Ryan Lee, Associate Writer: News & Current Events
When the first Atlanta Human Rights Campaign Dinner was held in 1988, gay Americans were in the throes of an unchecked plague, had recently been declared criminals by the U.S. Supreme Court, and remained shunned by much of society. Still, the theme for that first Atlanta HRC dinner implored gay Atlantans to “Dare to Dream, Dare to Be.”
The lofty theme crystallized into a more explicit goal at the next year’s dinner: “In Our Lifetime.”
In the two-and-a-half decades since those early dinners the world – politics, entertainment, social acceptance – has evolved at a rate that would have been hard to envision in the late 1980s. From taming HIV/AIDS to becoming a cultural constituency, we have experienced a lifetime of change in less than a quarter century.
The theme for this year’s Atlanta HRC Dinner & Silent Auction, “Be Part of Equality,” invites us to absorb the successes we’ve achieved, and enlists us in the push to achieve full equality. While there is surely work that is left to be done, the Atlanta HRC dinner’s silver jubilee is about celebrating how remarkably far we’ve come in a relatively short time.
The keynote speaker for this year’s dinner, which takes place May 5 at the Hyatt Regency downtown, is U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), who has a chance to take our movement to another historic height this fall. Baldwin, who was the first openly gay person elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1998, is hoping to break another barrier by becoming the first openly gay person to serve in the U.S. Senate.
In addition to offering a motivational pep rally for Baldwin during her historic bid, the Atlanta HRC dinner will feature actor Sean Hayes, best known for his role as Jack on “Will & Grace.” The Emmy Award-winning funnyman, who came out as gay in 2010, will be receiving the HRC Visibility Award.
Local heroes who have advanced LGBT equality in Atlanta will also be honored. This year’s Leon Allen & Winston Johnson Community Leadership Award will be presented to the Rev. Phillip Thomason, the minister of outreach and pastoral care at St. Mark United Methodist Church, who has guided the congregation’s LGBT-welcoming efforts since 1990.
The Health Initiative, an organization that started in 1996 and has continuously expanded its mission to address the evolving health concerns of Atlanta’s LGBT community, will be honored with the Dan Bradley Humanitarian Award at the dinner. The non-profit was originally known as the Atlanta Lesbian Cancer Initiative, then broadened its scope and changed its name to the Atlanta Lesbian Health Initiative in 2006. In the last year, the group underwent a new name change to The Health Initiative, which reflects its goal of addressing health concerns among all sectors of the LGBT community.
Also during the dinner, “American Idol” alumna Frenchie Davis will take the stage to entertain the crowd, which usually draws more than one thousand attendees and raises more than a quarter-million dollars.
