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KEN BRITT
With 25 years of service to Atlanta’s LGBT community, Ken Britt’s gay resume is too long to list here but he has a mission statement focused on three areas: helping those living with HIV/AIDS, getting full LGBT equality, and helping underprivileged LGBT youth. After retiring last year from Alston & Bird, Britt is now able to focus full time on his community service mission.
How would you define your role in Atlanta’s LGBT community?
Some people within Atlanta’s LGBT Community have referred to me, in jest, as Atlanta’s Gay Godfather. Whether that moniker is accurate or not, it probably best describes my ongoing love affair with the Atlanta’s LGBT Community. In the near future, I will complete a two-year term as the Co-Chair of the HRC National Board of Directors, but I have been involved in numerous LGBT and LGBT-related organizations and causes, locally and nationally—too many to mention them all here—over the past 25 years or longer. Personally, I have developed a mission statement for my community work that primarily focuses on three areas: helping people living with HIV and AIDS; gaining full Equality for LGBT people; and assisting LGBT youth who are underprivileged and in need. I am also passionate about helping to elect to office qualified LGBT and fair-minded progressive candidates
What do you forecast for Atlanta’s LGBT community in the next 5 to 10 years?
We all know that Atlanta is a “blue bubble” in an otherwise very conservative “red” state so, unfortunately, I don’t expect giant strides for the LGBT community in Georgia during the next 5 to 10 years. Nevertheless, I’m optimistic about the future. I think we will see incremental LGBT advances happen in Georgia over time with respect to recognition of our relationships, friendlier work environments, and policies regarding medical care. These advances will occur as we continue to educate the public about our issues and win hearts and minds around the State. The LGBT Community may not recognize these gains as significant but each small victory we achieve will move us in the right direction towards full Equality as we continue in our civil rights struggle. I feel confident that Atlanta will continue to develop as a friendly, progressive and welcoming environment for LGBT people, one in which we will be able to live openly, safely, and where our presence will be valued.
We learn from all our experiences, both good and bad. Tell us about a negative life experience you’ve had that you learned a valuable lesson from.
I began my coming out process in the 1980′s when I was in my early 30′s. Prior to that, while serving in the military and during the beginning of my career, I lived “in the closet” until I decided to join the fight against AIDS. That was the impetus that catapulted me from the darkness of living in the closet into the light of the day as an openly Gay man. From my personal experience, living in the closet thwarts the development of your personality, limits your ability to fulfill one’s potential, and probably, most damaging of all, it squelches your spirit. The negative energy expended from segregating the areas of your life, coupled with the ongoing fear of being exposed and facing the possibility of being fired from your job, and rejected by your friends and family is something no one should have to endure. It’s all consuming and destructive. The lesson here is an obvious one—always be true to yourself, be proud of who you are, don’t try to live up to the expectations of others, and know that you were created just the way you are for a special reason.
How has being LGBT shaped your outlook on life?
Being a gay man in many ways defines who I am. It’s not merely my sexual orientation, but it’s my ethnicity in addition to being Caucasian, Catholic (in recovery), and a mixture of Italian, English and Irish heritage (a mutt), and a Southern-Yankee (raised in the South but born in NYC). Being LGBT has given me a purpose, a family and a community. It’s made me self-reliant, resolute, independent, strong and hardworking. Because I’m Gay, I’ve learned to welcome differences, celebrate life’s little pleasures and be very thankful for the many blessings I’ve been afforded. I’m incredibly proud of what LGBT people have accomplished individually and as a community; and I embrace our culture, with all of its differences, with joy and amazement. I’ve learned to persevere, and I will work to erase prejudice, bigotry, and discrimination, until the LGBT community has every right and privilege afforded to every other American.
Tell us a little more about yourself. What are your hobbies? What are you goals?
In August of last year, I retired from the law firm of Alston & Bird after working for 30 years as the Firm’s senior administrative officer. My early retirement provided me with the opportunity to pursue my “hobby” of community service on a full-time basis. Since my retirement, I have been working for organizations and groups that are in keeping with my personal mission statement. Those organizations currently include the LGBT Caucus of the Democratic Party of Georgia (DPG), the DPG’s Victory 2010 Coordinated Campaign Committee, CHRIS Kids, AID Atlanta and The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, where, as their first openly Gay Board member, I serve on the AIDS Leadership Team and the Atlanta AIDS Partnership Fund. I also served as Chair of Alex Wan’s successful campaign for Atlanta City Council, and I’m currently the Treasurer and adviser for Joan Garner’s campaign for Fulton County Commission, a race which she won in the run-off to become the first openly Lesbian person to serve on the Fulton County Commission. I’m starting a new chapter in my life in January of next year when I will join Cathy Woolard, the former President of the Atlanta City Council, in her lobbying efforts at the Georgia Legislature working for important causes, including Georgia Equality. In my spare time, I often go to the N.C. mountains where I share a cabin with friends and, in the summer, I occasionally visit Fire Island. I enjoy trying to keep my aging body in shape by working out three or four times a week. Most importantly, I’m extremely fortunate to have an extended family of good friends, and I enjoy spending time with them socializing over a good meal. I’m an avid reader and typically have two or three books going at any time.
If you were stranded on a desert island, what’s the one book you would want with you?
SAS Survival Handbook (British Special Air Services), The Ultimate Guide to Surviving Anywhere by John Wiseman, Revised Edition, March 3, 2009.
