The fearmongering continues
Apr. 1 — Idaho’s governor signed a bill that criminalizes transgender people using bathrooms that align with their gender identity, including in private businesses. The timing of the signing – on Trans Day of Visibility – is just another example of the politically motivated fearmongering and hate that continues to sweep the nation. Meanwhile, 747 anti-trans bills have been introduced in 42 states this year alone (a dozen of them in Georgia). While only 23 have passed, the sheer volume of bills is proof positive that the trans community is under siege.
Here are a few more news headlines:
📚 A Tennessee public library board fired its director Monday after she refused to remove more than 100 LGBTQ+ books from the system’s shelves.
🪧 An estimated eight million people turned out nationwide for Saturday’s No Kings protests against Trump, including thousands across Georgia. We’ve got photos from some of the rallies held around Metro Atlanta.
🙄 Trump told Fox News he got the “gay vote” in 2024, despite evidence to the contrary.
👎 The International Olympic Committee announced last week that it will not allow transgender women to compete in female events at the Olympics.
🕯️ A memorial service organized by the family of late LGBTQ+ historian and activist Dave Hayward will be held on April 11 at 11 a.m. at First Existentialist Congregation of Atlanta.
🗞️ Happy 55th anniversary to the Bay Area Reporter, San Francisco’s LGBTQ+ newspaper.
I like to go out, wear something nice, and push…
Collin
P.S. The April issue of Georgia Voice is out now with a report on the recent Pride to the Capitol event, best bets for arts & entertainment all month long, and a preview of Taste of Atlanta.
🥂 Taste of Atlanta is celebrating its 25th Anniversary with an epic night of two dozen chef-driven tastings, craft cocktails, wine and beer tastes, live music, and electric energy! April 16 from 6 to 10 p.m. at The Works. Tickets are on sale here. SPONSOR MESSAGE
Supreme Court rules against Colorado ban on conversion therapy for LGBTQ+ minors
⚖️ The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled against a Colorado law that bans so-called conversion therapy for LGBTQ+ minors.
An 8-1 high court majority sided with a Christian counselor Kaley Chiles, who argued the law banning “talk therapy” violates the First Amendment.
The justices agreed that the law raises free speech concerns and sent it back to a lower court to decide if it meets a legal standard that few laws pass, according to a report from the Associated Press.
Take Flight at Fernbank Museum
SPONSORED BY FERNBANK MUSEUM
🦋 Experience spring in a spectacular way with Flight of Butterflies at Fernbank Museum.
Twenty-five larger-than-life butterfly sculptures transform the nature paths in WildWoods into a breathtaking outdoor gallery.
➞ Let your imagination take flight at Fernbank.
Documentary about ‘The American Music Show’ gets a refresh for April 5 screening
📽️ Running for 25 years on Atlanta public access television, The American Music Show was a wildly inventive, defiantly low-budget variety program created by Atlanta artist Dick Richards alongside collaborators Potsy Duncan, Bud Lowry, and James Bond.
The show became an unlikely incubator for queer artists, drag performers, and punk musicians, including RuPaul, DuAndra Peek (both pictured above), Lady Bunny, and Jayne County.
Atlanta filmmaker Matthew Terrell has assembled a new version of his 2017 documentary, “Three Decades of Queer Atlanta: The American Music Show,” which will be screened for free on Sunday, April 5, at 2;30 p.m. at the Tara Theater.
➡ Find out more about the screening here.
MORE MOVIES
🍿 Check out Sammie Purcell’s review of the queer-coded “Forbidden Fruits,” which takes inspiration from both “Mean Girls” and “The Craft.”
Out prosecutor Will Wooten challenges incumbent in Court of Appeals race
🗳️ Will Wooten became a prosecutor because he believed in equality under the law.
As a public defender, he witnessed prosecutors overcharging people who had made mistakes or charging what should’ve been a misdemeanor as a felony, and he felt like the law was not upheld for everyone equally.
Now, he’s running for the Georgia Court of Appeals this spring against incumbent E. Trenton Brown III, who Wooten says represents the system imbalance he has spent his career advocating against.
➡ Find out more about Wooten here.
🥂 Taste of Atlanta is celebrating its 25th Anniversary with an epic night of two dozen chef-driven tastings, craft cocktails, wine and beer tastes, live music, and electric energy! April 16 from 6 to 10 p.m. at The Works. Tickets are on sale here. SPONSOR MESSAGE
Bookish Best Bets
💌 Lavender Bookshop in Marietta is hosting its Poetry Book Club on April 3 at 7 p.m., discussing “Open Me Carefully: Emily Dickinson’s Intimate Letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson.”
🎤 Out country music star Ty Herndon will sign his memoir “What Mattered Most” on April 4 at 6:30 p.m. at FoxTale Book Shoppe in Woodstock. Read Jim Farmer’s interview with Herndon here.
🪩 A Cappella Books welcomes author Christian John Wikane for an in-store talk and signing of his new book, “A Night at the Disco” on April 4 at 4:30 p.m. Wikane will be in conversation with Tomi Jenkins, former member of funk/R&B group Cameo.
🧜♀️ Charis Books & More in Decatur welcomes L. D. Lewis in conversation with Mia Tsai in celebration of “Year of the Mer,” a dark and bloody epic fantasy reimagining of “The Little Mermaid,” on April 6 at 7:30 p.m.
🗣️ Award-winning author Tayari Jones will be in conversation with poet Jericho Brown discussing her new novel “Kin” on April 6 at 5:30 p.m. at Glen Memorial Chapel at Emory University.
➡ To see more upcoming events, visit our IG stories @thegeorgiavoice.
