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HOME > NEWS > LOCAL
By: DYANA BAGBY
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From the height of HIV activism in the early ’80s to the fights over gay relationship recognition since 2000, the front pages of Southern Voice highlight two decades of lesbian and gay people fighting to survive and thrive in a sometimes hostile world.
Along the way, we’ve told countless stories of people who battled back against discrimination through the courts, in the streets, or at the ballot box; more and more often, these inspiring stories have happy endings.
Take a look back at some of the biggest front page news from the last 20 years:
From its very beginning, Southern Voice devoted extensive coverage to the AIDS epidemic and continues to do so today. More than 20,000 people visited the Names Project Foundation’s AIDS Memorial Quilt in 1988 when it came to Atlanta over Memorial Day weekend. At the time, it had about 2,000 panels. Today, the Names Quilt makes it home in Atlanta and has some 40,000 panels. A story about community anger over a police crackdown at the corner of Cypress and 8th Streets, where male prostitutes allegedly gathered, is also covered in this issue.
The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, or ACT UP, was very active in Atlanta in the late 1980s and early 1990s. With grassroots chapters around the country, ACT UP made headlines for its direct actions and acts of civil disobedience. At this demonstration, ACT UP protested former store Circle K for policies that included AIDS among a list of problems arising from “personal lifestyle” decisions.
The Georgia Department of Human Resources issued a special recruitment drive to attract gay and lesbian foster parents for children who have AIDS. The new program, Foster Love, ran into criticism during its debut presentation before the Metropolitan Atlanta Council of Gay & Lesbian Organizations (MACGLO) when Foster Love representatives indicated the removal of the child from a gay/lesbian home would be among the first moves the agency would take if the public took issue with the sexual orientation of the foster parents. In 2008, there is no law prohibiting gay Georgians from adopting or serving as foster parents, but gay activists continue to worry about a bill one day being proposed to ban gay foster parents.
Gay parents lived in real fear of losing their children when they divorced from heterosexual spouses. Lesbian mother Leigh VanderEls, a founder of Southern Voice, awaited a court ruling from Clayton County Superior Court in her attempt to regain custody of her 9-year old son. VanderEls appealed a 1987 decision by a judge to have her son removed from her care because she is gay. VanderEls finally regained custody of her son in 1996.
Using an illustration as its cover, Southern Voice touted the “National Demonstration to Repeal the Sodomy Law” planned by ACT UP/Atlanta to demand Georgia lawmakers repeal the state’s sodomy law. A rally was planned at the Gold Dome as well as at the Centers for Disease Control. In 1986, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Georgia’s anti-sodomy law in Bowers v. Hardwick. The 5-4 decision in made it illegal to be a sexually active gay man or lesbian in Georgia, until the Georgia Supreme Court struck down the state sodomy law 12 years later.
Gay visibility was a key issue in the early days of Southern Voice. Activist Jay McDonald was behind the plan that put a billboard on Interstate 75/85 that proclaimed “Gay America Loves You” as part of Gay Pride month.
ACT UP/Atlanta protested at the CDC where two people were arrested after handcuffing themselves to the front doors. ACT UP was demanding the CDC properly educate the public about HIV transmission. Four members of ACT UP/Atlanta also broke off from a guided tour of CNN studios and disrupted a portion of a live Headline News broadcast on July 26.
Georgia Attorney General Michael Bowers, who successfully argued to keep the state’s sodomy laws in the landmark Bowers v. Hardwick case, became a defendant when sued by Robin Shahar on Oct. 2. Bowers withdrew his job offer to Shahar after learning she was a lesbian and planned to marry her partner. Shahar said Bowers violated her equal ...
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