Sunday, July 20, 2008
Life, In this Issue...

Breaking the silence

New book examines the history of gays and lesbians in Atlanta

Courtesy of Atlanta History Center
Cathy Woolard and Bill Clinton, Washington, D.C., 1999. “The late 1990s witnesses several firsts for gay politicians in Atlanta. In 1997, Atlanta City Council member Cathy Woolard became the city’s first openly gay elected official. In 1999, Kecia Cunningham won a seat on the Decatur City Commission as the first openly gay African American to be elected to office in the Southeast. Karla Drenner, from Avondale Estates in DeKalb County, became the first out lesbian representative in the Georgia General Assembly in 2000. The next year, the city of Atlanta elected Cathy Woolard as the city council president.” (“Gay and Lesbian Atlanta,” p. 121.)
By Kirsten Ott

With Midtown mainstays such as Baton Bob, Bubba D. Licious, Charlie Brown and Lily White, in all their glammed-up drag glory, and the annual celebration of Atlanta Gay Pride, it’s a wonder Atlanta was ever in the closet. But it was—far, far in. Atlanta’s gay and lesbian community has been shamefully and uncomfortably shoved behind mothballs and tacky holiday sweaters, and it was a rare, brave man or woman who dared to go public with his or her same-sex attractions and relationships, much less the changing of his or her gender. The city has experienced considerable social and gender-role changes in the last century—changes that come under close examination by historians Wesley Chenault and Stacy Braukman, authors of “Gay and Lesbian Atlanta: Images of America.”


Atlanta residents Chenault and Staci Catron, author of “Women in Atlanta: Images of America,” combine their respective research to discuss and celebrate the history of women with specific emphasis on the lesbian community from 1940 to the present. The two, both of the Atlanta History Center, are teaming up to present “Women, Memory and Queer Desire” at the Feminist Women’s Health Center on Thursday, July 24.


“Gay and Lesbian Atlanta: Images of America” was created from the 2005 Atlanta History Center exhibition, “The Unspoken Past: Atlanta Lesbian and Gay History, 1940–1970,” which Chenault says “became the impetus behind everything we’ve done since then, including the book.” Most of the images are kept in the collections of the James G. Kenan Research Center at the Atlanta History Center, where Chenault serves as archivist. Researching all the images and corresponding information was no easy task. “Since the early 1990s, the Atlanta History Center has collected GLBT [gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered]-related materials, which include oral histories, personal papers and photographs, organizational records and many different kinds of publications—from underground to mainstream, covering several decades,” says Chenault. “We also did extensive newspaper research and secondary reading about the city’s history in the 20th century.”


Both books highlight the social and gender-role transformation Atlanta experienced during an extraordinary time in our country’s history, and commemorate the trailblazers who paved the way to being able to outwardly celebrate the annual Gay Pride festival in Atlanta, receive domestic partner benefits at work and just be open about who they love. There’s still tremendous discrimination against the GLBT community—both legally and socially. But the hurdles leaped in the past century have been—and will continue to be—the catalyst for change. The book highlights Atlanta luminaries and hurdle-leapers in the gay and lesbian community, such as Cathy Woolard, Atlanta’s first lesbian city council president; Delia Champion, founder/creator of the Flying Biscuit restaurants, whose wife of 13 years, Wendy Weiner, designed the clever logo; and Melissa Carter, Atlanta’s first out morning show co-host (Q100’s the Bert Show). Champion, who started her restaurant with a loan from her friend, Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls, says she’s “thrilled” to be included in the historic tome. “It’s important for someone to capture these images and the history, so all those struggles and wonderful pieces of history don’t get lost. Hopefully, this book will just be the beginning, and more people will bring their photos, stories and documents in [to Wesley] so there’s a history of gay people. Collecting historical pieces does change history.”


Atlanta’s gay and lesbian history is vastly different from those in the Northeast and California, says Baukman. “Atlanta proved an especially interesting counterpoint, because it was so deeply rooted in racial segregation and Protestant Christian culture while at the same time aspiring to cosmopolitanism and progressivism. Gay communities and gay history end up looking quite a bit different in many ways from New York or Los Angeles in the 20th century.”


“Gay and Lesbian Atlanta: Images of America” is a meaningful and historic work that should have a powerful impact on any reader, no matter if he or she is gay, straight, bi or transgendered. Chenault says he hopes the book “encourages people to think about history as something alive and lived, something constantly in the process of being made, to think about how generational memory is handed down—or not—in LGBT communities, to consider how LGBT history is always intimately tied to larger cultural definitions and understandings of sex and sexuality, just as it is shaped by other markers of identity, including class, race, gender, as well as religious beliefs, political affiliations, place and scientific studies and technological innovations. LGBT Atlanta in the present, after all, bears the mark of a past that was biracial, mobile and socially and politically adaptive.”SP
Kirsten Ott is the Life, Food & Style Editor. E-mail her at kirstenott@sundaypaper.com.