LGBT community loses three idols
As part of a late-August leadership reorganization at Lost-n-Found Youth, a homeless LGBT outreach organization, Executive Director Rick Westbrook’s title was changed to “co-founder and director of outreach.” The announcement was met with a wave of criticism and was followed by the resignations of numerous board members. Former board members came out against Westbrook, but at the end of the week in a contentious board meeting open to the public, he was reinstated as executive director, though that decision, too, wasn’t met without criticism: an eighth board member resigned on the spot.
The organization restocked its board of directors in the coming weeks, but questions about diversity resurfaced after it was
Atlanta and the greater Georgia LGBT communities celebrated the lives of three activists, idols and role models this year.
Beloved drag queen Diamond Lil passed away at age 80 on Aug. 9. The Savannah-born queen overcame the adversity of being gender non-conforming in the 1950s South to become the “Queen of the Jukeboxes” on Atlanta’s LGBT scene. Fellow Savannah native The Lady Chablis passed away on Sept. 8 at age 59.
Chablis, a transgender performer, gained worldwide fame for her roles in the book and movie versions of “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,” and was an integral part