Atlanta Pride 2019 Grand Marshals
Every year, the Atlanta Pride Committee honors the outstanding individuals and organizations that tirelessly work to advance Georgia’s LGBTQ community by naming them the Grand Marshals of Pride. These Grand Marshals, who are nominated by the public and then handselected by the APC, are celebrated for their hard work by leading the annual Pride parade (held this year on Sunday, Oct. 13 at noon).
“Each year, the APC seeks to select Grand Marshals that are doing great work for our community as a way for us to honor and show gratitude for the positive difference each individual or organization has made and continues to make for all of us,” APC Executive Director Jamie Fergerson said in a statement. “Our organization is proud of our effort and commitment to select Grand Marshals from the wide range of diverse activists and community members among us. It is important to use that our slate of Grand Marshals represent all the varied and beautiful segments of our Queer community and our allies.”
Meet this year’s twelve Grand Marshals who are all making a difference in LGBTQ Atlanta and beyond:
Dr. Annise Mabry is the founder of the Dr. Mabry Foundation, a non-profit founded for community growth and development, and the executive director of Tiers Free Academy, Georgia’s only nonprofit alternative diploma program for sextrafficking survivors, homeless LGBTQ youth, and high school dropouts.
Rev. Dr. Beth LaRocca-Pitts has been the senior pastor of Saint Mark United Methodist Church in Midtown – a church where 90 percent of the worshipping congregation is LGBTQ – for nine years. Saint Mark was one of the first Midtown churches to open its doors to the LGBTQ community in 1991 and has been active in Georgia Equality, the Human Rights Campaign, Pride, the AIDS Walk, and other LGBTQ advocacy groups.
Chanel Haley is the Gender Inclusion Organizer for Equality Foundation of Georgia, leading efforts to ensure non-discrimination laws and policies are passed. Haley also facilitates “Trans 101 Humility” training for organizations and builds relationships with business and corporate environments that have little to no LGBTQ knowledge or background.
Emily Halden Brown is the director of Absolute CARE Medical Center in Atlanta, serves on Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’ LGBTQ Advisory Board as co-chair of the health committee, is a member of the board of directors of THRIVE Support Services, and is an interim board member of the Phillip Rush Center.
Feroza Syed is a transgender activist and advocate. She facilitates PFLAG John’s Creek, works with organizations like Georgia Safe Schools Coalition, and serves on Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’ LGBTQ Advisory Board. Syed works with groups locally to help with intersectionality, specifically cultural and religious background issues targeting the Asian LGBTQ community.
Rev. Kimberly Jackson, an ordained priest in the Episcopal Church, made history as the
first ever out Queer Person of Color ordained in the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta. Jackson has worked closely with legislators at the Georgia State Capitol to advocate for just laws, on every side of the aisle.
Volunteers at Latino LinQ have been serving Georgia’s Latinx community by providing direct services and facilitating information, education, and training sessions for individuals and groups interested in expanding the organization’s mission of closing the everwidening equity gap that exists when accessing health and legal service practitioners.
Raksha, founded in 1995, is a nonprofit organization for the South Asian Community. Raksha works towards healing, empowerment, and justice for South Asian survivors of violence and all those who face similar barriers to justice, regardless of ability, country of origin, race, religion, caste, socioeconomic status, gender identity, age, immigration status, or sexual orientation.
Royce Mann is a 17-year-old poet, activist, and rising senior at Grady High School. In 2016, his spoken-word poem “White Boy Privilege” went viral, receiving over 20 million views on social media. Since then, Mann has spoken at the inaugural Obama Foundation Summit and the MLK Day Commemorative Service at the Ebenezer Baptist Church.
The Honorable Stacey Abrams is a New York Times best-selling author, serial entrepreneur, non-profit CEO, and political leader. In 2018, after serving for eleven years in the Georgia House of Representatives –
seven as Minority Leader – Abrams became the Democratic nominee for Governor of Georgia. She made history by winning more votes than any other Democrat in the state’s history and being the first black woman to become the gubernatorial nominee for a major party in the United States.
Stephanie Cho is the Executive Director for Asian Americans Advancing JusticeAtlanta, the first nonprofit legal advocacy organization dedicated to advancing, protecting, and defending the AAPI (Asian American & Pacific Islander) and AMEMSA (Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, South Asian) communities in the Southeast. Cho has been a community organizer, program director for LGBTQ youth programming, director of training for a national fellowship program, a labor organizer, and organizational consultant.
Thrive SS, created by three black SGL (samegender-loving) men living with HIV to create a sense of belonging and community for other positive black SGL men in the South, implements innovative solutions to improve support and linkage to HIV care. The model, designed by the founders based on their own lived experiences with input from others in the community, is a 3-tiered support approach coupling 24-hour online support with 4 in-person support meetings allowing continued assessments and opportunities to link to needed services.
If you know or see any of this year’s outstanding Grand Marshals, make sure to congratulate them on this well-deserved recognition and thank them for their work serving Georgia’s diverse LGBTQ community!