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| Chuck Bowen, executive director of Georgia Equality, looks on as one of the group’s 12 billboards is unveiled on Cheshire Bridge Road Monday. (Photo by Bo Shell) |
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Georgia Equality took the next step in the gay rights group’s novel visibility campaign Monday, altering 12 billboards to include the tagline, “and… I am gay.” When first posted in early July, the billboards featured people including teachers and firefighters with slogans that matched: “I teach your children,” and “I protect you.” The complete text now reads, for example, “I teach your children. And… I am gay. We are your neighbors.”
Georgia Equality organizers said the billboards cost approximately $30,000 and could be seen over 8 million times during the month-long campaign scheduled to end Aug. 5. The group announced the campaign in early June. “Today we are reclaiming the right to define our lives,” Chuck Bowen, executive director of Georgia Equality, said July 18. “Today we step forward to say that we are more alike than we are different.”
The billboards were placed in Clayton County on Tara Boulevard; on I-675, south of Cedar Grove; in Fulton County on Cheshire Bridge Road and another at 10th Street and Piedmont Road; in south Fulton County on Goodson Road; two in Forsyth County at the intersection of Highway 20 and Highway 306; on Ga. 400; in Cobb County on Canton Highway; in DeKalb County on Ponce de Leon Avenue; in Gwinnett County on Highway 20; and in Paulding County on Highway 278.
Steven Conner of Clear Channel Communications, the company that owns the billboards, said early this week that he hasn’t received any negative reactions to the billboards. But Georgia Equality said Wednesday the group was receiving emails criticizing the campaign. Before corrections were made during the unveilings, 10 of the billboards were printed with “neighbors” misspelled. The billboards are the first step in Georgia Equality’s 18-month campaign designed to educate all Georgians about gay men and
By Bo Shell
The Metro Video Bar received a two-week reprieve during a hearing in Fulton County Superior Court July 18, although Judge Stephanie B. Manis ended the proceeding by stating that she is inclined to agree with the city of Atlanta’s decision to revoke the gay bar’s liquor license. Earlier this year, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin upheld a recommendation by the city’s License Review Board to revoke the Metro’s license following alleged drug sales inside the club in 2003, and the club has been operating under a court injunction since March.
If Manis rules against the Metro, the injunction keeping the club open will expire and the club would close immediately, according to Alan Begner, the Metro’s attorney. The judge asked Begner and city attorneys to submit briefs to ensure all of the legal issues were addressed; Begner’s brief is due July 22, and the city attorneys have until July 29 to respond.
“My present intention is to rule in favor of the city,” Manis said at the end of Monday’s hearing. Manis was skeptical of Begner’s argument that the License Review Board erred by conducting a license revocation hearing in November 2004 without Russell Hunnewell, whose name appears on the Metro’s liquor license, present. Don Hunnewell, Russell’s brother and the owner of the Metro, attended the hearing and insisted he was the nightclub’s proper agent, Manis noted. Begner also argued that the city violated the Metro owners’ due process rights.
If Manis rules against the Metro in two weeks, the club would have to seek a separate injunction from the Georgia Court of Appeals if it wishes to remain open during an appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court. In October 2002, the review board also recommended Metro’s liquor license be revoked due to alleged drug sales, but in January 2003 Franklin softened that penalty from a complete revocation to a 30-day suspension.
By Ryan Lee
The Atlanta Police Department continues to investigate the April 21 arrest of six gay men in Piedmont Park who claim they were harassed and berated by Officer L. Smith due to their sexual orientation. “The investigation is still open and ongoing,” Sgt. Connie Locke, APD’s gay and lesbian liaison, said in a statement last week.
There is no timeline for the completion of the investigation, and APD officials remain tightlipped about the possible sanctions Smith and his partner could face if they are found guilty of having mistreated the men who were arrested. During the week of April 17-23, 22 people were arrested in Piedmont Park for being in the park after its 11 p.m., closing time, according to a Southern ...
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