Photographs courtesy of the Georgia Voice
While waiting on an order at Woody’s CheeseSteaks recently, I had time to catch up with an old friend. A fresh stack of the venerable LGBTQ+ newspaper Georgia Voice had just arrived at the counter. So, while a symphony of steak and onions sizzled in the background, I opened up the pages of GaVo to learn more about a disturbing 3 a.m. pistol-whipping at the rainbow crosswalks in Midtown, the 10th anniversary of the clothing shop Barking Leather, and how Atlanta Falcons cheerleader Dante Sanders is helping to erase gender stereotypes in the sport.
In 2024, with the threat of a new anti-trans bill looming and a so-called “religious freedom” bill back from the dead after eight years—like a legislative Freddy Krueger, percolating under the Gold Dome—the reporting done by the biweekly “Premier Media Source for LGBTQ Georgia” remains as vital and necessary as ever.
Holding the print issue in my hands took me back to my first bylines published in this city, over 30 years ago. As a young contributor who was just coming out, covering the city’s queer community was equal parts an inspiring history lesson and reassurance that, as a reporter, I didn’t have to hide my sexual orientation. Back then, the weekly LGBTQ+ independent newspaper was called Southern Voice, launched by Christina Cash in 1988. And there was a lot for us to cover. AIDS was decimating Atlanta, the queer mecca of the South. Cheryl Summerville had just been fired from Cracker Barrel for coming out as a lesbian. Activists Pat Hussain and Jon-Ivan Weaver were trying to convince the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG) to pull its volleyball competition from Cobb County, where commissioners had passed an anti-gay resolution.
I was just a fledgling gay journo, but Cash, then SoVo’s executive editor, assigned me weighty stories, routinely pushing me out of my comfort zone both reportorially and personally. In a two-part series, I explored the well-being of national and local gay advocacy groups. I interviewed young sex workers getting into cars with strangers on Cypress Street about the risks of contracting HIV. And, perhaps most terrifyingly, I was assigned to interview iconic drag performer Charlie Brown in the Backstreet dressing room about accusations of misogyny from local feminist groups.
I brought those invaluable experiences and community sources to my next role, as a reporter at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where I stayed for the next 16 years. As my AJC colleague Celestine Sibley would later teach me, “Through reporting things can change.” On July 29, 1994, ACOG announced it was moving the 1996 Summer Olympics preliminary volleyball games out of Cobb County. Thanks to the development of revolutionary new drug treatments, HIV is no longer a death sentence. And Cracker Barrel—a company that once demanded all staff “demonstrate normal heterosexual values”—now celebrates Pride each June.
Through her editorial guidance at SoVo and GaVo, which she launched in 2010, Chris Cash taught me and others the importance of bringing our authentic selves into our reporting and the inherent value of queer people covering our own communities. In addition to the essential LGBTQ+ coverage it’s provided now for 35 years, that’s the Voice’s true legacy.
Richard L. Eldredge is an Atlanta magazine editorial contributor and the founder-editor of Eldredge ATL.
This article appears in our July 2024 issue.
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