How to Connect With the Gay and Lesbian Community in Atlanta

There's no place spicier than Hot 'Lanta! If you're gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, you're in luck: there's hardly another city that outshines Atlanta in terms of GLBT resources.

Instructions

1. Be proud! Join Atlanta Pride and/or Atlanta Black Pride to participate in organizing events and to meet people. The Pride Festival takes place the first weekend in July; Black Pride is the last weekend in August.

2. Go out to dinner with the Gay Supper Club, a group that meets once a month in Atlanta's finest restaurants.

3. Find your niche. Atlanta boasts a huge range of GLBT organization such as a gay hockey club, Hot 'Lanta gay and lesbian soccer, the Wilderness Network of Georgia hiking and biking club for gay men and ZAMI, Inc. for lesbians of African descent.

4. Sing, sing, sing! Join the Atlanta Gay Men's Chorus or the Atlanta Feminist Women's Chorus.

5. Go to the movies. Atlanta's Gay and Lesbian Film Festival takes place in November and there are volunteer opportunities all year long.

6. Explore the gay-friendly in-town areas inside the I-285 highway that rings the city, often referred to locally as "the Perimeter."

7. Read all about it. Atlanta has the Southern Voices GLBT newspaper and a Gay Pages directly for GLBT-friendly visitors.

Tips & Warnings

• Pace yourself when you savor the Atlanta GLBT community. It will take months or longer to sample all the offerings.

• Know that this is still the South and too much public display of affection can be dangerous for GLBT people.

Resources

• Atlanta Pride
• Big Gay Supper Club
• GLBT bars and clubs
• Atlanta Black Pride
• Southern Voice newspaper
• http://www.agmchorus.org/
• Atlanta Feminist Women's Chorus
• Georgia Equality
• Human Rights Campaign Atlanta chapter
• Gayscape business directory
• Atlanta Gay Pages