Neighborhood Planning Unit F (NPU-F) has deferred a vote on an application to demolish the site of the arrest that led to the overturning of Georgia’s anti-sodomy laws.
In 1982, an Atlanta police officer entered the Virginia-Highland home of Michael Hardwick to serve a warrant that was no longer valid. Hardwick was ticketed for carrying an open beer outside The Cove, the gay bay he worked at, but he paid the fine, voiding the warrant for his arrest.
When the officer entered his house, he found Hardwick and another man having sex. They were both arrested under Georgia’s sodomy statute, which made oral and anal sex punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
Hardwick challenged the arrest on the basis that the anti-sodomy laws were a breach of the right to privacy. The case made it to the Supreme Court in 1986, in which a 5-4 decision ruled that the the Constitution “does not confer a fundamental right upon homosexuals to engage in sodomy.”
This ruling was overturned in 1998 – seven years after Hardwick’s death – by Powell v. State, in which the Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that the sodomy statute violated the fundamental right to privacy guaranteed under the Due Process Clause of the Georgia Constitution.
In 2023, the City of Atlanta published the Atlanta LGBTQ+ Historic Context Statement, a framework for assessing the historic significance of places that matter to the LGBTQ+ community for potential preservation. Hardwick’s arrest is listed in the report’s timeline of LGBTQ+ history in Atlanta.
The home in which Hardwick was arrested, 811 Ponce de Leon Place, is still standing. However, a zoning application has been filed to replace the house with a new single-family home and pool.
In an email to members of NPU-F that was shared with Georgia Voice, constitutional law professor and member of the organization Fred Smith Jr. argued that the NPU should negotiate with the applicant to see whether the original structure could be retained within the proposed project.
Martin Padgett, author of the biography “The Many Passions of Michael Hardwick” told Georgia Voice that a placard indicating the house’s historical significance has already been cast but has yet to be installed.
“The site of Hardwick’s fateful 1982 arrest should be, must be commemorated by the city in the form of a historical marker,” Padgett said. “One exists and is ready to be installed as a visible reminder that Atlanta’s queer community has been fighting for equality and visibility for decades.”
During a meeting on Oct. 21, NPU-F decided to defer the vote on the application to November. NPU-F is a volunteer organization providing input to the City of Atlanta on matters relating to the Druid Hills, Piedmont Heights, Virginia-Highlands, Edmund Park, Lindridge, and Morningside. The NPU is strictly an advisory body; if it approves the application next month, the Atlanta City Council will still have to vote before plans are officially approved.
The city’s Board of Zoning Adjustment will hold a public hearing on the application on Nov. 5 in the city council chambers on the second floor of Atlanta City Hall. The hearing begins at noon.
