Fresh Loaf

Laura Douglas-Brown, former editor of recently shuttered LGBT publication Southern Voice, issued a statement on SoVo’s Facebook page minutes ago about the status of upcoming LGBT media projects.

She revealed what is in store after talks with former SoVo owner (and founder) Chris Cash all week:

Which brings me to where we stand now. Chris Cash, the original founder of Southern Voice, and I have been talking intensely all week. She sold the paper in 1997, had wanted to buy it back as Window Media fell apart, and didn’t get the chance. Now we want to work together to make sure our community’s Voice — many voices, really — is not silenced.

As of today, we have a mailbox, a bank account, and a domain name — www.savesovo.com — that mark the official public start of our efforts.

We know we can’t really save SoVo — that name now belongs to a bankruptcy court and lienholders — but we can save SoVo’s mission. We want to try.

We’ll have a website up in the next few days, where you can give us your contact information to receive updates; tell us how you may be able or willing to help; keep up-to-date on our efforts; and if you feel able, even donate to help fund the initial stages of this project.

It won’t be tax deductible, but please know that we are volunteering our time — any money we raise will simply help offset startup costs, like web hosting, incorporation and initial printing when we get to that stage — that we are currently paying out of pocket.

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Longtime LGBT nightlife magazine David (along with Southern Voice) shut down on Monday but there was still one David issue left on the computers ready to hit the streets. What to do?

How about calling in the Red Dog Unit and raiding the building Eagle-style?!

Okay well it wasn’t that dramatic, but Project Q Atlanta has the real story:

Staffers at David had already put their Nov. 19 issue to bed, meaning it was produced and ready to print in advance of hitting the street Thursday. As we now know, it never made it.

But former employees recovered the files on Wednesday when the company allowed them back into the office to remove their personal belongings. And they posted them to David’s Facebook page, allowing a look at the lost issue of the magazine.

Check out the final columns, articles, Seen@’s and one last bitch here.

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Matthew Cardinale, editor of Atlanta Progressive News, took issue with a blog post I wrote that criticized articles on his website concerning candidates in the mayor’s race. I admit I was somewhat harsh, but I feel my points were valid. Still, in the spirit of journalistic goodwill, we’re giving Cardinale the opportunity to respond. (For the record, we’ve trimmed his letter for the sake of space and relevance — and I added my own annotations.) Enjoy:

In a post entitled, “Where’s Mary, indeed?,” writer Scott Henry makes a number of false, unsubstantiated, defamatory, unprofessional and vicious statements regarding me and my publication, the Atlanta Progressive News.

The relevant text is as follows:

“The latest negative tidbit to surface is a weird piece of innuendo proffered by the Atlanta Progressive News, which is something of a far-left blog masquerading as a media outlet. Acting as an apparent proxy for the Norwood campaign, APN has cluttered e-mail inboxes with a piece insinuating that (Kasim) Reed, in his capacity as an attorney, once battled the NAACP on behalf of Cracker Barrel restaurants.

The ‘article,’ like much of APN’s output — including several attack pieces previously written about Lisa Borders — falls so far short of basic journalistic standards that it scarcely bears notice. Still, another local blogger who also works as an attorney was so offended by the lousy legal analysis she found in the APN piece that she felt compelled to post a point-by-point rebuttal.”

Let me go through and respond to his statements individually.

1. First of all, APN’s article was not innuendo, it was factual. If anything, it’s Henry’s post (and previous posts he’s written on other topics) that are characterized by innuendo. It is a fact that Reed, in his capacity as an attorney, once battled the NAACP on behalf of Cracker Barrel restaurants.

According to the federal database, PACER, Reed absolutely was an attorney, did represent Cracker Barrel, and on the other side was the NAACP, which both filed amicus briefs on behalf of a class of workers and helped organize this and a series of legal cases pursued against Cracker Barrel at the same time.

Now, some could argue that Cracker Barrel is entitled to a legal defense, or that Reed was just doing his job, etc., but that does not change the fact that he “in his capacity as an attorney, once battled the NAACP on behalf of Cracker Barrel.” Henry’s failure to back up his statement also means that his comment is the one that is innuendo, but it is also false.

[From Scott: I described the article as “innuendo” because, in referencing a 1999 case in which Reed was one of many attorneys working on behalf of Cracker Barrel, Cardinale points out that the restaurant chain “historically would neither serve Black customers nor employ homosexuals.” But the case in question had nothing to do with alleged civil rights violations; it was a worker’s comp case dealing with employee overtime.]

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A sampling of statements from the community today as word spread about the shutdown of Southern Voice and David:

“The shuttering of Southern Voice and David magazine saddens me deeply. In the early 1990s, some of my very first bylines in Atlanta ran in SoVo as a freelance reporter for them. I have long admired the newspaper’s commitment to covering the city’s gay and lesbian community.

As a David reader, I became a fan of columnists Topher Payne and Ryan Lee who added gifted young voices and fresh perspective to the city’s gay community as they bravely shared the universal intricacies of their lives.
With mainstream media outlets simultaneously undergoing financial challenges and downsizing in the current economy, the work of Southern Voice and David was more important than ever. It will be much missed.”

—Richard Eldredge, reporter, former writer for the AJC’s Peach Buzz

“The reportings and opinions of Laura, Matt, Dyana, Ryan – and so many others with Southern Voice and David – have meant a tremendous amount to me over the years. I remember the first time I picked up a Southern Voice as a closeted teenager and what it meant for me to know that I wasn’t alone and that I was part of a community that was large enough to sustain a print newspaper! (I worked up a little more courage and picked up David – a rather risqué publication for a Southern Baptist kid from north Georgia – a little later on. I always enjoyed it’s content.) Thanks for over 20 years of service to our community. Our struggle for full equality continues and it’s up to us to find new ways to communicate with our community to report truth, empower identity and inspire action.”

—Kyle Bailey, LGBT activist, former head of National Stonewall Democrats

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Richard Eldredge tweets that the Southern Voice and David, Atlanta’s leading gay publications, have been shut down. Eldredge says staffers came to work today to find the locks changed.

In February, the NYC-based Gay City News reported that the Avalon Equity Fund, a parent company majority shareholder in SoVo, Washington Blade and several other gay publications’ parent company Unite Media, had been forced into liquidation and faced federal receivership. People familiar with the matter recently told CL they were unaware of the company’s fate. (Project Q Atlanta’s been following the story closely.)

UPDATE: “We had been told that essentially we’d be sold down the road,” SoVo Editor Laura Douglas-Brown tells CL. “We had no inclination it’d be this morning. Everyone’s in shock right now.”

SoVo News Editor Dyana Bagby tells CL that a news budget had been prepared for this week’s issue. She covered two events this weekend and was going to write up articles for the publication.

“The thing to keep in mind is that this is not just Southern Voice,” Douglas-Brown says. “This is also the Washington Blade, which has been the gay paper of record for our country for the last 40 years. And David Magazine and the paper in Fort Lauderdale. It’s not just a loss for the employees, but the gay community as well.”

Since its founding nearly 21 years ago, SoVo has been the strongest voice covering Atlanta’s gay community. Bagby, a dogged reporter who offered clear and concise reporting of the recent Atlanta Eagle raid and other LGBT issues, helped bolster SoVo’s online presence. Staff Writer Matt Schafer could commonly be found in the Gold Dome press box covering policy decisions in a state that, by and large, hasn’t exactly been friendly to gay rights. Douglas-Brown says the paper employed approximately 20 people.

“No one was in it just for the job,” Douglas-Brown says. “Everybody was in it for the cause too, in their own ways. People have put up with a lot difficulties over the past year, and have hung in there because they cared. It’s tragic and I’m desperately sorry it ended this way, especially for the people who’ve worked so hard.

She continues: “[The closure] didn’t happen because of a lack of need for our publications. It didn’t happen because of a lack of hard dedicated work by local staff. And that’s the shame of it…It’s a sad tale, how it all came crashing down.”

UPDATE: Project Q Atlanta posts a photo of the one-page announcement that greeted the publications’ staffers.

The text reads:

It is with GREAT regret that we must inform you that effective immediately, the operations of Window Media, LLC and Unite Media, LLC have closed down.

Please return to this office on WEDNESDAY, November 18th, 2009 at 11:00 AM to collect personal belongings and to receive information on your separation stipulations. Please bring boxes and/or containers that will allow you to collect all your personal belongings at one time.

Regretfully,

Steve Myers
Mike Kitchens

Myers is the publisher. Kitchens, Project Q reports, is a longtime Window Media executive. We’re trying to touch base with Unite Media and Window Media. More to come.

UPDATE: Erik Wemple of the Washington City Paper, CL’s sister publication, reports that  Washington Blade staffers will launch a new publication, minus the debt load of its former parent company.

UPDATE: Kristi Swartz of the AJC offers a thorough rundown of Window Media’s financial woes, including quotes from former SoVo staffers about the closure.

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Emory University’s student newspaper, The Emory Wheel, has a great story looking back at LGBT relations on campus in advance of next weekend’s Atlanta Pride Festival. The story begins in the mid-1980s. While there were LGBT people and organizations on campus, visibility was low.

That all changed with one simple act.

In December 1991 an incident occurred that helped propel the development of the presence of an LGBT community at Emory: Undergraduate students Alfred Hildebrand and Michael Norris kissed in Thomas Hall and were consequently harassed by other students because of their homosexuality.

“[The other students] said things like, ‘Die f—–s’ and ‘You’ll burn in hell,’” Hildebrand recounted in a 1991 issue of Southern Voice, Atlanta’s LGBT newspaper that launched in 1988.

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John Oxendine

On Oct. 15, GOP gubernatorial candidate John Oxendine e-mailed supporters to alert them to a “vicious attack” by “homosexual activists” at local gay weekly Southern Voice regarding his defense of marriage between a man and a woman. He asked supporters to help him fight the “gay lobby” — by donating money, of course.

“The radical homosexual activists over at Southern Voice have launched a vicious attack on me — by name — for my defense of traditional marriage in America. These homosexual activists join a long and growing list of those on the radical Left who are, by their very attack, acknowledging who the true conservative is in this campaign and who they are afraid of.”
— Oxendine, in an Oct. 15 e-mail to campaign supporters

“Those who are engaged in homosexual behavior are people—who need love and forgiveness, and who need to understand the love of God.”
— Oxendine, in an Oct. 9 e-mail to supporters

“So sacred is your marriage that when your baby Jake is born, you immediately put him in a starring role in one of your campaign ad commercials? No way is that exploiting the family, right?”
— Southern Voice news editor Dyana Bagby, in the Oct. 12 blog post that raised Oxendine’s ire

“Marriage has not, in fact, ‘always been’ between ‘a man and a woman’ — for most of the period of the Old Testament, from which Oxendine and his brethren like to quote a certain passage from Leviticus to condemn us, marriage was between a man and several women.”
— Southern Voice Editor Laura Douglas-Brown, in an Oct. 15 response to Oxendine’s plea for funds

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Allen Thornell

As reported earlier, local LGBT rights activist Allen Thornell passed away this morning of a stroke. In addition to Southern Voice’s post, there is extensive coverage on local LGBT blog Project Q Atlanta:

Thornell, openly gay and HIV positive, lived with his partner in East Atlanta and served as policy communication director for CARE, a humanitarian organization that combats global poverty based in Atlanta. Thornell resigned as executive director of Georgia Equality in 2004 after two years to become deputy regional political director of the Service Employees International Union. Thornell moved to East Atlanta in 1995.

Beth Cope, Thornell’s former business partner at Talking Heads Media, issued a statement saying, in part, “Concerned with the welfare of so many others, [Thornell] was a tireless advocate for the LGBT community. Our prayers are with his family and our community, as his loss will create a void for so many.” Cope also told CL that Thornell’s stroke was not HIV-related, but was rather due to previous open-heart surgery and other medical conditions.

Thornell was also on the campaign board of the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, whose president issued a statement saying:

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Southern Voice reports local gay activist and former director of Georgia Equality Allen Thornell died this morning after suffering a stroke.

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Southern Voice posted a story today breaking down how Georgia’s representatives in the U.S. House and Senate stand on LGBT legislation, as well as their scores from the Human Rights Campaign.

Not surprisingly, it usually comes down to geography, with the strongest support by those representing the Atlanta area and the least support by those representing rural areas. Here’s the full chart.

Rep. John Lewis, D-Atlanta, continues to take the lead on pro-equality issues but Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Decatur, has quickly joined alongside Lewis. The pair have become two of Georgia’s — and the nation’s — largest voices in Congress in moving pro-equality legislation forward. They were the only two members of the Georgia delegation to vote no on both the Protection of Marriage Act and the constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. They were also co-sponsors on six pro-equality bills, including the hate crimes bill, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

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Laura Douglas-Brown of the Southern Voice points our attention to Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel’s rather blunt stance on gay marriage, expressed several months ago in her “bring it on” campaign video.

Surprise! The GOP gubernatorial candidate opposes the idea and will fight efforts to show respect to gay men and women who’d like to enjoy the same legal rights as straight people! Including divorce!

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The Southern Voice raises an interesting question about why a former Wings bassist and ex-husband of model Heather Mills can be allowed to play in Piedmont Park, but the Atlanta Pride Festival had to reschedule the summer event until October.

…due to restrictions on city parks put in place during the drought, the official Pride festival has been postponed until late fall. Instead, a coalition of LGBT organizations are hosting Stonewall Week events through Sunday.

The Paul McCartney show — announced on June 24 and scheduled for Aug. 15 — is widely expected to draw a crowd as large or larger than the 50,000 who turned out to see the Dave Matthews Band in September 2007 for the Piedmont Park Conservancy’s Green Concert series.

But according to city officials, the concert is not a “Class A” festival.

“The Piedmont Park Green Concert Series is a Class B event. It is also a gated and ticketed event so it does not fall under the outdoor event policy,” said Sharon Davis, spokesperson for the city’s Parks, Recreation & Cultural Affairs department.

SoVo goes on to say the city’s dangerously close to contradicting itself should Mills’ former husband draw a crowd larger than 50,000 people. Now, we’ve never heard of this McCartney character, probably because we don’t listen to country music. But whoever he is, SoVo does raise a good point.

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Cruising, or the act of meeting people for casual and/or anonymous sex, has always been whispered about as Piedmont Park’s most well-known after-hours recreational activity.

On May 28, however, the city was jostled by an early morning killing inside the city’s most iconic greenspace, a crime Atlanta Police think might have been related to cruising. (Police are still searching for a suspect in the case.) Somewhat surprising: According to an email from the APD Zone 5 supervisor to Midtown residents, police found more than 12 people, most with nearby residential addresses, loitering in the park the night after the killing.

The Southern Voice has posted a video tour of the park’s alleged cruising trails. Along its winding path, SoVo’s unidentified cameraman discovers various objects — used condoms, crushed energy drinks, a copy of the redesigned AJC. Be sure to check out the excellent article about cruising in Piedmont Park written by SoVo’s Dyana Bagby.

After the jump, a 1983 video of a Piedmont Park cruising spot that apparently no longer exists.

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The California Supreme Court today upheld a controversial ban on gay marriage that was narrowly approved last year by the state’s residents.

Gay rights supporters will gather in Piedmont Park tonight to oppose the court’s decision to uphold the ban.

From the Southern Voice:

Atlanta activists plan to rally in Piedmont Park beginning at 5:30 p.m. to protest the decision as part of “Day of Decision” events taking place across the country. Protesters will gather at 14th Street and Piedmont, according to organizers.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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On April 28, longtime Atlanta community advocate Phillip Rush died suddenly from a blood clot. His nonprofit work included fundraising for gay youth support programs and smart growth efforts. Rush was 55.

“He was about community empowerment — he lived for bringing diversity to the table. … That was his life.”

— Doug Carl, Rush’s close friend, in a May 1 AJC obituary

“What I loved about Phillip was that my impression is that he had come from privilege [and] for Phillip that was never an excuse not to do for other people and never, ever an excuse to stop learning. He was so interested to find out more about people, about how we relate to each other, about what might help and what won’t help.”

— Longtime activist Duncan Teague in an April 28 Southern Voice obituary

“The power of the individual voice is much more amazing than you might think.”

— Rush in a Nov. 2, 2007, SoVo article about providing services for gay seniors

(Courtesy the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta)

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Steve Brodie’s in the race to represent Midtown on the Atlanta City Council.

According to press release from his campaign, the Midtown business consultant this morning filed his paperwork to run for the District 6 seat currently held by Councilmember Anne Fauver.

“Over the past eight years, City Council has not shown the skills, or delivered the measurable results, that we so desperately need,” Brodie said in the press release. “I intend to introduce progressive ideas and build coalitions to give serious consideration to all the change that needs to come.”

The race will be the second time Brodie’s faced off against Fauver. In 2005, she won a hotly contested race against Brodie by five votes. As it looks right now, it’s just the two of them again — the Southern Voice reports Charlie Stadtlander, who announced his candidacy late last year, has dropped out of the race and endorsed Brodie.

Brodie, who is openly gay, is a decorated Vietnam veteran and business consultant. He’s served on numerous public organizations including NPU E, the Midtown Neighbors’ Association and the Beltline Subarea 6 Steering Committee. His full bio is available here. His campaign website is here.

(Courtesy Steve Brodie Campaign)

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Creative Loafing has a lot in common with Southern Voice, Atlanta’s gay weekly: We’re both part of larger media companies based in Florida. We both have sibling papers in Florida and Washington, D.C. And each of our parent companies borrowed about $40 million and is having big problems paying off the debt.

That’s according to an article by NYC-based Gay City News (don’t you hate these ambiguous, wishy-washy publication names?). The GCN reports that the Avalon Equity Fund, which owns SoVo, the Washington Blade, the South Florida Blade and Genre Magazine, has been forced into receivership and faces liquidation.

I freely admit that, despite having once been assigned to a business beat, I’m not entirely clear on the difference between receivership and bankruptcy — which is CL’s current legal status. However, my understanding is that receivership is a more dire step in the bankruptcy process that involves selling off the debtor’s assets to recoup a portion of the unpaid loan amount.

I’m also guessing we didn’t hear that SoVo was facing bankruptcy because the money it borrowed didn’t come from a private lender, but from the federal gubmint — specifically, from the Small Business Association. My guess (again!) is that companies aren’t allowed to seek bankruptcy protection from Uncle Sam.

What does this mean for SoVo? Well, if anyone at the newspaper or its corporate offices had returned my several messages, I might have a better idea. Based on the GCN article, it seems likely that the weekly will soon be put up for sale. Newspapers rarely have any conventional assets; their only value typically is in their brand. In other words, they’re only worth anything if they continue publishing.

It’s our hope that SoVo is able to hang in there. Hey, we know what it’s like.

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Last week, we pointed to an AJC story recounting a funny/strange Atlanta Police Department report detailing the arrests of several alleged transgender prostitutes in Midtown.

The report uses the words “booty shorts,” “Lady of the Night,” and “transvestite” to describe those arrested.

According to Southern Voice, the report caught the attention of the Atlanta Police Department’s LGBT liason Officer D. Harris, who will re-double her effort to remind APD personnel not to use pejoratives when describing transgendered people.

Incidentally, our post about the AJC story was titled “Booty-short wearing tranny.”

The post’s author, Mara Shalhoup, says the title is an ironic reference to the language used in the AJC story and the police report.

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