Increasingly, gay Atlantans evoked the notion of pride at rallies in Piedmont Park and onstage at popular bars like the Sweet Gum Head. Gay Atlanta Pageant, became significant social institutions. Signature annual events, among them the Phyllis Killer Oscar Awards, Miss Gay Atlanta Pageant, and Mr. Bars often hosted fundraisers and political and religious meetings, sponsored sports teams, and featured drag shows where bawdy humor met sharp political satire. Publicly, the line between socializing and politics blurred during the 1970s.
Anchoring the west end of the Sweet Auburn historic district, the Auburn Avenue Research Library is the first public library in the Southeast to offer specialized reference and archival collections dedicated to the study and research of African American culture and history and of other peoples of African descent.ĭuring the 1970s new gay rights groups formed, such as the Atlanta Lesbian Feminist Alliance and the Georgia Gay Alliance, while an explosion of bars, restaurants, lounges, bookstores, centers, and sports and recreation teams met the social and cultural needs of gay women and men. Located in the Buckhead area, the Atlanta History Center includes one of the largest history museums in the Southeast, a research library and archives, historic homes, gardens, and a nature trail. Animated by visual elements, these stories - of adversity and triumph, struggle and pride, and loss and hope - are inseparable from the history of the city itself and highlight the ways LGBTQ Atlantans found a political voice and personal fulfillment and dignity.Ītlanta Since Stonewall, 1969-2009: A Local History is a collaborative project between the Atlanta History Center and the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History. Through photographs, printed materials, ephemera, and links to digital content, it presents diverse narratives of a marginalized people's lived experiences in the South’s gay epicenter. Suburbanites swarmed in to gyrate to industrial music and ogle BDSM acts played out on various stages.įate The cat-o’-nine-tails were retired in 2005.Atlanta Since Stonewall, 1969-2009 by Wesley ChenaultĪtlanta Since Stonewall, 1969-2009: A Local History brings to life a segment of the city’s LGBTQ past, highlighting nationally recognized and little-known personalities, places, and events. When this kinkier cousin to the Masquerade opened in an unmarked warehouse off Cheshire Bridge Road in 1994, it scratched an itch Atlanta didn’t know it had. A notably mixed-race clientele often queued around the building to see shows featuring Jay Z, Ludacris, Kurtis Blow, and other rap luminaries.įate Razed in 2006 for the 1010 Midtown condo tower. Still doesn’t have a sign.īefore it was replaced by the flashier Vision in the early aughts, Kaya was a scruffy, DJ-driven dance club and launch pad for the city’s emerging hip-hop artists. The thrift store furniture and cans of beer served out of coolers provided the perfect setting for the mix of acid jazz and trip-hop.įate In 1997 it relocated down the street to another basement lair. Now, Buckhead Atlanta boutiques.Įntered through an unmarked side door of a seedy hotel, the original MJQ was an underground Euro lounge dropped in the middle of Ponce. After an altercation involving a posse belonging to the NFL’s Ray Lewis left two stiffs on the sidewalk in 2000, the powers that be tightened the screws and brought the party to a close.įate Then, clubs with names like Uranus.
closings.īy day the moneyed heart of Atlanta, by night its stoked loins. Home to Charlie Brown’s Cabaret and a disco floor that drew gay and straight revelers, Backstreet was the go-to place to party after other clubs closed.įate It stopped rainin’ men in 2004 after a city ordinance mandated 3 a.m. One of the largest gay bars in the Southeast, this two-story Midtown club was among the few Atlanta nightspots with a 24/7 liquor license.
Of those years, none, arguably, was better than 1996, when you could conceivably hit all of these places in one glorious night.įilling the shoes of the Limelight-the disco of “Disco Kroger” fame-was a tall order, but Rupert’s kept Buckhead dancing thanks to its 12-piece house band, the self-proclaimed “fabulous” Rupert’s Orchestra, which pumped out vanilla covers of Top 40 hits.įate The club closed by the late 1990s, but you can still book the band for your next soiree. Our nightlife hit an ecstatic peak in the 1990s, a decade lubricated by the free-flowing cash of the dot-com boom, the flash of the burgeoning hip-hop scene, and the youthful exuberance of the Olympics.