegas, the Meshugganahs, the Tower Hot Shots, and the Amazons. With real uniforms!

Photo by Atlanta Journal-Constitution Photographic Archives.

Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library.

Gay activist Maria Helena Dolan speaks to marchers June 25, 1983 at the annual Atlanta Pride celebration.

children’s-radical books we wanted, we opened a store called Charis Books and More (1974) in the heart of LFP. For representation on the airwaves, WRFG, helpfully located in LFP, hosted shows ranging from “Lesbian Woman” (1973) and “Still Ain’t Satisfied” (1977) to “Lesbian Lip Service” (1980) and “Les Chanteuse Africaines” (1989).

To provide women-specific health care, offices above Findley’s Hardware store on Moreland were home to an out lesbian chiropractor and psychotherapists, and a multiracial collective established the Feminist Women’s Health Center (FWHC) in 1976: pap smears, choice, and more! In 1988, FWHC crafted a donor insemination program for women — lesbians particularly

Less than a mile from LFP, the Tower Lounge was an old-school, working-class bar. The new LFP dykes were a slightly different breed, more middle class, but we all drank and danced and watched shows and fell in love at the same place.

— who wanted to have babies, but not with some male partner.

We made art, built organizations, held endless meetings, formed coalitions and loved loved loved. Shoulder to shoulder also meant breast to breast …

For “Women’s Music” (i.e., lesbian) concerts, 1977 saw the launch of Lucina’s Music, a women’s music production company, where we all ran the sound boards, created flyers, and booked acts.

It wasn’t all fun and games and political work and tangible arts. We dedicated ourselves to relationships not based on a model of possession (i.e., monogamous marriage), which meant a community norm of nonmonogamy.

Feminist Wicca was available from the Amelia Earhart Memorial Coven.

This also meant that, without roadmaps, women got hurt. And organizations were torn apart when people broke up. Living with new lovers, ex-lovers and political opponents isn’t always pretty. It’s damn hard work, keeping our eyes on the prize. Time passes, people have fewer housemates, get demanding jobs, buy houses, go back to school, and maybe even go monogamous … which signifies less time for visible crawling.

Weariness of seeing men onstage, with wooden women’s parts and no lesbian material or decent politics, led to the creation of the Red Dyke Theater in 1974, followed a little later by the work of Rebecca Ransom and Southeastern Arts, Media and Education Project (SAME), a multi-arts

TheGeorgiaVoice.com

Restaurant GUIDE

YOUR GUIDE TO LOCAL EATERIES

12 Restaurant Guide September 11, 2020

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Restaurant GUIDE

YOUR GUIDE TO LOCAL EATERIES

TheGeorgiaVoice.com

September 11, 2020 Restaurant Guide 13

FEATURE

Why We Must Preserve LGBTQ History Charlie Paine & Fred Smith, members of Historic Atlanta’s LGBTQ Historic Preservation Advisory Committee

of oppression are being reevaluated and torn down. Alongside the active oppression of minorities through systematic racism and police brutality, symbols of white supremacy in our public spaces anchor racial inequality as a value.

What our built environment projects to the public matters. As the United States Congress has acknowledged in the National Historic Preservation Act, this environment simultaneously reflects and contributes to “the spirit and direction of the Nation.”

Accordingly, the places we preserve, the monuments we erect, and the sites that we choose to recognize exhibit our values as a society. This includes who we value: whose stories, dreams, and creations are worthy of shaping the nation’s identity and destiny.

The reevaluation of monuments in itself is significant, serving as a reminder that public art and tangible memory carry substantial societal importance. If the carving of insurrectionist generals on Stone Mountain did not serve as the largest tangible symbol of racism in Georgia, there would not be so much dialogue about what to do with the carving. And if statues of oppressors such as Robert E. Lee held no value and did not help skew societal values, then protesters across America would not put in the effort to pull these monuments down themselves.

The fact we do not ignore these places in this fight for equality means something.

We are walking through a museum every day, filled to the brim with tangible memory.

But not everyone’s dreams and creations have been treated with equal esteem in our living museum. As it stands, only around 8% of National Register sites and 3% of our National Historic Landmarks represent people of color, women, or members of the LGBTQ community. And in Georgia, our community has no representation within the National Register of Historic Places, nor are there any LGBTQ sites protected by local preservation ordinances across the state.

Moreover, there is an absence of historic markers and public monuments honoring LGBTQ history, or any individual for their association with the LGBTQ community.

We have to remember that our built environment is a product of the majority, and those with the political power. As a general example, in the late 1940s, the state and federal governments ensured that white residents were the least adversely affected population when the I-75/I-85 Connector was built through the heart of Atlanta. It tore through historically poorer neighborhoods and cut Auburn Avenue, one of the most prosperous Black streets in America, in half.

Planning is highly political. Tearing down the sites of those who lack political power, while preserving the sites of those who have power, is cruel.

Unless we are intentional about protecting 14 Feature September 11, 2020

Photo by Alex Millauer / Shutterstock

Black Lives Matter protest on June 24, 2020.

the stories of those who historically lacked political power, we risk living in a world where their stories are lost. Those who suffered the most in life will perish again in death, as they will lose their rightful place in shaping our nation’s spirit and direction. In 2017, when the mayor of New Orleans explained his decision to take down a Confederate monument, he asked, why are there “no slave ship monuments, no prominent markers on public land to

remember the lynchings or the slave blocks; nothing to remember this long chapter in our lives; the pain, the sacrifice, the shame.”

He argued, correctly in our view, that this amounted to “a lie by omission.”

This theme continues to reverberate, as the Movement for Black Lives has entered the nation’s consciousness. As the movement continues to push for change in law enforcement and public policy, monuments

And still, even as we debate which structures must come down, this is also a moment to reflect on what must go up and what must be preserved. We must uplift, protect, and recognize the structures of those who have historically suffered at the hands of stigma and political subordination. And in doing so, we uplift the stories and dreams those structures tell. If we value equality, we cannot allow ourselves to be held captive to a living museum where only the stories of the historically powerful are told. We must uncover and protect the creations and pursuits of Black Americans, LGBTQ persons, Native Americans, undocumented immigrants, women, other marginalized groups, and all the intersections thereof.

A decade ago, Senator Cory Booker stated, “We drink deeply from wells of freedom and liberty that we did not dig. We eat lavishly from banquet tables prepared for us by our ancestors.” This quote is apt for LGBTQ persons. So many people before us toiled in a world where it was illegal to be our authentic selves. In the shadows, they built a legacy that we benefit from every day. Enriched by their sacrifices, we have an obligation to serve as trustees for that legacy.

TheGeorgiaVoice.com

TheGeorgiaVoice.com

September 11, 2020 Ads 15

FEATURE

My Fight for Trans Rights “I’ve been a part of the fight before. In October 2007, my boss at the state capitol, Sewell Brumby, fired me when he learned I was transgender.

‘That can’t appropriately happen in this workplace,’ he said at the time. He also admitted that state legislators would think it was ‘immoral’ to have a transgender person working in the Capitol alongside them.”

Vandy Beth Glenn Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans began holding our collective breath in apprehension back in October 8, 2019, when the United States Supreme Court (SCOTUS) heard oral arguments in three cases — R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (more simply, the “Aimee Stephens” case), Altitude Express, Inc. v. Zarda, and Bostock v. Clayton County (that’s Clayton County, Georgia) — seeking to clarify whether we are protected from workplace discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

We had good reason to worry. Since the Obergefell ruling on marriage equality, just a few years ago, the Court has moved further to the left with President Trump’s two nominees. If SCOTUS ruled LGBTQ people could be discriminated against in the area of employment rights, it could mark the beginning of a general rollback of protections for our community and a return to the status of second-class citizens, forced to live in the shadows and persecuted just for being who we are. That’s definitely the result Trump wanted from the Court. One of the few consistent themes of his administration’s policies has been a general antipathy toward LGBTQ people and attempts to marginalize us and remove us from public life.

I’ve been a part of the fight before. In October 2007, my boss at the state capitol, Sewell Brumby, fired me when he learned I was transgender. “That can’t appropriately happen in this workplace,” he said at the time. He also admitted that state legislators would think it was “immoral” to have a transgender person working in the Capitol alongside them.

I knew that was wrong, so with the help of Lambda Legal, I fought back with a lawsuit.

At the time, there hadn’t been very many employment cases regarding transgender people, and the precedents that resulted from them were a mixed bag, but we had what 16 Feature September 11, 2020

people nationwide, many of whom (like me once upon a time) could not safely come out and transition.

Vandy Beth Glenn

Monica Helms, designer of the Transgender Pride flag, also lives in Atlanta, and is another historic figure I’ve had the privilege to meet and become friends with.

PHOTO VIA FACEBOOK

my attorneys called “good facts,” and we got lucky with our judges. The first ruling, from a district court, was in our favor, and when the state appealed, we won again at the Eleventh Circuit Court, in December 2011, with a unanimous ruling of three more judges. The state gave up then and didn’t appeal further to the Supreme Court.

As you can see from the dates, I spent four years in the wilderness while the legal battle was fought by attorneys. It was a hard time, but I was lucky to live in Atlanta. Our city has been a welcoming home for transgender people for decades, and many veterans of earlier struggles blazed the trail for me and were still around to offer their support, both emotional and otherwise.

Much of my psychological support came

in a transgender support group headed

by Erin Swenson. A therapist, Erin is also a Presbyterian minister, and through a unique set of circumstances in the 1990s, she became the first clergy of a mainline Protestant denomination to transition and retain her ordination. She fought a hard battle for the right to be who she was, and she has continued to help and guide others in the Atlanta area for several decades now.

Another major leader among trans people of color was the late Cheryl Courtney Evans, who organized many protests and demonstrations at the state capital and led Transgender Individuals Living Their Truth (TILTT).

Dallas Denny lived in Atlanta for many years, and published Chrysalis Quarterly, a magazine begun in 1990 that helped trans

Thanks to these courageous pioneers and many others, and my cisgender and straight friends and chosen family, I never felt alone during my lawsuit. And we all let out our breath at once when, in the middle of June this year, the Supreme Court issued a single ruling in the three employment cases before it. They voted 6–3 in that we are protected by Title VII, so now lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people can no longer be persecuted as I, and too many others, have been in past.

There remains much work to do in the project toward full LGBTQ equality. We continue to suffer discrimination in housing, in parental rights, and even in marriage, and of course the Trump ban on transgender people serving in the military still stands.

But we’ve taken great strides in recent years, and Georgia has been at the epicenter of several of these efforts.

TheGeorgiaVoice.com

TheGeorgiaVoice.com

September 11, 2020 Ads 17

A&E SPOTLIGHT

Out On Film Virtually Opens September 24 Steve Warren The 33rd annual Out On Film Festival, September 24–October 4, will be heavily featured in our September 25 issue, but we wanted to fill you in on opening weekend now so you can plan ahead.

Although most of the festival will be virtual, that doesn’t mean there will be unlimited “seating.” Distributors show films in festivals to relatively small audiences to build anticipation for when they are released later in more lucrative formats.

One advantage of a virtual festival is the ability to bring in more special guests to interact with audiences. It takes much less time and money for an actor or filmmaker to sit in front of their computer for an hour than to fly to Atlanta from another city or country and spend a night or two in a hotel here to have that interaction in person.

As Festival Director Jim Farmer says, “While we miss the feel of a traditional film festival in a movie theater and an event that celebrates community, we hope to duplicate that in a virtual arena. Going virtual does give us access to more filmmakers and we fully plan to utilize that.”

Margaret Cho will be a special guest on Saturday, September 26, to receive the festival’s Icon Award in conjunction with a 20th anniversary screening of her film, “I’m the One that I Want.” She’ll stay for a chat afterward.

Publicity photos

Beginning at noon on the 27th, you can see a benefit reading of Topher Payne’s play, “Perfect Arrangement,” with an all-star cast directed by Chad Darnell.

For full information and to buy tickets, visit the festival website at outonfilm.org.

Following are reviews of most of the opening weekend features, which will become available at noon on the date indicated and stay up for 72 hours. Ratings are on a four star scale, but I’m a tough grader. For full reviews, visit thegavoice.com.

Clockwise from top: “Dry Wind,” “Surviving the Silence,” and “Ahead of the Curve.”

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24 DRY WIND **1/2 At a swimming pool in a small Brazilian town, there are a number of scantily clad males. Sadly, the least attractive of them — 50-ish, hairy, chunky Sandro (Leandro Faria Lelo) — is our main character, and he’s involved in some of the graphic sex we see (in his head or in real life?) over the next hour or so before the plot thickens. His co-worker, Ricardo, is a friend-with-benefits who wants

18 A&E Spotlight September 11, 2020

to be more. Sandro doesn’t, until a hot new guy in town rouses his jealousy. Not cheap porn, “Dry Wind” features multiple locations, some interesting fantasy lighting and splendid work with a voyeuristic camera.

SURVIVING THE SILENCE *** If you know of Col. Margarethe “Grethe” Cammermeyer, who was discharged from the Army, after 26 years of exemplary service, for being a lesbian, it’s probably from Glenn

Close playing her in the 1995 TV movie, “Serving in Silence.” Atlanta’s Cindy L. Abel goes deeper into the story by introducing Col. Patsy Thompson, the fellow nurse and fellow lesbian who, making the best of a bad situation, chaired the board that discharged Grethe (who was later reinstated by a court).

Both women tell their own stories, as does Pat’s wife, activist Barbara Brass. There’s much to admire here, including some fine women.

CONTINUES ON PAGE 19 TheGeorgiaVoice.com

A&E SPOTLIGHT CONTINUED FROM PAGE 18 FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 AHEAD OF THE CURVE *** Three films in one: a course in modern lesbian history; a biography of Curve magazine founder Frances “Franco” Stevens, directed by her wife, Jen Rainin; and a questioning of whether glossy magazines are still relevant today, and if not, what should replace them? Curve began 30 years ago as “Deneuve,” but changed in the mid-1990s after a certain actress sued over the use of her name, just as they were getting celebrities on their covers and national advertising. Melissa Etheridge, Jewelle Gomez, Lea DeLaria and others stop by to reminisce, helping a good story — or several — to be very well told.

CICADA **1/2 This very festival-y movie is frustrating for a viewer who just wants to be told a good story. Since it’s “based on true events,” we can assume writer-director Matt Fifer is playing himself as Ben, who has sex with men, women and himself, until he meets Sam (Sheldon D. Brown) and pretty much settles down. But Sam, who is Black, isn’t out to his father or the world, and Ben is still traumatized from being molested as a child. There’s no chemistry between the lead actors, as Fifer might have known if he hadn’t tried to do too much himself.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 26 BREAKING FAST *** Breaking Fast provides much insight into Islam, including the wide range of reactions among Muslim parents to their sons’ coming out. Set in West Hollywood, this “rom-com” is really more of a drama, but it does have some comic relief, including a major character who’s the kind of flaming stereotype we rarely see anymore. A year after his partner marries a woman to please his father, Mo (Haaz Sleiman) meets Kal (Michael Cassidy), a white American familiar with Muslim culture. It’s Ramadan, the holy month of fasting. What develops is one of the better gay romances I’ve seen lately.

THE CAPOTE TAPES *** Truman Capote (1924–1984) can’t play TheGeorgiaVoice.com

Publicity photos

Clockwise from left: “The Capote Tapes,” “Breaking Fast,” and “Monsoon.”

himself as well as Philip Seymour Hoffman did in his Oscar-winning role in 2005’s “Capote,” but he does okay in recordings, talk show clips and paparazzi photos. People who knew him are as eager to talk about Capote as he was to talk — and write — about them.

His final novel, “Answered Prayers,” was never published, except for three chapters that caused him to lose his friends in New York society for revealing their secrets through thinly disguised fictional characters. The rest has never been found. This is an entertainingly gossipy look at the King/Queen of Gossip.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 27 CURED *** This clear, concise course in the history of the LGBTQ movement since the 1950s focuses on efforts to change the perception of us as mentally ill by getting the American Psychiatric Association (APA) to remove homosexuality from its list of mental

disorders in 1973. Barbara Gittings and Franklin Kameny, shown over the decades, are among the faces we should all be familiar with. Activist Richard Socarides is the gay son of one of our fiercest opponents in the APA. This film will be an eye-opener for those who don’t know what our life was like in America half a century ago.

MONSOON *** My favorite festival film so far, “Monsoon” is slow and subtle, leaves basic questions unresolved and makes you fill in much unspoken dialogue — usually negative qualities for me, but they work here. Henry Golding (“Crazy Rich Asians”) plays Kit, visiting Vietnam 30 years after his parents fled to London when he was six. His sightseeing provides a virtual travelogue photographed for maximum impact, with little explanation of what we see in Saigon and Hanoi. A distant cousin and other people Kit meets,

including Lewis (Parker Sawyers), an African American with romantic potential, provide different political perspectives, raising Kit’s awareness and ours.

THE STRONG ONES (LOS FUERTES) **1/2 I couldn’t watch Samuel González and Antonio Altamirano make love for more than three weeks … without a lunch break.

That’s good, because there’s little else of interest here. Lucas (González) is visiting his sister in southern Chile before leaving for Montreal to study architecture. He meets Antonio (Altamirano), who works on a fishing boat when he’s not taking part in historical reenactments. Lucas’s sister is having marital problems and each man has his own issues, but writer-director Omar Zúñiga Hidalgo stretches the plot pretty thin, with little development. This review would be far more negative if the leading men were less attractive.

September 11, 2020 A&E Spotlight 19

JIM FARMER ACTING OUT

New Series, Movie by Gay Directors “We Are Who We Are” and “Stage Mother” also feature LGBTQ characters Two new offerings, both directed by gay men, are some of the best bets for September watching.

The new HBO Max series, “We Are Who We Are,” about to debut, is directed by Luca Guadagnino, best known for his Oscar nominated “Call Me By Your Name.” Set during the 2016 election, it’s an ambitious work, spread over eight episodes, told from different perspectives. In it, two teenagers deal with growing up while stationed on an American military base in Italy. Sarah Wilson (Chloë Sevigny) has been tasked to lead the base, and that assignment doesn’t go over well with everyone. She is a lesbian partnered with Maggie (Alice Braga), who works at the base’s clinic. Sarah’s son, Fraser, played by Jack Dylan Grazer, is 14 and doesn’t feel at home in his surroundings. The family has been uprooted from their home in New York and Fraser, who longs to be a fashion designer, misses his previous life.

He shows no interest in being friends with others on the base. Soon, though, Fraser meets Caitlin (Jordan Kristine Seamón) and is intrigued by her.

Caitlin herself is trying to figure life out.

She is dealing with her own issues with her family, including not getting along terribly well with her mother or father. Said father, Richard (Kid Cudi), is not happy that his boss on the base is a lesbian. Caitlin is dating Sam (Ben Taylor), but wants to experiment and date some girls. Several more characters fill out the ensemble of “We Are Who We Are.” Like most of the director’s work, this is lyrical and character based. Sevigny’s Sarah is a fascinating presence, having her own personal and professional issues, and others in the ensemble are well rounded, especially the younger ones, dealing with gender expression amid expectations of what they are supposed to do. Guadagnino directs all eight episodes and co-wrote the show 20 Columnist September 11, 2020

Publicity photo

The cast of HBO Max’s “We Are Who We Are.”

as well. The series may take its own time occasionally, but it is captivating to watch and has a real authenticity. HBO Max has made the first half of the series available to press; it will be interesting to see where the final four episodes go.

Also worth checking out now is the new movie, “Stage Mother.” Directed by openly gay Thom Fitzgerald, the film stars Oscar nominee Jacki Weaver as Maybelline, a conservative Texas woman whose son, from whom she is estranged, has died of an overdose in San Francisco. Against her husband’s wishes, Maybelline goes to the funeral and finds that her son had been running a drag club. Not wanting the business to go under, she decides to try running the establishment herself, despite the fact that she has never even been in a gay bar. Yet she isn’t some prude — she is up to the challenge. “Different songs, same divas … and some of the same wigs as well,” she philosophizes.

The cast includes Lucy Liu as Sienna, the late son’s best friend, Adrian Grenier as Nathan, the late son’s boyfriend, and Mya Taylor of “Tangerine” fame as Cherry, a performer.

“Stage Mother” is an amiable enough movie

with an appealing premise. It’s not as campy or affecting as it could be, however, and the script could use some real work and fewer one-liners. Liu has some funny moments dealing with a new figure in her life with Maybelline taking to her sofa. Taylor doesn’t have much to do, though, and Grenier is an annoying presence. Another actor might have given the role some warmth or depth, but Grenier is pretty empty here.

What Fitzgerald does have, however, is a bona fide star in the center. Weaver makes Maybelline real, almost becoming a mother hen to everyone around her. She thaws out the angry Nathan, helps give the nightclub a lift (in more ways than one) and even has a flirtation with a San Francisco man. Best of all, she grows a backbone with her unrelenting husband. “Stage Mother” is very familiar, but it gets the job done, with a crowd-pleasing ending. It’s worth the ride for Weaver alone.

MORE INFO “We Are Who We Are” debuts on HBO Max September 14 at 10pm “Stage Mother” is available on Fandango, Prime Video, Apple TV and more

TheGeorgiaVoice.com

CLIFF BOSTOCK EATING MY WORDS

Outdoor Dining at Delbar The Trumpenstein Pandemic continues to stall the city’s restaurants, but it’s my impression that many are trying to enlarge outdoor dining and rework interior space so that someone’s weak sneeze doesn’t catapult us to the emergency room. It’s slow going, but it’s also a promising example of how things get better when we bring an iota of compassion into our black hearts. You don’t want to become the next Karen, right?

My latest outdoor dining occurred at Delbar, a new Persian (Iranian) restaurant off North Highland Avenue in the space occupied by the short-lived Daily Tavern. The owner/ chef is Fares Kargar, who left Iran for Turkey when he was 17 and soon landed in Atlanta.

His original fascination was architecture, but exposure to the restaurant business inspired him to study hospitality at Georgia State University. He got a job at Rumi’s Kitchen and that clearly inspired him to open Delbar.

The new restaurant is, um, roomy enough to provide social distancing. That’s a good thing, because the patio is small. During my visit, I had no trouble finding a table, but a sudden 10-minute torrent of rain forced me inside, where I confess my head spun as I monitored every move by staff and customers. Honestly, the entire staff was in masks and the number of diners was small. Like most restaurants, takeout is big business for Delbar.

Photos by Cliff Bostock

After Vietnamese cuisine, Middle Eastern is my favorite. I’m lucky to have spent time in Paris and, after a few days there, it’s the city’s countless Middle Eastern restaurants that most attract me. As I’ve written before, the most magical meal of my life was a Moroccan rose-petal tagine at a restaurant there. Persian food, which also incorporates rose water in many recipes, can be profoundly sensual.

A stew may contain vegetables, fruits, nuts, meats, and complex sauces, served with an elaborate rice dish. Delbar starts all meals with a complimentary mazze plate. You will want to fold the feta-like cheese into the charred bread along with the fresh mint and tarragon. Meanwhile, nibble on radishes and walnuts. It’s seriously one of those real-food TheGeorgiaVoice.com

Clockwise from top: Inside of Delbar Middle Eastern Restaurant and Bar; Adas Polo: Rice with burnt onions, fruits and nuts; Cornish hen.

moments. There are plenty of small plates to share with others, like prawns flavored with Persian dried lime, sour orange, herbs, and labneh (Levantine yogurt). You can also order five spreads, including hummus and two more labneh concoctions.

My entrée was an absurdly decadent Cornish hen that was coated in saffron and deep-fried in butter. The diner’s chore is to tear apart the hen, drag the pieces through yet another bath of butter, and then douse it with pomegranate sauce. I love every ingredient in this dish, but, in all honesty, the bird’s breast was extremely

dry. I took most of it home, where I tore up the flesh and soaked it in the butter for at least an hour. Then I heaped the meat on rice and covered that in pomegranate sauce. Voila! That stuff was juicy-good. That rice I used was the restaurant’s traditional adas polo, a huge plate of saffron basmati rice with lentils and raisins topped with fried onions. Typically the dish is a bit crispy, but Delbar’s was not.

There are, overall, eight rice and vegetable dishes, plus 11 meats — fish, beef, chicken, and lamb, including shawarma. Service is stellar and I probably annoyed my server with too much

talking about the Farsi language and the wholly incorrect, often primitive depiction of Tehran

by American media. It is actually among the globe’s most cosmopolitan cities, where the most decadent classmate of my lifetime lives.

By the way, roughly translated, “Delbar” means “sweetheart.” Go get you some.

MORE INFO Delbar 870 Inman Village Parkway N.E., Suite 1 404-500-1444 DelbarAtl.com, @delbaratl

September 11, 2020 Columnist 21

MELISSA CARTER THAT’S WHAT SHE SAID

Celebrating Diversity A friend, an African American woman, recently told me the shocking story of how her landlord used the “n” word in her presence. She was dumbfounded, having had only wonderful experiences with this man, who had been brought to frustration by his responsibilities at the complex and apparently went into a rage regarding another man. My friend then informed me that she was most disappointed because this landlord was gay, and she had expected better from him because of his sexual orientation. So did I at the conclusion of her story.

We live in a time of tremendous opportunity.

We have witnessed in recent years a publicly arrogant and bold attempt to disparage Hispanics and African Americans in this country. We have also seen many instances of disregard toward women and their worth and contribution, and in each of these circumstances it seems a majority of our nation is fed up. Marches, murals and social media reveal the need by so many for peace and prosperity.

The opportunity is here to simply be better.

However, we can’t only be “better” for the people who look and live as we do; we have to be better for everyone. It is incredibly offensive to hear anyone who is part of a minority group criticize or discriminate against another. To me, that means these individuals have learned nothing from their own experiences and are simply repeating the pattern, simply replacing the players in that tragedy with another group.

When I was a kid, I felt rich when I received a new box of 64 crayons for school, especially celebrating the sharpener built into the back. You can’t have that big box of crayons without all those colors, and the same holds true in America. We have to understand how important what we have to offer is as individuals, and in turn welcome the offerings of the other “crayons.” At least that’s how I introduce the concept to my young son, who as a potentially straight, 22 Columnist September 11, 2020

Photo by Franzi / Shutterstock

white man will need to learn empathy sooner rather than later. You lose nothing by celebrating someone else.

Let’s not stop there. Another opportunity in the time of COVID-19 is understanding and appreciating the physically vulnerable in our society. We focus so much on outward appearance that we also have to accept the diversity of internal biology, those with invisible medical conditions whose lives are most likely lived in the shadows. Even “Black Panther” Chadwick Boseman felt more comfortable fighting his cancer battle in secret. What does that say about us? That we somehow perceive people differently once their bodies no longer function as ours do, even a superhero’s.

As much as I enjoy athletics, humanity is not a team sport. We are not competing for some trophy or medal, and gain absolutely nothing by being an asshole. In fact, we lose everything by being so simple-minded and selfish. To feel hurt by another’s actions only to turn around and mimic that same behavior is the worst action I believe a human can take. It’s as if you’ve taken the gift of knowledge and thrown it in the trash.

I know we’re better than that and can emerge from this pandemic cocoon as the butterflies we are meant to be.

TheGeorgiaVoice.com

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