But he writes that he hopes that this tale “reclaims some of the joy and optimism of that brief time.”Ītlanta’s first gay pride march, on June 27,1971, was virtually unrecognizable from the 300,000-person, multi-day celebration it has become in recent years. candidate in history at Georgia State University, said he may explore that next chapter. That was the tragic advent of the AIDS crisis, a disease that would take 100,000 victims before the decade was over and would threaten to destroy the community and all the political progress of the previous decade. Padgett ends his history in 1981, as scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention puzzle over a rare form of cancer that affects gay men. This history of the gay revolution begins with the happy crescendo of a disco anthem. The bit was excised, but resurrected in an issue of The Bitter Southerner. He wrote a long portrait of diminutive Leslie Jordan, who would later reach fame in television’s “Will & Grace” but got his start as a drag performer at the Sweet Gum Head. The manuscript eventually grew unwieldy and Padgett had to cut some marvelous scenes, including a charity boxing match between Maynard Jackson (in flowered trunks) and Muhammad Ali. Explore Gwinnett County government will host its first Pride event The performer had published a memoir online, and Padgett found him living in Kentucky, having left the drag life behind. Greenwell’s history was easier to document. Diane Hughes shared some of Smith’s letters and sat for lengthy interviews. He found copies of The Barb at the Atlanta History Center, the University of California, Davis, and Cornell University. To tell Smith’s story Padgett hunted down relatives and friends as far away as Japan. When he moved to Atlanta in 1997, at the age of 28, he was still hiding his sexuality from the world, but reasoned “If it’s not going to happen here, it’s not going to happen anywhere.” He was born and raised in Washington, D.C., and lived in Birmingham, Alabama, as a young man, making frequent trips to Atlanta to experiment with visits to gay clubs. He died March 9, 1980, of an overdose of Placidyl.Īll these events happened long before Padgett, 51, arrived in Atlanta. Explore Flashback photos: 50 years of Atlanta Prideīut behind his suit-and-tie appearance, Smith was living on the edge, abusing prescription drugs and operating a male escort service. In the meantime Bill Smith, who shielded his sexuality from his parents by maintaining a usually Platonic relationship with girlfriend Diane Hughes, represented a different approach.Ĭopying the tactics of the civil rights movement, he led the Gay Liberation Front, helped organize the city’s first Gay Pride march in 1971, organized protest gatherings, urged boycotts, wrote editorials and presented demands to the new African American mayor Maynard Jackson. It’s a powerful community creator, as well as an art form, especially in Atlanta.”īill Smith was a member of the city of Atlanta's Community Relations Council and worked through conventional channels for political change, but he lived a secret life that included the abuse of prescription drugs. It’s bringing people into a room together who might not understand each other. “It can draw in straight people who might not be allies but are curious. “There’s this entertainment factor,” said Padgett. Well, the drag queens won.”ĭrag, said Padgett, led the “queer civil rights movement,” not just by providing a safe place for gay Atlanta to gather, but also by attracting those outside the community. “From day one there has been a division between achieving queer rights through assimilation versus radicalism,” said Padgett in an interview from his Toco Hill home. It was the community that coalesced around clubs that swelled the Pride Day parades and also took to the streets to protest Anita Bryant and her “Save Our Children” anti-gay movement, Padgett said. If Padgett offers overgenerous detail about the frothy songs and costumes at the Sweet Gum Head nightclub, he explains in the introduction that these safe places, gay bars and nightclubs, were pivotal, “the birthplace of the emerging gay rights movement.” Then there are the drag performers - among them Charlie Brown, Satyn DeVille, Lavita Allen and Diamond Lil.
RuPaul would eventually turn the art of drag into nationally televised entertainment. The book offers dozens of cameos, including such personalities as Burt Reynolds, in town to kick-start Georgia’s film industry, and RuPaul Charles, who moved to Atlanta at age 15 and found his niche in drag. This scene features a performance by character dubbed Bertha Butts. The raucous performances inside the Sweet Gum Head, which hosted Atlanta's most notorious drag shows in the 1970s, are captured in a new history of LGBT Atlanta by Martin Padgett.