The Power of Lived Experience: Inspiring People with HIV to Prioritize their Long-Term Health through Storytelling
Sponsored
by
Gilead Sciences. Intended for US audiences only.
By Marcus Wilson, Senior Director, Public Affairs, Gilead Sciences
For too long, conversations about HIV have centered primarily on preventing transmission. While that’s important, it often leaves out another vital part of the story: the health, well-being, and dignity of people with HIV themselves, especially those from underrepresented communities who rarely see their stories reflected back to them.
That’s where Choose U TM comes in. This new initiative from Gilead Sciences was created with one goal in mind: elevate the stories and lived experiences of people with HIV who are taking their treatment as prescribed and prioritizing selfcare to help them lead healthier lives. It’s about choosing yourself— working closely with your doctor to find an HIV treatment that works for you for the long term.
Why Stories Matter
Stigma is one of the biggest barriers people with HIV face. It shows up in healthcare, in relationships, and in society. But when stories are shared openly, stigma begins to lose its power. Choose U is built on the belief that personal stories can spark connection, inspire action, and remind people that they are not alone.
Andrew, a patient ambassador for the campaign, adds, “Having HIV forced me to dive deeper and figure out who I really am beyond the diagnosis. That growth changed everything for me. Choose U represents that same transformation: helping people put themselves first and see their health as equally vital.
It’s about embracing the right to live fully, not just surviving.” Jahlove, an HIV advocate and educator who is also a Choose U patient ambassador, shares, “Letting go of shame and stigma felt like I was stepping out on stage. I felt free, seen, and powerful. That’s why I speak out, so others can feel that same freedom. Choose U matters because it reminds us to put ourselves first, to see our health and our future as something worth celebrating and looking forward to.”
From Gilead’s perspective, the campaign is about ensuring that people with HIV see themselves reflected in authentic stories. These stories can act as reminders that living a healthier life can be within reach for everyone with HIV, if they take and remain on treatment as prescribed and stay undetectable.
Real Stories, Real Representation
Through Choose U, people from across the country are sharing their journeys—their challenges, resilience, and triumphs. These stories reflect the
diversity and strength of the HIV Community, from a grandmother in the South who stayed engaged in care and uses her knowledge as power, to a Black man in New York celebrating two decades of advocacy following his HIV diagnosis. These voices are honest and deeply human. They remind us that living with HIV is not one story— it’s many stories, each valuable and worth telling. The campaign was developed in collaboration with community representatives, ensuring that underrepresented perspectives are centered. The campaign amplifies voices often left out of national narratives—particularly Black and Latiné people, LGBTQ+ individuals, and those over 50. By sharing these personal journeys, Choose U inspires individuals to prioritize their long-term health and amplifies the importance of starting and staying on HIV treatment to become and stay undetectable.
Why This Matters Now
A major goal of HIV treatment is to become undetectable, meaning
there is so little virus in your blood that a lab test can’t measure it. In the U.S. in 2022, about one-third of people with HIV had not yet reached that point. Open conversations with doctors and staying on treatment are essential to getting to and staying undetectable.
Starting and staying on treatment as prescribed and getting to undetectable is the start, but the experiences of PWH go beyond treatment. Choose U is about more than the virus. It’s about saying, “your story matters, and your health matters.”
Join the Movement
Choose U is putting the stories of people with HIV at the center of the conversation. When we elevate stories, we don’t just reduce stigma— we create a community where people with HIV feel seen, valued, and inspired to prioritize their health.
Talk to your doctor today about an HIV treatment that’s right for you for the long term. Learn more at ChooseUHIV.com
Visit our website chr is180.or g/foster -or -adopt or email fosterandadopt@CHRIS180 org to begin your journey
EDITOR’S NOTE
The movies and the memories
I went to a 10 p.m. screening of “Wicked: For Good” on opening night. I didn’t have high expectations after reading the dismal reviews (including one by our own critic, Sammie Purcell). But I am a completionist at heart, and since I went to a late-night screening of part one a year ago, I felt compelled to see the story through.
So, I was quite surprised to find myself enjoying the movie and even getting a little verklempt at Elphaba and Glinda’s farewell tune, “For Good.” Yes, it’s too long, but I just let myself be taken away by the story, much in the same way I was back in 1975 when my parents let me watch “The Wizard of Oz” on TV. That movie remains a touchstone, as I know the “Wicked” films will be for a new generation.
Escaping into films, books, and music has always been a favorite coping mechanism when the real world becomes too heavy.
Along with world events, political upheaval, and the loss of beloved idols (Diane Keaton and Robert Redford, for me) and friends, it’s been an extra-heavy year.
In late October, I met friend and LGBTQ+ historian Dave Hayward for lunch at Manuel’s Tavern. Our conversation
Collin Kelley Executive Editor
Beth McKibben Editor-in-Chief
Sr. Editor Food & Dining
Cathy Cobbs
Managing Editor, Reporter Newspapers
Sammie Purcell Associate Editor
Staff Writers
Katie Burkholder, Bob Pepalis, Logan C. Ritchie, Sarra Sedghi, Stephanie Toone
Contributors
Melissa Carter, Maria Helena Dolan, Jim Farmer, Jacob Nguyen, Alander Rocha, Gregg Shapiro, Ed Woodham
revolved around politics, preserving sanity in times of trouble, and movies. He brought me the New York Times Style Magazine with Glenn Close on the cover, and we discussed the upcoming screening of “Fairyland” –which chronicles the life of late Atlanta activist and writer Steve Abbott – he was organizing for Dec. 6 at 3 p.m. at The Tara Theatre.
The screening will go on, but Dave won’t be there. A few days after our lunch, he died of a heart attack at the age of 76. One of the last topics of conversation we had before leaving Manuel’s that afternoon was the future of Dave’s significant archive of LGBTQ+ papers, books, and ephemera.
Dave co-founded the nonprofit Touching Up Our Roots, the LGBTQ+ story project and self-guided audio tour featuring sites important to queer Atlanta. He was an early member of the activist group Georgia Gay Liberation Front and was one of the co-founders of the city’s chapter of ACT UP, the political group formed in the late 80s to end the AIDS pandemic. He participated in the city’s first sanctioned Pride march in 1972.
Dave was not an easy person. On my first day as editor, he sent a haranguing email about our coverage of Jimmy Carter’s death, noting that the late governor and president wasn’t always an LGBTQ+ ally. We had several testy exchanges, and I didn’t speak to him for a couple of months.
We started talking again at a book signing event for Marty Padgett’s book about Atlanta activist Michael Hardwick. From that day on, we spoke by phone
Published By
Rough Draft Atlanta
Keith Pepper
Publisher keith@roughdraftatlanta.com
Heather Gibbons
Associate Publisher
Neal Maziar
Chief Revenue Officer neal@roughdraftatlanta.com
Rico Figliolini
Creative Director
Tim Boyd
Publisher Emeritus
Operations
Savannah Pierce savannah@roughdraftatlanta.com
several times a week, saw each other at local events, and met for lunch at Manuel’s.
Dave, above everything else, was a historian with the single-minded focus of chronicling Atlanta’s complicated history with what used to be called the gay rights movement.
In a 2021 interview, Dave said: “There’s a great deal of privilege and responsibility in that position. For me, most of all, in terms of being a witness, it’s remembering our holocaust. We lost so many people as a result of AIDS. So many groups, so many initiatives, have been forgotten as a result of that loss. For each one of us, if we could just use our voices in whatever way we can. You can’t live for anybody. You can’t bring anyone back to life. But you can call them up, call them forth, call them out in the present moment to honor and remember them as you educate the future.”
Thinking about Dave now, the lyrics of “For Good” spring to mind: “I’ve heard it said that people come into our lives for a reason – bringing something we must learn.”
Dave Hayward taught me – and so many of us – how to be patient, how to be dedicated, how to be a steward of the past so that people and their sacrifices are not forgotten. And those films, books, music, and scraps of paper we treasure are more than just escapes, but memories worth cherishing and sharing with others.
May your holiday season be filled with love, light, and memories of those who changed you for good.
Advertising sales@roughdraftatlanta.com
Jim Brams Sr. Account Manager jim@roughdraftatlanta.com
Deborah Davis Account Manager | Sales Operations deborah@roughdraftatlanta.com
Jeff Kremer Sr. Account Manager jeff@roughdraftatlanta.com
Suzanne Purcell Sr. Account Manager suzanne@roughdraftatlanta.com
Dixon Taylor Sr. Account Manager dixon@roughdraftatlanta.com
National Advertising Rivendell Media (908) 232-2021 sales@rivendellmedia.com
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.
MOST IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT BIKTARVY
BIKTARVY may cause serious side e ects, including:
Worsening of hepatitis B (HBV) infection. Your healthcare provider will test you for HBV. 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, and may give you HBV medicine.
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. Tell your healthcare provider if you become pregnant while taking BIKTARVY.
Are breastfeeding (nursing) or plan to breastfeed. Talk to your healthcare provider about the risks of breastfeeding during treatment with BIKTARVY. Tell your healthcare provider about all the medicines you take:
Keep a list that includes all prescription and over-thecounter medicines, antacids, laxatives, vitamins, and herbal supplements, and show it to your healthcare provider and pharmacist.
BIKTARVY and other medicines may a ect 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.
POSSIBLE SIDE EFFECTS OF BIKTARVY
BIKTARVY may cause serious side e ects, 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 that may have been hidden in your body. 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 e ects of BIKTARVY in clinical studies were diarrhea (6%), nausea (6%), and headache (5%).
These are not all the possible side e ects of BIKTARVY. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you have any new symptoms while taking BIKTARVY.
You are encouraged to report negative side e ects 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.
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, Gilead, and the Gilead logo are trademarks of Gilead Sciences, Inc., or its related companies. © 2025 Gilead Sciences, Inc. All rights reserved. US-BVYC-0869 07/25
Source:
Remembering my gay brother friend Dave Hayward
REELING IN THE YEARS
Writing about the death of Dave Hayward – my friend and longtime Atlanta activist and historian – has been difficult for a variety of reasons. An inchoate welter of images makes it hard to pick out something that will make sense to people. So, I’m just going with riffing, on what makes sense to me, and I go from “The Five of Cups and the day I found out Dave was dead.”
MARIA HELENA DOLAN
Overview: As a spiritual discipline, every night at bedtime, I draw two tarot cards. One asks about the day just passed. What was the lens, what happened, and how to understand the fit? The second asks about the day to come. What factors will be seen, what area of existence will be experienced?
On Thursday, Nov. 6, I drew the Five of Cups. Wholly unexpected and unwelcome, given the meanings ascribed to the card: Grief, despair, sadness, bereavement, mourning, loss, abandonment, guilt, remorse, regret, trauma, heartbreak, emotional instability, focusing on loss, focusing on
negative emotions, isolation, loneliness, divorce, separation, disappointment.
For whatever reason, I think it could be actual death, the death of someone I know or am close to. Or it could be someone deliberately moving away and out of my sphere of consciousness. And this close to the full moon, well, the effect can be especially deep. Traumatic.
And then friend and fellow activist Lorraine Fontana calls me, asking if I’d seen a particular email. No. I had not looked at that crap yet today. And she goes, “Oh boy,” and begins to say she really didn’t want to break it to me, but “Dave is dead.”
No! No no no no! No! No. How is that possible? I still have the typical weekly email blast from him; he sent most of it out Thursday and Friday, and I just haven’t had a chance to respond.
He was the Energizer Bunny, just going and going. He was fu*king going to outlive us all! He was the last gay brother friend I had here from the 1970s, who I could still hang with, who made it through the early plague years physically unscathed (all of us who made it through have PTSD now), who tried to bring the community together in so many ways.
No, he wasn’t always easy. His methods for the sharing of information, of interviews, of stories, of movie reviews, of
himself, could grate on people. Well, fu*k that. The beating heart is what matters most.
When Dave and I were young and radicalizing, and everything seemed possible, the hum of the nation seemed to be raised an octave or so, and The Work – the work of dismantling Patriarchy, and kicking to death all of its subject/ object sexist, racist, et al. ills it brings – took on some focus. But after the meetings and strategy sessions and actions, there were a lot of late-night laughs, infinite jests, skewerings, hot gossip, and all finally topped by:
“Well, if my left leg is Christmas and my right leg is New Year’s, why doncha come up and see me between the holidays?”
We laughed.
“Oh my dear, this evening has been just too homosexual, TOO homosexual.”
We did some past life regressions together. He was an actual brother in a former life, and dramatic things occurred. Someday I might write about it. Not today.
One of the great “Movie Queens” of all time, Dave bonded with my mother over classic Hollywood output. Sometimes the three of us would be together, and they’d exclude me from the conversation, as I am the repository of perhaps 10 percent of their oceanic-sized repositories of film lore. Okay, I’ll just drink some wine and turn pages of one of Madre’s Hollywood books, with all the pictures.
Unbelievably, Dave even appreciated my slightly fractured paen to Mae West, on the occasion of one of those too homosexual evenings. No wigs or gowns, but I did the talking-out-the-side-of-the-mouth Mae did. Which gives her voice that ‘mmm’ flutter.
We did some “see ya later, alligator” moments when we weren’t in close contact for a while. And then we’d just be there together per usual. Dave organized talks and events and would drag me out, or make sure I got the notice, or get me to participate. If people wanted to dish on him, I’d just shrug, and maybe “yeah, sorry, that doesn’t sound great” or “you have to give him some credit. I mean, the man does a whole lot of work on behalf of queers. And he tries to share it. In his own way.” Or “Dave is just Dave.”
It could be hard to get in deep with him, but it was ultimately worth it.
You know, when Audre Lorde would give talks on college campuses, at the end of the evening she was known to stand in the doorway, look people in the eye as they were exiting, and ask loudly, almost accusatively, “Are you doing your work? Are you doing your work? Are you?”
Dave did his work. I miss him.
KPA mourns the death of President Marisol Payero
By Katie Burkholder
Marisol Payero, the President of the Kennesaw Pride Alliance, died Oct. 27.
The 22-year-old was a senior at Kennesaw State University studying History Education. She helped lead the opening of the KPA Pride Center after the university shuttered the LGBTQ+ resource center due to DEI cutbacks earlier this year.
“Known as Mari, she was one of the brightest and well-known voices in our campus community,” KPA wrote in a statement. “She had worked with Kennesaw Pride Alliance for years as an incredibly passionate person who tried her best to ensure events and programs were the best they could be. Mari put as much effort as possible into making Kennesaw Pride Alliance a place for all, advocating for events that pulled in voices of intersectionality including working to collaborate with CARC
to boost voices from the Coharie Tribe of North Carolina, and collaborating with Queer Spirituality, an LGBTQ+ Resource Center community group, to spread voices of many different kinds of spiritual and religious organizations.”
Payero was of Dominican and Argentinian descent and a practicing Celtic Druid. Her friends and family remember her as having a bright smile and a natural gift for humor, a lover of Argentina and the color blue, and interested in dying languages and the recreation of the Taíno language.
“She was sly and full of humor, a hard worker, a friend of many,” KPA said.
“She was a daughter, a sister, a niece, and a granddaughter. If you talked to her long enough, she could get through five topics without you having any input yourself. She was a fellow drinker of coffee with no sugar. She loved her students, often bringing them
Continued on page 10
Dave and Maria (Courtesy Georgia State University Library)
Dive into the flavors and fun of Chamblee where global cuisine meets fresh air adventure and a welcoming community. Savor bold bites, enjoy events made for everyone, and experience moments that feel made just for you. Step in with open curiosity. Visit Chamblee and let the excitement find you.
up in conversation; she loved her friends; you could not have a conversation with her without her mentioning them. She was the most organized of us currently on the Kennesaw Pride Alliance board, and we don’t know what to do without her. She was a lovely, vibrant, messy person, and we want to do anything we can to remember her as her whole self.”
Payero, who was transgender, died by suicide. According to Peyro’s family, her identity was not connected to her passing and cited school stress as the cause.
“Please remember, you are more than one facet of yourself,” KPA said. “Mari was more than just a trans woman and more than just an activist. Her work had a widespread and amazing impact, but her impact on her family and her close friends will be something that cannot ever be taken away, and cannot be forgotten.”
Those experiencing suicidal thoughts can call or text 988 to connect with a crisis counselor.
News Roundup
White House cancels World AIDS Day observance
For the first time since the global observance began, the U.S. government did not commemorate World AIDS Day
World AIDS Day, first marked in 1988, has long served as an annual reminder of the ongoing effort to end an epidemic that has killed more than 44.1 million people worldwide and continues to disproportionately impact LGBTQ people, communities of color, and those in the American South. Yet the Trump-Vance administration declined to acknowledge the day this year, severing a symbolic but consistent tradition upheld by every president since Ronald Reagan.
The move comes despite the scale of the epidemic today. Approximately 1.2 million people in the U.S. are living with HIV, according to federal estimates, and about 13 percent — 158,249 people — do not know their status. Globally, the World Health Organization reports 40.8 million people were living with HIV at the end of 2024.
Washington Blade
Judge strikes down trans health care protection
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Nov. 19 released
what it called an updated “peer-reviewed” version of an earlier report claiming scientific evidence shows that genderaffirming care or treatment for juveniles that attempts to change their gender is harmful and presents a danger to “vulnerable children.”
“The report, released through the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Health, finds that the harms from sexrejecting procedures — including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgical operations — are significant, long-term, and too often ignored or inadequately tracked,” according to a statement released by HHS announcing the release of the report.
The Human Rights Campaign and GLAAD denounced the report as a sham based on fake science and politics. HRC called the report “a politically motivated document filled with outright lies and misinformation.”
Washington Blade
SCOTUS rejects call to overturn marriage equality
The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected a case that would have overturned marriage equality.
Without comment, the justices decided not to hear an appeal from Kim Davis, the former Kentucky court clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples after the high court’s 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges.
According to the Associated Press, Davis wanted the court to overturn a lower-court ruling that ordered her to pay $360,000 in damages and attorney’s fees to a gay couple denied a marriage license. She asked the court not only to reverse the judgment against her, but to overturn marriage equality.
Georgia Voice
Marisol Peyero (Courtesy KPA)
Courtesy Washington Blade
As the year comes to an end, we need your support this season now more than ever.
In recent decades, we’ve built so much, but not so long ago, people went without safe spaces and opportunities to embrace who they are. The safety nets we’ve built for our unhoused LGBTQ+ youth here at Lost-n-Found Youth are still new and fragile.
As we wrap up the year, we invite you to take a moment to think about your own social structures you may have missed growing up. Many of us grew up without the mentors, support systems, or affirming spaces we longed for. Today, you can offer that sense of security to young people working hard to change their story. Your contribution, big or small, directly impacts their daily lives and helps build the future they deserve.
This season, we’re asking you to “be who you needed” by giving a sense of safety, hope, and encouragement to our youth. Our youth are working so hard to change their story, and together, we can create a community where every youth feels seen, supported, and valued. please, consider making a
Election Results: Light turnout, runoffs, and a Democratic upset
By Alander Rocha and Collin Kelley
Light turnout, runoffs, and a Democratic upset in the Georgia Public Service Commission races were the stories of the Nov. 4 off-year election.
An estimated 1.5 million Georgians cast ballots in the election cycle, a fraction of the state’s eight million registered voters.
Incumbent Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens decisively repelled three challengers to sail into a second term. Marci Collier Overstreet will be the next
Atlanta City Council President, beating Rohit Malhotra by about 2,800 votes.
The biggest local story was the number of runoffs for city council and board of education seats, which were decided on Dec. 2.
But the most closely watched races in the state were for the Georgia Public Service Commission. Democrats Peter Hubbard and Alicia Johnson delivered an upset, defeating two Republican incumbents.
The wins come as the cost of electricity has become a major consumer issue. The defeated Republican
incumbents had voted to approve six rate increases over the last two years, resulting in an estimated average increase of about $500 per year for the average household.
The double victory marks the first time the Democratic Party has won a statewide constitutional office in Georgia since 2006 and reshapes the political landscape ahead of the pivotal 2026 midterm elections.
The PSC regulates Georgia’s major utilities, including Georgia Power, and its decisions directly impact residential energy bills.
Hubbard, a clean energy advocate, ousted Republican incumbent Commissioner Fitz Johnson in the District 3 race. In a statement, Hubbard framed the results as a clear mandate from voters frustrated by soaring power costs.
“Affordability is front and center in voters’ minds, and today they overwhelmingly said they’re tired of subsidizing corporate interests at the expense of their families,” Hubbard said. “As I serve out my first term on the Public Service Commission, I will work tirelessly to lower utility costs, to bring more clean, reliable energy resources to this state, and to refocus the Commission’s work on the public interest.”
“This victory is a direct response to [Republican]’s cost-raising agenda that is squeezing pocketbooks in Georgia and across the country,” Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin said in a statement.
Peter Hubbard Alicia Johnson
Mayor Andre Dickens
Atlanta’s Favorite Real Estate Team
Trans woman’s Tucker library encounter sparks investigation by DeKalb Police
By Stephanie Toone
Sasha Swinson has not stopped visiting Tucker-Reid H. Cofer Library, nor has she changed her choice of restroom there since a terse exchange with an officer led to multiple local stories about her and an internal investigation.
In October, the Brookhaven transwoman says she was misgendered and verbally accosted by a DeKalb County police officer who was on duty at the library for early voting. The officer, whom the DeKalb County Police Department has not publicly identified, is now under an internal investigation as a result of the incident.
“He took it upon himself to, you know, say, ‘well, but you’re not a woman. That’s obvious,’” Swinson recalls of the Oct. 20 incident. “I’m not his idea of what a woman should be, but who is he to decide that? And again, he was there to monitor early voting. He was not there to monitor the restrooms.”
DeKalb Police have not provided a status on the internal investigation. A department spokesman also did not confirm the employment status of the officer under investigation. The department has provided cultural awareness and “fostering positive community relations” courses through the Georgia Public Safety Training Center for several years, Blaine Clark, DKPD public information officer, said in a statement.
“The DeKalb County Police Department will continue expanding our training programs to ensure our officers are equipped to serve every individual with fairness, empathy, and professionalism,”
Clark said.
Swinson said she’s felt the investigation has stalled since the media brought attention to the incident.
“I had hoped that they would have the investigation completed by now. I don’t know if they’re intentionally waiting for interest to die down or something,” Swinson said in an interview with Georgia Voice. “I wonder if the amount of media attention it’s getting is affecting it, positively or negatively.”
Ted Terry, DeKalb County Super District 6 Commissioner, is one of many people who have reached out to Swinson in the aftermath of the police incident. On Dec. 2, the DeKalb County public safety committee met to consider legislation Terry introduced over the summer, calling for the creation of a LGBTQ+ police liaison. The item was held in committee, which Terry said was “disappointing,” since that means the board of commissioners will not review it until next year.
“I do believe that creating a LGBTQ+ police liaison could help in a proactive way to help educate and engage on these types of issues,” Terry told Georgia Voice.
Though the delay is disappointing, Swinson said she counts the overall response as a win for awareness and hope for change. In a recent visit to her Tucker
fave Bell Street Burritos, a woman shared some encouraging words with Swinson. “A lady took me aside as I was filling up my drink, and she just says, ‘I just want to thank you. I saw you on the news about the library story, and then several members of my family were very encouraged by that,’” Swinson said. “Hopefully, there are lots of people I’ll never meet to have those views.”
By Katie Burkholder
On Nov. 4, the Atlanta LGBTQ+ Community Center Feasibility Study hosted its final community event, State of the Study, at Out Front Theatre.
Study Director Malik Brown and Exploratory Committee Co-Chair Paul Conroy shared insights from the 2,802 responses to the project’s Community Input Survey — the largest known Atlantaspecific LGBTQ+ dataset in history.
Brown and Conroy shared the recurring themes of the year-long study, which included the survey and input from an exploratory committee of 35 members, as well as community leader roundtable discussions; hundreds of hours of oneon-one conversations with LGBTQ+ individuals, organizations, and small businesses; a research working group in partnership with Georgia State and Clark Atlanta University professors; and site visits to LGBTQ+ centers worldwide. These themes included:
■ An emphasis on sustainability, so the Center stands for generations to come
■ The necessity of keeping residents at the forefront of the project
■ The priority of mental health resources
■ The desire for the Center to operate independently from the government
■ An emphasis on parking and proximity to MARTA stations and bus lines
Brown and Conroy also shared the next steps for the Center. Throughout the rest of November, the study will be refined and completed before it’s presented to Mayor Andre Dickens’ office in December.
The city will make a decision about the project within 30 days of submission, and if approved, implementation of the project will begin in January, with the target opening of the Center in 2029. A smaller interim space is potentially being launched next year.
“As political attacks, inequity, and violence intensify against LGBTQ+ people, Atlanta needs a centralized safe space for resources, community, and culture,” Brown wrote in a presentation shared at Tuesday’s event. “Across history, LGBTQ+ centers have been built in moments of ease – they’ve been born from resistance. As the largest metro in America without an LGBTQ+ Community Center, Atlanta’s will stand as a living commitment: progress here will not pause under pressure. The Center will generate local jobs, attract visitors, expand Atlanta’s tourism economy, and strengthen our city’s reputation as a global leader in inclusion.”
For project updates, visit atlgbtqcenter.com.
Sasha Swinson
Giving Kitchen provides emergency assistance to food service workers through financial support & a network of community resources.
GIVING KITCHEN’S ORIGIN STORY
In 2012, Giving Kitchen began with an extraordinary act of kindness: a community rallying around Chef Ryan Hidinger during his time of need. What started locally in Atlanta has grown into a national movement where food service workers in all 50 states have access to essential support during times of crisis.
THE NEED IS URGENT.
THE TIME IS NOW.
From first jobs to lifelong careers, food service workers are the backbone of our communities — fueling our routines, milestones, and celebrations. Yet, today’s rising economic pressures put this essential workforce at greater risk than ever.
Together, we help food service workers. Your support gives food service workers the stability they deserve.
Every 25 Minutes in 2025 a Food Service Worker Asks For Help.
72% Stayed Fed
Workers avoided skipping meals because of Giving Kitchen’s assistance.
$800 Saved in Late Fees Critical housing expenses covered to prevent eviction & homelessness.
No food service worker should face crisis alone.
For 12 years, Giving Kitchen has never turned away an eligible client. Now, we’re facing our most urgent moment yet. The need is greater than ever, and together, we can make sure help is there the moment it’s needed most.
GET INVOLVED
Cheshire Motor Inn and the vanishing map of queer desire
By Ed Woodham
The news of the Cheshire Motor Inn on Cheshire Bridge Road closing hit me with a grief I didn’t fully anticipate. It felt like losing a relative no one ever talked about, but everyone secretly loved.
As an Atlanta native, I grew up with Cheshire Bridge Road as a living, breathing entity, a stretch of the city that embodied the raw, unfiltered sensuality and liberation that the LGBTQ+ community carved out for themselves long before apps, curated nightlife, and rainbow marketing campaigns claimed to stand in for queer community. But the Cheshire Motor Inn was something else entirely. It was a sexual commons, a makeshift temple of longing, a sanctuary where desire could unfold without apology.
Cheshire Bridge Road in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s was notorious and beloved in equal measure. It was Atlanta’s great erotic artery, a place where the boundaries between nightlife, underground culture, and queer selfdetermination collapsed into one brightly lit, neon-humming ecosystem. Every disco, leather bar, strip club, adult bookstore, every drag bar, every massage parlor, every parked car holding two (or more) men negotiating possibility under the glow of a streetlamp – together they formed a kind of erotic democracy.
Within that landscape, the Cheshire Motor Inn became legendary. Built in the late 1950s, the motel was unremarkable in architecture yet extraordinary in cultural function. It was a waystation, a pickup point, a sexual playground, a refuge for men who needed an hour, a night, or a weekend to be fully themselves. Even the reviews that grumbled about disrepair, police presence or slow nights reveal the deeper truth: this wasn’t just a motel – it was a vessel of intimacy, a queer social
network long before such things had digital interfaces.
For me, Cheshire Motor Inn was woven into the fabric of my comingof-age as a gay man growing up in the conservative, oppressive heat of Georgia. It was a place where I had several memorable encounters, moments that helped me understand my own body and desire(s) not as something to fear or conceal but as something alive, tender, electric, and human. I remember the scuffed carpet, the smell of airconditioning fighting Atlanta’s summer heat, the roaches, muffled laughter (and screams) from another room, the dirt, the phone that didn’t work, the onslaught of
circling cars through the parking lot, the way the metal railing outside the upstairs rooms vibrated slightly if someone walked by.
These sensory fragments form a personal archive: the nervous excitement of waiting for a knock; the shock of instant attraction; the tenderness that sometimes followed; the silence afterward that felt neither lonely nor sad but deeply human.
That personal history inspired me in 2023 to host the Cheshire Motor Inn Biennale in Room 153 – a one-room fearless festival of memory, performance, and reckoning. It was my way of reclaiming and honoring the motel while it still stood, paying homage to the generations of queer men who had passed through those doors. I filled the space with art, stories, and rituals. It became a temporary queer reliquary, an altar to the courage, risk, pleasure, and defiance that had perfumed that room and others for decades. Motel management (wisely) shut it down. But it didn’t stop it from happening. The Cheshire Motor Inn Biennale in Room 153 continued online – inviting everyone virtually into that
space, to feel its history and its ghosts. It was a pure reminder that queer sanctuaries don’t need official recognition to matter deeply.
The loss of Cheshire Motor Inn echoes the heartbreak many of us felt when the Parliament House in Orlando closed in 2020 – a queer palace of drag, decadence, resilience, and weekend-long romance. The Parliament House wasn’t just a hotel or a bar; much like Cheshire, it was a mythical cultural anchor, a place where generations of gay men learned how to belong to themselves and to each other.
So, when I think about the Cheshire Motor Inn now, I feel both sorrow and gratitude. Sorrow for the physical loss, for the soon-to-be bulldozed rooms and extinguished neon. But gratitude for what it gave us – for the men who found each other there, for the lives changed by a single night, for the bodies that learned how to want without shame, for the art and memory and laughter that soaked into the drywall and carpet (among other things). These things cannot be torn down. They live on in us.
As the country flirts with authoritarianism, as queer people are told – subtly or overtly – to behave, assimilate, and quiet down, the erasure of our erotic and communal landmarks is a warning. These places mattered. They shaped us. And their disappearance marks not just the loss of architecture, but the loss of a world where queer freedom felt insurgent and alive.
Farewell, Cheshire Motor Inn. Goodbye to your flickering sign, your uneven stairwells, your rooms full of stories. You gave shelter to our desires when few places would. And in return, we carry you forward – not as a ruin, but as a forever heartfelt pulse.
You will not be erased. We will not be erased.
Ed Woodham is an Atlanta-born interdisciplinary artist, writer, performer, cultural activist/archivist, and founder of the long-running public art initiative Art in Odd Places.
Photos by Ed Woodham
Why HIV Drug Resistance Still Matters — And What We Can Do About It
By Andrew Zolopa, Treatment Medical Affairs Executive Director, Gilead Sciences and Professor of Medicine, Stanford University
Even with decades of scientific research in HIV, a major challenge faced by people with HIV (PWH) continues to be HIV drug resistance.
HIV can change or mutate over time and HIV can develop something called a resistance mutation. When this happens, some HIV treatments may not work as well. Sometimes, HIV can already have a resistance mutation when it’s transmitted, or it can develop while someone is on treatment. But taking HIV treatment as your doctor prescribes can help lower the risk of resistance.
A major goal of HIV treatment is to become undetectable, which means there is so little virus in the blood that a lab test can’t measure it. Current research shows that taking HIV treatment as prescribed and getting to and staying undetectable prevents HIV from spreading through sex. This is also called U=U, or “Undetectable equals Untransmittable.” Reaching an undetectable viral load is a critical milestone for many people living with HIV, and by starting and staying on treatment, they can live longer and healthier lives with HIV as a chronic, manageable condition. But here’s the challenge: treatment resistance can still stand in the way of getting to and staying undetectable, especially for those who have had to stop or restart care.
In the US in 2022, only about 65% of PWH were virally suppressed, which means having less than 200 copies of HIV per milliliter of blood. For those who do not stay on treatment
— sometimes because of stigma and life challenges— the risk of resistance and illness increases. Resistance can mean the virus no longer responds to certain medicines, making treatment harder.
As a clinician and researcher, I’ve seen how resistance can affect how well some treatments work. In the early years of HIV treatment, resistance emerged as a major concern, influencing the decisions doctors made and shaping community conversations. Resistance isn’t talked about as much today, but that doesn’t mean it has gone away. Resistance is an especially real risk for people who experience care gaps, have trouble taking medicine regularly, or need to restart treatment. However, most people with HIV face some risk of developing resistance. That’s why it’s so important to talk with your healthcare provider about what resistance means and why taking your medicine as prescribed makes such a difference.
That’s why re-engaging people in care must go hand-in-hand with clear, supportive conversations about resistance, and making sure each person has access to medicines that fit their unique health needs. The good news is that science continues to evolve. Today, there are multiple treatment options available for PWH who have resistance, giving people more treatment options when restarting care. Your healthcare provider can help guide you to the option that’s right for you.
So, what does this mean if you’re living with HIV? It means that even if you’ve taken breaks from treatment, you can speak with your healthcare provider about restarting with a treatment that may be able to continue to work even if HIV has developed resistance
to certain types of medicines. A medicine’s barrier to resistance refers to how well it can work even if the virus develops resistance due to a mutation. We must not lose sight of the foundational goal: staying undetectable over time. That starts with taking your medication as prescribed. Your healthcare provider can help choose a treatment that has a high barrier to resistance—whether it’s your first regimen, you’re switching your regimen, or if you are restarting care.
The importance of awareness around topics like resistance, undetectability and starting and staying on treatment is what inspired Gilead Sciences to launch
Choose U. Choose U is a new initiative that puts people first in conversations about HIV –encouraging them to prioritize their own health by having informed conversations with their providers and making choices that help lower the risk of resistance, help them achieve undetectability, and prioritize their health for the long term.
As an infectious disease specialist, my advice is simple: talk with your doctor about HIV treatment options that help support your long-term health. To learn more about HIV, visit ChooseUHIV.com.
Celebrating the holidays in order
THAT’S WHAT SHE SAID
MELISSA CARTER
When I was on The Bert Show, I held several strong opinions. Yet there was one that was met with decisive resistance – and that debate not only came up every year but continues to this day. Since it is the holiday season, I feel the need to readdress this issue, and that is the proper timeframe to celebrate each holiday.
Discipline, or self-control, is applauded in many areas, including sports, health, and education. We expect in others and ourselves the ability to follow rules and refrain from selfindulgence. However, all bets seem to be off in the Fall, and we turn this festive occasion into a holiday free-for-all with flavors and decorations of all kinds clashing in the streets.
Even though this is education received as a young child, and it is highlighted in every modern-day calendar – both in print and digital – let me remind you of when each of these holidays lands.
■ Halloween is on October 31st.
■ Thanksgiving is on the 4th Thursday of November.
■ Christmas is on December 25th.
■ New Year’s Day is on January 1st.
The proper timeframe to decorate and publicize your excitement is during the month in which the holiday takes place. That does not mean we get to hang lights
in July or consume pumpkin spice before kids get back to school.
It truly gets on my nerves to see Christmas movies in October, Halloween attire in August, or the complete oversight of Thanksgiving altogether. Many argue that those activities are up to the individual, and what if the person needs that Christmas spirit ahead of time?
I say as a society that has attempted to maintain these traditions in succession, not only are you messing up the timeline for everyone else, but you’re also missing an opportunity for monthslong feel-good activities.
There is a reason the holidays are special, and it is because they don’t happen throughout the year – and quite frankly, they aren’t meant to. When the sun starts setting early and the crisp, cool
air makes its way into our bones, there is a need for celebratory distraction. Sure, you may not personally enjoy every holiday, but that doesn’t mean your interest has to overtake the calendar.
Halloween is a time for light-hearted creativity and role play for both kids and adults. Thanksgiving only happens in this country and is a time to give thanks for what you have in your life, sharing the blessing of a warm meal with those you love. Christmas for the religious is a time to celebrate the source of that faith, and for those not connected to the religion, it can be a magical time of good cheer and light displays. New Year’s Day is an emotionally cleansing time with hope for better things to come. Vibrant colors aren’t the ones watered down, which is what happens when something is celebrated too long.
Instead of taking an individual approach to the holidays, maybe it’s time for us to try and bring more of a community spirit to the season. Let each holiday have its place and attention. So enjoy the peppermint hot chocolates, presents, ugly sweaters, Christmas trees, and wreaths.
Just be sure to get them down before the next holiday rolls around.
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Holiday Guide: Make merry around Metro Atlanta with these festive events
By Collin Kelley
Garden Lights, Holiday Nights
The Atlanta Botanical Garden is hosting the 15th annual “Garden Lights, Holiday Nights” now through Jan. 11. The grounds will be illuminated with thousands of lights, while the tree sculptures from this summer’s “Enchanted Trees by Poetic Kinetics” will be incorporated into the show. Tickets usually sell out fast, so get yours at atlantabg.org.
Atlanta Ballet's The Nutcracker
The classic holiday ballet pirouettes into the Cobb Energy Centre Dec. 6-27 accompanied by larger-than-life sets and Tchaikovsky's iconic score. Tickets: atlantaballet.com.
Merry Mighty Mo and More!
The Fox Theatre is hosting this free event presented by Georgia Natural Gas and sponsored by Regions Bank on Wednesday, Dec. 10 at 7 p.m. There will be complimentary photos with Santa Claus, sing-alongs with the "Mighty Mo" organ and a performance by the a cappella quartet Like The Dickens, followed by a special screening of Disney's “Olaf’s Frozen Adventure.” Guests are encouraged to “Bring Your Socks to the Fox” by donating new socks for individuals and families served through City of Refuge. Tickets: foxtheatre.org.
Grant Park Candlelight Tour of Homes
The annual holiday tour of homes is Saturday, Dec. 13, from 6 to 10 p.m., and Sunday, Dec. 14, from 5 to 9 p.m., and will feature 10 homes plus an artist market. Tickets are $30 online until Dec. 12 or $35 on the days of the tour. All proceeds benefit St. Paul United Methodist Church,
Grant Park Cooperative Preschool, and the Grant Park Parents Network. Tickets: candlelighttourofhomes.com.
Voices of Note Holiday Concerts
The Atlanta Gay Men's Chorus will hold its "Home for the Holidays" concert on Dec. 5 at 8 p.m. and Dec. 6 at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. at Cathedral of St. Philip, 2744 Peachtree Rd NW. The Atlanta Women's Chorus will hold its "Seasons of Light" concert on Dec. 13 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. at Church at Ponce and Highland, 1085 Ponce De Leon Ave NE. Tickets: voicesofnote.org.
Atlanta Shakespeare Company's A Christmas Carol
ASC presents Charles Dickens' classic Dec. 6-23 (previews Dec. 4-5) at the Shakespeare Tavern in Midtown. Tickets: shakespearetavern.com.
Christmas Carol Concert
Spelman and Morehouse Colleges will once again come alive with music, joy, and unity as the colleges present the 99th Annual Christmas Carol Concert. The three-night concert series, free and open to the public, begins on Friday, Dec. 5, at 7:30 p.m. at Morehouse College’s Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel. It will continue at Spelman College’s Sisters Chapel on Saturday, Dec. 6, at 7:30 p.m. and will culminate with a final performance at Morehouse on Sunday, Dec. 7, at 6:00 p.m. Information: spelman.edu/events.
Y'allmark
Atlanta playwright Topher Payne draws on his experience writing holiday movies for the Hallmark Channel to create this stage play, featuring some of the same beloved tropes, plus star turns by Amber Nash and Kevin Gillese. Dec. 11-28 at 7 Stages in Little Five Points. Tickets: 7stages.org.
Madeline’s Christmas
The beloved children's play returns to Horizon Theatre Dec. 6–31 with 24 talented local girls performing alongside professional actors on a whimsical, Parisian-inspired set—bringing Madeline and her classmates to life in a way that’s both magical and memorable. Tickets: horizontheatre.com.
Ponce City Market
The Old Fourth Ward shopping and dining destination is pulling out all the stops for the holidays with Santa's Village on Saturdays through Dec. 20, ice skating on The Roof through Feb. 15, Holiday Social Bar on The Roof through Jan. 4, The Village Retail's Makers Market through Dec. 20, and the Festival of Lights Menorah Lighting on Dec. 21 with Chabad Intown. See a full list of events at the link above. Information: poncecityroof.com.
Frozen Channukah
Mitzvah House will hold its annual family-friendly menorah lighting, holiday music, and winter wonderland activities on Dec. 14 from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. at Ashford Lane in Dunwoody. Information: mitzvahouse.com.
William Close & The Earth Harp Collective
SCADshow will host this special event on Dec. 18 at 7 p.m. The body of the Earth Harp rests on the stage while its strings extend over the audience, reaching up to 1,000 feet in length and attaching to the back
of the venue. Each performance transforms the space itself into a resonant musical instrument, immersing the audience inside the sound. Tickets: scadshow.com.
Mamma Dearest: Here We Joan Again!
Out Front Theatre will stage the world premiere of Blake Fountain's mashup of "Mamma Mia" and "Mommie Dearest" Dec. 11-21 as Christina Crawford sets out to find her birthmother (Bette Davis? Judy Garland? Eartha Kitt?) over a holiday dinner meltdown. Fasten your seatbelts and hide the axes! Tickets: outfronttheatre.com.
Christmas with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
The ASO will host the “Deck the Halls” family concert (Dec. 7), Christmas with Trisha Yearwood (Dec. 10), Christmas with the ASO (Dec. 11-14), a holiday concert with Sarah Brightman (Dec. 17), Handel's Messiah (Dec. 18-19), the Celtic Women Christmas Tour (Dec. 20-21), Sounds of the Season (Dec. 23), and A Drag Queen Christmas (Dec. 26). Tickets: aso.org.
Atlanta Ballet’s “Nutcracker.”
“Madeline’s Christmas” at Horizon Theatre.
William Close & The Earth Harp Collective
$200 billion in cuts to SNAP will make it harder for families in need to buy food.
Wholesome Wave Georgia is here to help.
Support
Photo Credit: Jenna Shea Mobley
Have yourself a merry John Waters Christmas
By Gregg Shapiro
When it comes to iconic Christmas scenes in movies, none can top the treetoppling tantrum thrown by cha-cha heelsdeprived Dawn Davenport in John Waters’ fifth full-length feature “Female Trouble” from 1974.
Therefore, it’s not all that surprising that Waters continues to make art out of Christmas, performing his spoken word Christmas tour in cities across the country. He’ll be at Variety Playhouse (varietyplayhouse.com) in Atlanta on Dec. 17.
Waters has even more reason to celebrate with the release of his new red vinyl 7” single, a cover of Little Cindy’s “Happy Birthday Jesus (A Child’s Prayer)” on the A-side, and “A Pig Latin Visit From St. Nicholas” on the B-side. If you’re still looking for unique Christmas gifts, consider this record.
As always, John was kind enough to make time for an interview in advance of his tour dates.
John, in preparation for this interview with you, I went back and listened to Little Cindy’s original rendition of “Happy Birthday Jesus (A Child’s Prayer)” on your “A John Waters Christmas” CD.
One thing I did, if you notice, I make the same stumble in my recording that she did in the original. It sounded to me like she got choked up. No, I think she just stumbles over a word, so I stumbled over the same word. It’s appropriation, insanely.
Is this a song you first became aware of in your youth or when you were an adult?
When I was doing the Christmas album, I had this friend named Larry Benicewicz. He was kind of my idea man with music. He knew every single old record. I would say to him, “Weird Christmas songs,” when we were doing a soundtrack, or a song about bears, or a song about this, and he would give me all these tapes. It was one of the ones he played for me. A lot of the songs I put in my movies and on my records, I did know as a kid. I did not know this one, but I immediately embraced it. I don’t think it’s campy. I think it really is spiritual in a weird way. My doing it makes it a novelty record. I am really for novelty records, and there aren’t any anymore. Why was there not a COVID novelty record? That’s insane. The dance “The Bug” that’s on the “Hairspray” soundtrack would be perfect for COVID. The thing that struck me was that for a Christmas song in the voice of a child, a kind of death pall hangs over it, with lines like, “If I was good you’d let me live with you” and “they nailed you to the cross, they wanted you to die.”
All of it! When I see children at midnight mass kneeling in front of a nude man nailed to a cross, I feel like I’m at The Eagle! It is S&M, it’s creepy. I took the same cover (photo) from her record to parody and put
my face on it. The same thing I did with The Singing Dogs last year when I covered (their version of) “Jingle Bells.” I’m really into novelty records. I love them and I’m trying to bring them back. I don’t expect anybody to ever play these records. Even The Singing Dogs one said on it, “Please do not play this record” [laughs]. And the flipside, the Pig Latin version, is almost impossible to listen to.
I’m so glad you mentioned that. “A Pig Latin Visit From St. Nicholas” reminded me of the lost art of speaking in Pig Latin. I also recall watching the PBS series “Zoom” as an adolescent and learning to speak “ubbi dubbi,” a distant relative of Pig Latin. Do you think that the time is right for a Pig Latin or ubbi dubbi revival?
Here’s the thing: I never could pick up any language, except Pig Latin. I’ve been in every foreign country. Foreign countries have given me money to learn to speak the language. I can never do it! But Pig Latin… my parents and other parents in the ‘50s spoke Pig Latin so kids couldn’t understand what they were saying. Then my mother taught it to me, and I used it. The hardest take to shoot in “Pink Flamingos” was not eating the dog shit. It was when the cast skipped, in one take, saying “E-way, are-yay e-they ilthiest-fay eople-pay in-hay e-they ole-hay ide-way orld-way.” We’re the filthiest people in the whole wide world in Pig Latin. We had to do so many takes so they could do it once without screwing it up. In “Polyester,” Edith (Massey) answers the phone, “ello-hay.” I did a photo piece where it was all subtitled in Pig Latin. Like “osebud-Ray” (from “Citizen Kane”) or in “Streetcar,” “ella-Stay!” [Laughs] All the iconic dialogue translated into Pig Latin. My assistant who helped me do it, had never heard of Pig Latin. She really got good at it because she lived in many foreign countries and can pick up languages. But it’s not that easy to do it correctly and read it. Your computer will translate into Pig Latin.
AI understands Pig Latin?
I guess that’s AI. It wasn’t 100% right, but it was close. I can speak it if I look at it, but just do a bit at a time. It was a challenge that no one would possibly care about or want to do.
I think you pulled it off very well. If you want people to leave on Christmas morning, you put it on. That’s how you get your guests to leave. It’s time to go.
Is there any chance that “A John Waters Christmas” might be reissued on vinyl by Sub Pop?
No. It’s such a nightmare to get the rights and to renew them. You have to find the publisher and the writer, and they usually hate each other. It doesn’t matter if it’s obscure or famous; it’s hard to get. You have to make the deal. The singer doesn’t get anything unless they play it on the radio. It would be so complicated legally, and there would be such a [laughs] tiny audience for it. I hope it will come out again. The same
thing with the one for Valentine’s Day. I had two of them that did quite well when they came out; “A Date With John Waters and “A John Waters Christmas.” The “John Waters Christmas” album is still the soundtrack that plays whenever I’m doing my spoken word Christmas show as people are entering the theater.
GS: Aside from your annual Christmas show tour, what else do you do for the holidays now, and are there any traditions that you’ve carried over from your family?
Certainly! I have two sisters, my brother’s widow, and me, so there are four and we take turns each year to have the Christmas
dinner. Mine was last year. An entire sitdown dinner. Mom’s China, the silverware, the entire full dinner. It’s pretty traditional. I don’t have a Christmas tree, but I do decorate the electric chair from “Female Trouble.” That is a tradition in my family. We do have Christmas decorations, but they’re usually weird ones that fans sent me. I have one with Divine knocking over the Christmas tree, and the Christmas tree lights up, all sorts of amazing things. There is definitely a tradition here that might be a little altered, but it is definitely a tradition. I used to have a giant party every year, but COVID ended that. I still wouldn’t want 200 people in my house breathing right now.
Actor Clayton Farris talks queer representation in ‘Weapons’
By Jim Farmer
Clayton Farris feels he got lucky with his role in the 2025 hit “Weapons.”
He had seen filmmaker Zach Cregger’s previous movie, the well-received “Barbarian,” and was such a fan that he decided he really wanted to be a part of Cregger’s next project. It’s almost like he willed himself to be involved.
“Somehow, some way magically, I got offered a role in this movie,” Farris said. “I really don’t even know how it happened. If I didn’t believe in manifestation, I do now.”
In “Weapons,” 17 school children from one elementary school class vanish after they run away from their homes at 2:17 a.m.
The townsfolk look for an explanation from the class teacher, Justine (Julia Garner) and Alex (Cary Christopher), the sole student from the class who remains. And Alex’s mysterious, flamboyant aunt Gladys (Amy Madigan) shakes things up even more. The film did well at the box office, and Madigan is getting Oscar buzz for her supporting role.
“Weapons” was shot in and around Atlanta in the spring and summer of 2024 and was originally earmarked for a January 2026 release. But, according to Farris, when studio heads saw the film, they knew
they had a potential hit on their hands and moved the release up to August of this year.
Farris, who is bisexual and says he splits his time between Los Angeles and Atlanta, plays Terry, one half of a gay couple partnered with school principal Marcus (Benedict Wong). When we first meet the couple, they’re enjoying a lovely hot dog dinner while they watch television. When Gladys stops by without warning, Terry invites her in, not thinking of the consequences.
Farris sees Terry as someone who just wants to live a happy life with his partner.
“The way I see Terry is he’s very openhearted,” Farris said. “He will do anything for a neighbor or someone in the street, especially an old lady who looks wacky, because they are interesting. He means well and welcomes people into his home when maybe it’s not the best idea.”
On set, Farris was one of the first people to see Madigan in her full Gladys glory, with her eccentric clothes and brightly-colored, clown-like makeup.
“I was taking it all in in real time and how wild and adventurous and crazy the whole look was,” Farris said. “I messaged the casting director at the time just to
Continued on page 24
John Waters (Photo courtesy Variety Playhouse)
say, ‘Having a great day on set,’ and she asked ‘How is Amy?’ I said in an email – ‘Mark my word; she is getting an Oscar nomination.’”
The actor is certainly aware of the queer appeal of the film, particularly when it comes to Gladys. He has his own opinions about why iconic female characters stand out.
“Even though Gladys can be looked at as this bad character or the antagonist, I see a character who has been put through a lot and drug through the mud for a while, and this is her getting her comeuppance, in a way,” Farris said. “I think in that realm – as someone who was bullied a lot as a kid –whenever you see characters like Gladys being proudly themselves and loud and open, there is something that resonates to the queer community and everybody, because that is what people want – the courage to be themselves.”
For Farris, Terry and Marcus represent something that he feels is missing in gay representation in media: normalcy.
“We get to see queer characters just living their lives and [that] are happy, and
the storyline is not about them being gay or being tragically bullied or the stories we are used to,” Farris said. “I think that is why what happens to my character and Marcus has caused such a stir, because people fell
in love with these characters quickly, and because it’s a horror film, [they] meet their end quickly.”
There has been some criticism that Terry and Marcus’ deaths fall into the “Bury Your
Gays” trope, where LGBTQ+ characters die more frequently than their heterosexual counterparts. Farris understands the criticism.
“I get it. If you are thinking of it from a filmmaking [perspective], it really worked in terms of the story and writing, because people love those characters,” he said. “That shift that happens during our scene when Gladys comes in – you feel the room shift. This is turning sinister. I want to validate when people say that, but in horror people have to die.”
As a performer who loves horror films, Farris realizes it will be huge if the movie or Amy Madigan gets nominated for an Oscar.
“It will be great for the genre,” he said. “Horror is always put on the side of things – not prestige or deserving of awards.”
He’s been enjoying seeing the Halloween costumes based on his character and taking in the viral buzz about Terry and Marcus’ hot dog platter all over social media.
“It’s a hard time in Hollywood now, so to be part of something cool is next level,” he said.
“Weapons” is now streaming on HBO Max.
Review: Cirque du Soleil’s ‘Luzia’ makes it rain, sticks the landing
By Jacob Nguyen
The Cirque du Soleil big top is back at Atlantic Station this holiday season for a production of “Luzia,” another high-flying, jaw-dropping spectacle, and the show’s biggest “wow” factor –rain.
“Luzia” doesn’t have the same punch as the steampunk-inspired “Kurios” or the daredevil antics of “Volta.” It has a more mysterious enchantment about it, with a more minimal style closer to “Echo.”
As with most Cirque productions, “Luzia” has a very loose story arc. Subtitled “A Waking Dream of Mexico,” the show opens with our guide character falling from the upper reaches of the big top. His parachute fails, and he eventually has to whip out an umbrella and land Mary Poppins-style in the ring.
From this entry point, it’s two hours of acrobatics, trapeze work, juggling, life-like puppets, and traditional Mexican songs and music. You’ll see nods to Dia de Muertos, soccer, Frida Kahlo, mythical gods, and other cultural signposts.
And then there’s the rain I mentioned above.
This isn’t fake or projected water, but gallons and gallons and gallons of water falling from 62 feet above the center ring. The performers romped through it, spun on straps in it, rolled in circular hoops through it, and played soccer in it.
Perhaps the best spectacle of the night was the rain falling in a series of patterns to create the shapes of flowers, trees, and animals. It elicited gasps from the audience, me included, and a buzz about how they were able to create that special effect.
Another memorable moment was when a pool of water appeared at the center of the ring and a demigod-like character rose from it and performed a dazzling routine high above the audience. Meanwhile, a giant leopard puppet stalked
the edge of the pool.
I can’t forget to mention the juggler who somehow was able to catch silver batons falling from on high and still keep them all in motion. And there’s also a contortionist who appears to not have a single bone in his body.
The last big setup of the evening is teams leaping back and forth from these Flying Dutchman-style swings, which is truly butt-clenching to watch. The performers and crew received a well-deserved standing ovation from the audience for the sold-out opening night show.
If you need an escape for a few hours from the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, “Luzia” is just the ticket. The show runs through Jan. 25, and tickets are available via cirquedusoleil.com.
Photos by Jacob Nguyen
Clayton Farris (Courtesy of Warner Bros.)
A free, weekly newsletter
for the LGBTQ+ community.
S c an the QR code to subscribe for free.
RoughDraftAtlanta.com/Cros swalk
The Best New Restaurants of 2025
Rough Draft’s dining team, Beth McKibben and Sarra Sedghi, spent the last year eating at dozens of new restaurants across metro Atlanta. And after multiple visits to some serious contenders, they whittled the list down to just six restaurants that kept capturing their attention.
Restaurants in contention opened between Oct. 1, 2024, and Oct. 1, 2025 and reside within Rough Draft’s coverage zones in the cities of Atlanta, Brookhaven, Tucker, Sandy Springs, and Dunwoody, along with greater metro Atlanta.
This year’s award winners brought something extra special to the Atlanta dining scene, including a coffee and sandwich shop doubling as a community hub, a fine dining restaurant leaning into Alpine ingredients, a next-level, seasonally driven breakfast spot, and a tiny counterservice restaurant whipping up made-toorder meals perfect for your next dinner party.
Taurean Philpott, for further advice. As with the food, wine at Avize favors Alpine producers.
institutions. Chef Jack Kim has worked a wide range of restaurant jobs, and it shows.
With the exception of the cookies and brownies on the counter (those are baked ahead of time), Kim makes everything to order. The menu’s foundation on healthy, seasonal ingredients proves that food can be good for you and taste good, too. The smoothies, for example, don’t contain an excess amount of sugar, instead highlighting the god-given flavors in each ingredient. The frothy beet smoothie gets its sweetness from Fuji apples and maple syrup, with the main ingredient’s earthy flavor at the forefront.
Everything is good here, but the Guajillo coconut salmon especially shines. The fish itself maintains that ideal doneness with just a hint of mediumrare, and the accompanying curry-like sauce, Brussels sprouts, and miso-glazed kabocha sauce almost outshine the main dish.
Madeira Park
Now, introducing Rough Draft’s Best New Restaurants of 2025.
Avize
956 Brady Ave., Westside Atlanta avizeatlanta.com
Avize is a culinary exploration of Chef Karl Gorline’s Bavarian heritage and the Alpine-bordering countries of Germany, France, Switzerland, and Italy. For Gorline, Avize isn’t a literal interpretation of Alpine food traditions. Instead, the menu pays homage to these cuisines through foraged ingredients, such as serviceberries, and vegetables, grains, and herbs harvested weekly from the restaurant’s Bremen farm. The only physical indication Avize leans Alpine is in the dining room, where a taxidermied white mountain goat named "Truffles" is given pride of place.
Gorline gussies up rustic dishes of venison, duck, and schnitzel, whipping gamey proteins, fish, and root vegetables into elegantly presented plates that are almost too pretty to eat.
Begin with the dandelion greens salad studded with seasonal citrus, or the venison tartare. Gorline gets cheeky with his lemon pepper wet riff on frog legs. For the main event, order hay-smoked duck, fermented carrot Bolognese, or the fallow deer crusted with black sesame atop a serviceberry jus accompanied by eggplant and chicory.
While wine pairing suggestions come listed with each dish, tap in Avize Director of Hospitality and sommelier,
Moody and cozy, with a playlist jockeying between 1980s New Wave and old-school hip hop, Avize makes fine dining fun and approachable. With the more casual vibes of Bar Avize next door, serving martinis on silver plates and everything from fries and oysters, to adult chicken nuggets topped with caviar, this Brady Avenue restaurant is the total package.
Danbi Seasonal Kitchen
3432 Clairmont Road, Brookhaven eatdanbi.com
Don’t be fooled by Danbi Seasonal Kitchen’s appearance, or the counter service operation — this Brookhaven strip mall spot offers far more than meets the eye. Although the sleek, technologyforward interior, minimal staff, and no-tipping policy suggest a standard fast-casual operation, the actual product is on the same caliber as finer dining
640 N Highland Ave., Poncey-Highland madeiraparkatl.com
It’s been 16 years since Steven Satterfield opened Miller Union, now a Michelin-recognized restaurant for the James Beard-award-winning chef. But in 2025, Satterfield and Miller Union partner Neal McCarthy, and Dive Wine founder Tim Willard, opened Madeira Park in Poncey-Highland.
They transformed the former cafe at the old Highland Inn into a lively wine bar where people pack the dining room and patio nightly.
The wine list–a constantly evolving project for Willard and sommelier and general manager Jade Palmer–features familiar favorites, boundary-pushing
vintages, and collector wines. Pro tip: Ask for the “book” – an off-menu, handwritten list of limited-run and rare wines curated by Palmer.
Fortified wine lovers will find a healthy selection of vermouth, sherry, port, and Madeira, including bottledaged pours of Terrantez dating back to 1899 and a century-old Sercial. And while Philip Weltner keeps cocktails low-ABV by dialing into fortified wines (try the Bijou with sweet potato shochu, vermouth, and sherry), heavy hitters like the Sazerac and Rob Roy round out his drinks list.
Bar snacks include salads, oysters, ham and cheese beignets, and beef tartare, with entrees featuring the seasonality of ingredients for which Satterfield is known. Led by Chef Ollie Honderd, order a bistro steak with crowder peas and caponata, or the daily fish en papillote seared in brown butter complemented with French filet beans.
Sammy’s
565 Northside Dr., Adair Park sammysatl.com
Jason Furst and Chef Sam Pinner have created a buzzy community hub in Sammy’s, a compact coffee and sandwich shop at Abrams Fixtures in Adair Park. Lines form early for coffee and bacon, egg, and cheese in the morning. In the afternoon, the lines return for sandwiches chock-full of ingredients.
You’ll meet Furst at the counter, greeting you with his sterling smile. Hospitality courses through his veins, and through his long, flowing locks and full beard. Pinner works the smoker out front, tending to the pork butts for Uncle Sam’s sandwich and the Miami Sami served on bread sourced from
Pan
Avize. (Photo by Laurent Lynn)
Danbi Seasonal Kitchen
Madeira Park (Photo by Andrew Thomas Lee)
American Bakery. For the Reuben, Pinner brines the pastrami and finishes it on the smoker, topping the sandwich with Southern-style coleslaw, based on his mother’s recipe.
Every Friday evening, Sammy’s transforms into a bar teeming with people ordering High Life ponies and martinis from Furst paired with smashburgers, whole smoked wings, and barbecue specials from Pinner.
Sammy’s already feels like it’s been around for years in Adair Park, with people huddled around tables, sometimes with small stockpiles of sandwiches. (Yes, they're just that good.) It can be hard to find a seat at peak hours–even outside–an indication that Furst and Pinner must be doing something right.
Season Marietta
301 Lemon St., Marietta seasonmarietta.com
You would have no idea Season just celebrated its first anniversary. Situated in a standalone building on Lemon Street, the breakfast and brunch restaurant has the aura of a place that’s been open for decades. The restaurant runs like an extremely well-oiled machine, with an attentive staff thrumming at both the back and front of the house.
There’s a smaller, separate coffee menu for diners who can’t function sanscaffeine. While the specialty and seasonal drinks are just as detailed and visually impressive as items from a neighborhood coffee shop, you also won’t go wrong just ordering a French pressed coffee.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that everything on Season’s food menu makes for a solid meal. The savory dishes like the chorizo chilaquiles and tamale huevos rancheros truly shine here.
Chef Nick Jennings makes Season’s red chorizo in house, and sausage lovers
who don’t try it are quite frankly doing themselves a disservice.
Those whose tastes steer sweeter should opt for the maduros-stuffed buttermilk pancakes or French toast served with blueberry compote, duck ham, Virginia maple syrup, and cinnamon sugar. Other must-orders include the pork belly grilled cheese, croque madame, and selection of biscuit sandwiches. Come early, or make reservations. If not, be prepared to wait for a table. A meal at Season, however, is worth it.
Tipsy Thaiger
605 Atlanta St., Roswell tipsythaiger.com
Birdie Niyomkun, Phudith Pattharakositkul, and Candi Lee want Tipsy Thaiger to reflect their love for entertaining. Here you’ll find homestyle Thai dishes mingling with Thai street foods and finer dining Thai dishes within the cozy environs of one of Roswell's most historic dining rooms.
Kicking off with a cocktail is the
move, including with the gin-based Green Curry Sour, or Thaiger Martini mixed with vodka and yellow rice sake. The Mango & Sticky Rice mixes rum with clarified mango and a float of salted coconut foam.
With a food menu divided into gabglaam (bar bites, small plates) and gabkao (shareable entrees served with rice), order everything family style, starting with the jackfruit dip and Thaiger salad comprising beets, tomatoes, and aromatic herbs tossed in Thai dressing and fried shallots. The unctuous chili jam clams are a must, which sees middleneck clams coaxed open as they’re quickly stir-fried in a creamy, sweet, and spicy sauce.
Never skip ordering she-crab fried rice for the table to complement entrees of 36-hour braised Hung-Le short rib or the daily market fish, which can come fried, poached, or seared. For a decadent dessert, opt for the Thai tea toast – a hunk of toasted brioche covered in Thai tea cream and peanut crumbles served with coconut ice cream.
Tipsy Thaiger gently nudges you out of your Thai food comfort zone–and that’s a good thing–while also introducing you to the depth and breadth of Thailand’s foodways and hospitality traditions. In other words, it’s a triumph.
Season Marietta
Sammy’s (Photo by Kelly Irwin)
Tipsy Thaiger
• Free STD Screening & Treatment
• HIV Testing & Linkage to HIV care
• PrEP Services
