Atlanta Black Pride organizers want to celebrate ‘our authentic selves’

“If we look at the intersection of Black and LGBTQ, the LGBTQ community usually gravitate to where Black people are,” said West, executive director of the LGBTQ Institute at the Atlanta-based National Center for Civil and Human Rights. “Atlanta is a site of Black empowerment, a place where Black people thrive.”

Credit: contributed

Credit: contributed

West will test that theory over Labor Day weekend as one of the organizers of Atlanta Black Pride Weekend, the largest such celebration in the world, with more than 100,000 people expected to attend the cultural, educational and entertainment events between Sept. 1 and 3.

Multiple organizations will host events throughout the weekend, which is expected to pump more than $60 million into the local economy.

Daily activities will include independent film screenings, educational panels and forums, workshops, counseling sessions, day parties, comedy showcases and a cruise. Rappers Saucy Santana, Sexxy Red and Fendi will perform throughout the weekend.

Highlights will include Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens’ Black Pride reception and the Pure Heat Community Festival, a massive party in Piedmont Park expected to draw 30,000 people.

“Whether you are Black, brown, purple or white, there is something for everyone here, and it is the culture,” said Vaughn Alvarez, one of the organizers for the weekend of events. “There is nothing here that puts you in a box — no matter who you are or what you have been through.”

Atlanta, known as “The City Too Busy to Hate” and “The Birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement,” has recently adopted a new name, even if it’s unofficial: “The Black Gay Mecca.”

In 2013, the city earned a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign’s Municipal Equality Index and earned the same distinction yet again in 2022. In 2020, Atlanta was named the Top Destination City by the Gay Travel Awards.

Credit: Courtesy of Sidequa Brisha

Credit: Courtesy of Sidequa Brisha

“We feel open and we feel comfortable being our authentic selves in Atlanta,” said Sidequa Brisha, who is planning events over the weekend including parties and a boat cruise on Lake Lanier. “I travel all over the country and the world, and there is no place like Atlanta for us.”

In the National Center for Civil and Human Right’s LGBTQ Institute Southern Survey last year, 32% of 1,326 LGBTQ+ Southerners cited Atlanta as the most accommodating destination in the South.

West, who helped develop the survey, along with Emory University, estimates that one-third of LGBTQ+ Americans reside in the South. In some circles, Atlanta has been called, “The Black San Francisco,” an homage to that city’s embrace of the LGBTQ+ community.

West said he’s always found that comparison curious and sees Atlanta as a unique island built on a desire to create a safe space away both from racism and from certain sectors of the Black community that still feel uncomfortable with homosexuality. He remembers how general Pride events in the past refused to play hip-hop music or instituted dress codes to curb or neuter Black participation.

“We are constantly straddling the line between Black homophobia and white racism,” said West, a former board member of Atlanta Black Pride and a co-founder of Cincinnati Black Pride. “Black people create their own, which is a testament to our creativity. And by creating our own spaces, we don’t have to straddle that line. We can be as Black and queer as we need to be without that tension.”

West also wants the Black LGBTQ+ community to come together with a strong political and social agenda. Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year, LGBTQ+ Americans have feared that same-sex marriage and other rights could be on the line too.

Credit: Michael Blackshire

Credit: Michael Blackshire

In June, the Human Rights Campaign declared a state of emergency for LGBTQ+ people in the United States and released a guidebook pointing to laws it deems discriminatory in each state. And according to UCLA’s Williams Institute, LGBTQ+ people experience four times more interpersonal violence than non-LGBTQ+ people.

In March, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed a bill into law that bans health care providers from offering certain hormones or surgical treatment to children to align with their gender identity. Senate Bill 140 passed the Legislature on a party-line vote, with Republicans supporting it.

At the time, Jeff Graham, executive director of the LGBTQ+ rights group Georgia Equality, called the legislation a “clear attack on the rights of transgender children, their parents and the medical community in Georgia.”

West, who attended his first Black Pride event in 1991 in Washington, D.C., said he’s seen Black Pride events shift away from meaningful political and cultural discussions and more toward parties and concerts. That is particularly significant in Georgia, West said.

“We have gotten a little away from empowerment, especially at a time when laws are attacking us,” West said. “If we not addressing that, then we are not really leaning and living into Pride. Pride started as a protest.”

Melissa Scott, a co-founder of Atlanta Black Pride Weekend, said those conversations are still happening and noted that the Mayor’s Black Pride Reception is now in its fourth year.

Several years ago, Scott said, the community approached then-Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms about getting the city officially involved in welcoming the Black LGBTQ+ community. Bottoms readily agreed, and Dickens has maintained that momentum, Scott said.

“Atlanta is important because we really focus on inclusion and diversity,” Scott said. “We have issues in Atlanta. But when you raise those issues, you get support in resolving those issues. They don’t fall upon deaf ears.”

Scott noted that on Sept. 3, during the Pure Heat Community Festival, a portion of Piedmont Park will be marked off to host a youth festival that focuses on providing information to those as young as 14 who are coming to terms with their identity.

“It is so important,” Scott said, “because we are creating safe space for youth, as well as the homeless youth, by providing resources, workshops, vendors and outreach.”

Highlights for Atlanta Black Pride Weekend

For a full list of events, go to atlantaprideweekend.com and atlantablackprideweekend.org.