2:30 p.m. Del Shores and Jason Dottley
3:30 p.m. Scott Turner Schofield
5:20 p.m. Danny Ingram and James Walker
5:30 p.m. Elke Kennedy
8:30 p.m. Marguerite VanMansfeld
9:45 p.m. Calpernia Addams
SUNDAY, JULY 6
3:20 p.m. Jeff Graham
3:30 p.m. Del Shores and Jason Dottley
7:40 p.m. Jordan Brooks
The mother of a slain gay man from South Carolina, queer youth, local activists, and the creative duo behind the new TV show “Sordid Lives” are all among the speakers at this year’s Atlanta Pride festival.
Other speakers include Pride Grand Marshal Scott Turner Schofield and Honorary Grand Marshal and transgender activist-performer Calpernia Addams.
The speakers take to the stage between music acts to deliver their messages. Georgia Equality Executive Director Jeff Graham says he will use his time to motivate people to vote in the July 15 primaries.
“We’re doing this collaborative get out the vote effort called ‘From Pride to the Polls,’” Graham says. “I’m going to speak about the need to get out to vote, and that early voting starts on July 7.”
Speakers Jason Dottley and Del Shores promote their new artistic projects. Shores wrote the play and cult movie “Sordid Lives,” as well as the play "Southern Baptist Sissies." The two, who are also life partners, transformed "Sordid Lives" into a TV series for Logo that is a prequel to the movie. Dottley stars as the gay grandson to the family matriarch played by Rue McClanahan.
“I’ve seen the trailers, and I think this is the show that will put Logo on the stage with the big boys,” says Jennifer Sheffield, Atlanta Pride festival director.
While “Sordid Lives” and Addams, who starred in Logo’s reality TV show “Transamerican Love Story,” both have strong followings, Sheffield said the lack of big-name non-musical talent came down to one thing: funding.
“We get those questions a lot — 'Why don’t you have Elton John? Why don’t you have Kathy Griffin? Why don’t you have Cyndi Lauper?' — We just don’t have that kind of budget; we just don’t.” Sheffield says.
Instead, Pride focuses on speakers who can address issues gays face in Georgia. Speakers have 20 minutes between music sets to talk to the crowds from the Coca-Cola Stage. Since they are speaking between musical acts, all times are approximate and could change dependent upon the day’s scheduling.
Approximately one month ago, on June 11, Stephen Moller, 19, was sentenced to three-years in prison for the brutal 2007 killing of Sean Kennedy, 20, outside a South Carolina bar.
According to court records, Kennedy was leaving a Greenville bar on May 16, 2007, when Moller struck him in the face, knocking him to the ground and causing Kennedy’s brain to separate from his brain stem and ricochet inside his head.
Moller later bragged about hitting the “fucking faggot.”
Kennedy’s mother, Elke Kennedy, is expected to prove a powerful speaker at Pride. She is expected to speak about Moller’s punishment and the need for hate crime legislation.
“Our judicial system is a joke, and it is trying to make you believe that it is there to assure justice,” Elke Kennedy told Southern Voice for a June 20 story.
“There was no justice for my son, Sean,” Elke Kennedy says. “The sentence that Stephen Moller received is a joke and a slap on the wrist.”
Danny Ingram, president of the Georgia chapter of American Veterans for Equal Rights, will speak to gays serving in the military when he takes the Pride stage.
“We’ve had Danny Ingram on stage before, but we felt it’s important that we have him on stage again because we are in the middle of a war,” Sheffield says.
YouthPride members Jordan Brooks and Marquerite VanMansfeld will talk about being transgender and lesbian students in Georgia.
“Generally, our speakers are usually a lot more regional,” Sheffield said. “Obviously, it’s important when you have the majority of people coming from the Southeast that you have someone going up on stage that is speaking to climate in the region. I also think it is important that when people come from outside the South, they hear a good understanding of what is going in this region.”
In addition to the political statements made from the Pride stages, some of the speakers are coming for a good time. Scott Turner Schofield, a Pride parade grand marshal, will perform excerpts from his one-man show, “Becoming A Man in 127 EASY Steps.”
“It’s like my national holiday, Christmas in July, hanging out with my family,” Schofield says.
This will be Addams’ first time at Atlanta Pride, and she plans to be at a number of other celebrations this summer as one of the most visible transgender personalities in the country.
“When we transition, we never started out to be known for our transition," Addams says. "Most of us do it to have a quiet life as a straight girl or a lesbian, or whatever the case may be. I have been out for so long that people know me.”
MEET THE SPEAKERS
• Jordan Brooks is a transgender teenager from Roswell, Ga. She delivered her award-winning YouthPride essay at the Human Rights Campaign dinner earlier this year.
• Marquerite VanMansfeld is the 2007 YouthPride essay winner. The 16-year-old developed a crush on a teacher when she was nine and came out fully upon entering high school. She is actively involved with YouthPride and won the title Ms. YouthPride earlier this month.
• Jeff Graham has literally lost track of how many times he’s been arrested protesting for gay causes. Graham’s resumé lists a lengthy history of gay activism in Atlanta. The current executive director of Georgia Equality and past director of AIDS Survival Project, Graham was part of the Queer Nation protests of Cracker Barrel in the 1990s and a member of the Atlanta chapter of ACT UP.
• Scott Turner Schofield is a transgender performance artist and writer. He is the first transgender person to win a commission from the National Performance Network. He is best known for his one-man shows “UndergroundTRANSit,” “Debutante Balls” and “Becoming A Man in 127 EASY Steps.” Schofield is also the first transgender man to serve as a Pride grand marshal.
• Jason Dottley, a Nashville native, moved west where he has worked in numerous stage and screen productions. He is a regular in the “Sordid Lives” television series on Logo, a prequel to the Del Shores movie. He is also Shores’ life partner.
• Writer, producer and director Del Shores is best known for his 2000 movie “Sordid Lives” that he brings to the small screen via Logo next month. He also wrote the play "Southern Baptist Sissies" and has written for television shows including “Queer as Folk,” “Will & Grace,” and “Dharma and Greg."
• Calpernia Addams rose to national prominence when her boyfriend, Private Barry Winchell, was killed by fellow Army soldiers after
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