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Queer Atlanta

For decades, Atlanta has been a city with a notable LGBTQ+ population, numerous queer events, bars, organizations, and communities.

Featured Project

The Atlanta LGBTQ+ Historic Context Statement

Report Prepared by New South Associates for Historic Atlanta and the City of Atlanta Office of Design

The Atlanta LGBTQ+ Historic Context Statement defines nine historic themes that can be used to better understand the history of Atlanta’s LGBTQ+ places and spaces. These themes provide context on areas of Atlanta history that proved pivotal for the LGBTQ+ communities. From early anti-lesbian and gay state laws, municipal ordinances, and police harassment, to the origins of the city’s LGBTQ+ Rights Movement and growing political activism among its residents; from religion to healthcare; from arts and culture to community life; these themes provide a context for understanding the physical places associated with Atlanta’s LGBTQ+ community.

Purpose

  • Document the rich and often under-recognized history of Atlanta’s LGBTQ+ communities, events, and people.
  • Recognize LGBTQ+ milestones in state and national history.
  • Provide information for potential Atlanta LGBTQ+ historic preservation efforts.   
  • Fill information gaps and strengthen shared knowledge about the history of Atlanta’s LGBTQ+ community, including   through engagement with its members and preservationists.
Read More About the Project Here

Featured Digital Projects

Queer Intersections, Southern Spaces

Project description here

The #TUOR Project: Atlanta's Queer Digital Story Tour

A History of Drag Bars in Atlanta StoryMap

Danielle Nottage

Queer Bars in the 1960s

This interactive map highlights the Atlanta entries from Bob Damron’s 1960s Address Books. According to Amanda Regan and Eric Gonzaba, these Address Books were resources “published in an era when most states banned same-sex intimacy both in public and private spaces,” and greatly “helped gays (and to a lesser extent lesbians) find bars, cocktail lounges, bookstores, restaurants, bathhouses, cinemas, and cruising grounds that catered to people like themselves.” 

Data for this map comes from Mapping the Gay Guides, Amanda Regan and Eric Gonzaba, (2019-): http:// www.mappingthegayguides.org.

Featured Articles

Wanted eLove: Queer Square Spaces and the Revolution in Digital Intimacy

Eric Solomon,
Emory University

Fifty Years of Atlanta Pride

Lois Carlisle,
Atlanta History Center

Discursive Memorials: Queer Histories in Atlanta's Public Spaces

Wesley Chenault,
Virginia Commonwealth University
Andy Ditzler,
Emory University
Joey Orr,
University of Memphis

Further Reading

  • Chenault, Wesley. “An Unspoken Past: Atlanta Lesbian and Gay History, 1940–1970.” PhD diss., The University of New Mexico, 2008.
  • Cofield, Rachael Sarah. Queer Urban Space Beyond the Gayborhood: Sexuality, Gentrification, and Displacement in Atlanta. Tallahassee: The Florida State University, 2021. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, 28320077.
  • Harker, Jamie. The Lesbian South: Southern Feminists, the Women in Print Movement, and the Queer Literary Canon. University of North Carolina Press, 2018.
  • Hernandez, Laura, “An Examination of Consent and Experiences of Sexual Violence Among Queer and Transgender People in Atlanta.” Thesis, Georgia State University, 2022.
    doi: https://doi.org/10.57709/28916679
  • Lawrence, James. Queer Underground: A Spatial Re-Imagination of Underground Atlanta. Bachelor’s thesis, Kennesaw State University. https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/barch_etd/301.
  • Padgett, Martin. A Night at the Sweet Gum Head: Drag, Drugs, Disco, and Atlanta’s Gay Revolution. W. W. Norton & Company, 2021.
  • Spears, Tobias L., “Paradise Found? Black Gay Men in Atlanta: An Exploration of Community.” Thesis, Georgia State University, 2010.
    doi: https://doi.org/10.57709/1666092
  • Stone, Amy L., and Jaime Cantrell, eds. Out of the Closet, into the Archives: Researching Sexual Histories. SUNY Press, 2015.