Nearing the end of a five-month huddle to scrutinize its mission and focus, Georgia Equality is emerging with three new staff members and a comprehensive strategic plan that the organization’s directors plan to unveil in coming weeks.
Georgia Equality tapped Cathy Woolard and Kyle Bailey — two very familiar names within gay political circles — to lead the statewide gay political group as interim executive director and political director respectively.
In June, the organization hired Craig Strain as its development director, a position that coordinates fundraising efforts.
The announcement of the new staff returns Georgia Equality to the political and public spotlight after a hiatus while leaders hammered out the details of their new strategic plan, according to Kathleen Womack, chair of GE’s political board.
“We’ve been doing a lot, but most of it’s been behind the scenes,” Womack said.
Womack has said one impetus of the regrouping time is a $10,000 Gill Foundation grant the organization received in December. Georgia Equality’s boards of directors began meeting in March 2007 to fulfill the grant and prepare the new strategic plan.
The organization must adapt to the current Georgia political climate, which has changed drastically since Georgia Equality was founded during the mid 1990s, Womack explained.
“We had a Democratic majority then. We had lots of friends. And as things have changed, it seems that things are becoming more Republican, and less Democratic,” Womack said of the situation the group's lobbyists and political consultants face.
Rethinking the organization’s strategies is a move to increase its effectiveness.
“If we’re only friends with Democrats, we’re very rarely going to get anything done. It sounds very partisan, but that’s just the reality of the situation,” Womack said.
Experienced leaders
Woolard currently works for Georgia Equality as a legislative lobbyist under independent contractor status. She will retain that position during her term as interim executive director of the organization. She will be the first replacement for Chuck Bowen, Georgia Equality's most recent executive director, who departed the organization in September 2006.
Womack praised Woolard’s long-term commitment to gay rights causes.
“Cathy’s been working on behalf of LGBT issues for at least 25 years, and we’ve been pleased with her work with us,” Womack said.
Woolard became Georgia’s first openly gay elected official in 1997, when she won election to the District 6 Atlanta City Council seat. In 2001, Woolard won a citywide election to become Atlanta City Council President, the first woman and the first openly gay person to hold the post.
She stepped down from the president’s seat in 2004 to make an unsuccessful bid for a congressional seat that was eventually won by Cynthia McKinney.
Woolard could not be reached for comment by press time.
At 24, Kyle Bailey’s youth belies his reputation as a swiftly rising star in Georgia Democratic Party politics. Bailey served a term as the chair and public face of the gay Atlanta Stonewall Democrats, and he helped lead the effort to get Jason Cecil, a gay man and Atlanta Stonewall Democrats treasurer, elected as president of the Young Democrats of Georgia.
Bailey worked as community relations director for YouthPride until Aug. 29.
“I think most people are excited to see someone who’s both young and smart at the same time about strategy and Georgia politics,” Bailey said, adding that he is “excited about the opportunity to work with Georgia Equality.”
Strain began his service with Georgia Equality in a volunteer capacity, and was hired to work as the group's development director as an independent contractor.
Final negotiations over employment terms for Bailey and Woolard had not been completed by press time, though Womack confirmed that both Woolard and Bailey had accepted the positions offered by Georgia Equality.
