About

The Atlanta Gay Center's publication The News has its roots in the formation of Atlanta's gay center, begun in the late 1970s, arising as a protest to the growing popularity of the homophobic public rantings of Anita Bryant, who became known as the orange juice and pageant queen of Florida to gay Atlantans. The Atlanta Gay Center's first publication began as a monthly organization activities newsletter, then became a biweekly news/entertainment publication, and finally, a monthly news/review/opinion monthly publication with Associated Press credentials. Homophobia, hate crimes, the AIDS epidemic, and gay activists' aspirations for political change, informed much of The News reportage. Social and civil rights advocacy, along with internecine bickering amongst the gay community itself, is reflected in the editorial opinions published in The News, as well as its equally biting satire through political cartooning of those historic, political discourses. Each edition of The News was produced by AGC unpaid volunteers pursuing their collective efforts to create a record of this period of time in Atlanta's gay civil rights movement. The many volunteers of The News are proud to have the Atlanta Gay Center's publication made available to the public and historians by The Digital Library of Georgia, supported by the University of Georgia. All the volunteers throughout the years for The News are indebted to those many persons, especially Morna Gerrard, Special Collections Archivist, Georgia State University, and her intern Alex, Junior at GSU, who recognized the importance of The News and made the digitization of this historic record possible. Essay courtesy of Michael Wilson and Georgia State University Library, Special Collections and Archives.