In September 1953, 20 men were arrested in the men’s room of the ornate Carnegie Library, pictured above,1 in Downtown Atlanta and charged with sodomy. In the weeks and months that followed, the moniker—“Atlanta Public Library Perversion Case”—rose from the pages of the daily paper, which also repeatedly published the names, ages, and addresses of the arrested men (redacted here for privacy).2, 3, 4, 5 Sodomy was a felony under Georgia law. If convicted, the men could serve up to 10 years in prison. Midcentury Moral Panic Atlanta’s 1953 cruising case was likely, in part, an outcome of factors ..read more

The Atlanta Lesbian Feminist Alliance, or ALFA, formed in the early 1970s in Little 5 Points. Its first house, pictured above,1 was called “Edge of Night” and still stands on Mansfield Avenue. ALFA went on to become one of the longest-running lesbian feminist organizations in the country. Lorraine Fontana graduated high school in 1964. It was the same year that President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the landmark Civil Rights Act—and almost midway through a decade electrified by new leaders and resistance to old norms.2 Throughout the 1960s, student activist groups mobilized at U.S. colleges an ..read more

In the early 1980s, Antonio Dimauro had a short string of businesses that catered to Atlanta’s long line of LGBTQ+ customers. His controversial Antonio’s at 600 Ponce de Leon Ave. masqueraded as an Italian restaurant, but it was really a go-go bar that featured nude women. Dimauro quickly turned that venture into The Nitery, a music venue where RuPaul debuted a punk band called the Wee Wee Poles. In about 1982, Dimauro folded up The Nitery and opened the Celebrity Club just up the street, at 306 Ponce, most recently home to The Atlanta Eagle. Celebrity Club was a music venue that featured burl ..read more

Outkast featured Montre’s Lounge — the well-known West End strip club for straight Black Atlantans — in their very first music video. But did this 1980s and early 1990s hotspot start out as a space for Black LGBTQ+ Atlantans? In summer of 1979, Carl Merkerson applied for a liquor license for Montre’s Lounge in Southwest Atlanta.1 The building, pictured above, was photographed in June 2021. The club was near the corner of Lee Street and Gordon Street (now Ralph David Abernathy Boulevard) in Atlanta’s West End neighborhood. Montre’s was a well-known strip club for straight Black people through m ..read more

New condos are planned to rise from the rubble of The Phoenix. Before its demise, the nondescript building was home to at least four gay bars — and plenty of controversy — that lasted over a quarter of a century. In 1980, Frank Powell opened The Conference Room at 567 Ponce de Leon Ave.,1 right near the raucous Mrs. P’s, which opened nearly 25 years prior as one of the earliest spaces for gay men and lesbians in LGBTQ+ Atlanta history. Powell was an early king of Atlanta’s LGBTQ+ nightlife from the 1960s to the 1990s —and a fixture in Atlanta LGTBTQ+ history. He owned more than a dozen gay bar ..read more

Plans seem to be pushing forward to demolish a familiar old bungalow at Juniper and 11th in Midtown. For nearly a quarter-century, the bungalow (pictured above) has been home to LGBTQ+ staple, Joe’s on Juniper. The cause? Two new high-rises are proposed to go up.1 The development would stretch down Juniper from Joe’s to Einstein’s (which is also on the chopping block). One proposed tower would be 40 stories. A second would reach 32. The unassuming bungalow that is Joe’s has seen a lot. It was built in the 1920s.2 By the mid-1900s, it was the residence of “Rudy the Sheik,” a saxophone-clarineti ..read more

Change was well underway along Cheshire Bridge Road in the 1970s. That’s when sex-based businesses for gay and straight people alike came out into the open – dotting the curious corridor that connects Buckhead and Midtown with a mish-mash of residential, commercial, and industrial properties. Here’s a strip club called SHE Wants You, as well as a bathhouse – for straight people! – on 1970s Cheshire Bridge.1 As I began talking to people about former gay and lesbian spaces in Atlanta, I occasionally heard about a lesbian bar named Ms. Garbo’s that was somewhere on Cheshire Bridge. By chance, I ..read more

In 1982, an Atlanta police officer walked into a private apartment. He arrested two men for sodomy. One of them, Michael Hardwick, filed a landmark lawsuit. Michael Hardwick was a bartender at The Cove, a rambunctious, now-demolished gay bar just off of Monroe Avenue in an area that is now Piedmont Park. (Gay A.F. will have a post about The Cove in the future.) In July of 1982, Hardwick had worked all night at The Cove and started walking to his apartment at 811 Ponce de Leon PlaceA at 10:30 a.m. He took a beer for the walk and threw it away after just a few sips — but not before 23-year-old A ..read more

The space that occupies L.A. Fitness Ansley didn’t come out until its mid-30s. The LGBTQ+ popular gym opened in 2002. But its roots are less gay – and more practical. It was a Woolworth’s.1 Woolworth’s was one of the early five-and-dime stores. It was also one of Ansley Mall’s original anchor tenants when the shopping center debuted in 1966. It even included a lunch counter under the moniker, Ansley Mall Grill. Here’s the interior of the Ansley Woolworth’s just a couple of months after it opened.2 Flash forward to the mid-1970s, and the Woolworth’s game is still strong. These ladies are loo ..read more