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Mary’s Bar is the Best

The national queers at Logo Online have discovered what Atlanta queers already know. Mary’s Bar in East Atlanta is the best. I love hanging out at Mary’s. It’s my choice if I want to just stop in somewhere for a drink to unwind. Or if I want to karaoke (although it’s known there as Mary-oke). Or if I want to meet (gay or straight) friends for a laid-back evening. Pretty much any occasion, you can count on a good time and a friendly crowd at this East Atlanta gay (and lesbian, and transgender, and bi, and straight) bar. I’m glad Logo named Mary’s Bar the Best Gay Bar in the country. I’m pleased that Mary’s is also rated number one by AOL’s City’s Best List. It proves you don’t have to be trendy, or in New York, San Francisco or L.A., to operate an entertaining, welcoming and popular gay bar.

Unlike most of the gay or lesbian bars in Atlanta (and in many other parts of the country), Mary’s is busy pretty much every night of the week. One thing that always strikes me is how happy everyone seems at Mary’s. One Saturday night earlier this summer, I tapped a friend on the shoulder and told him to take a look around. Everyone was laughing, smiling and/or singing. The bartenders are friendly and attentive. The only thing that would make Mary’s a better bar would be a little more room. It’s long, narrow bar area is a tight squeeze most nights of the week. And the “stage” area in front of the DJ booth can be awkward during Mary-oke, and results in completely closing down the front entrance and routing patrons to the back door on the deck. But somehow the tight squeeze only works to Mary’s advantage. Everyone cooperates to work around the limited space. Even thought it’s usually quite crowded, it never seems to get too crowded. In other words, this little LGBT bar could only get better if it doubled in size.

Only one other Georgia gay bar made the list.  It’s Swinging Richards, the all-male gay strip club on Northside Drive.

It’s Not the Heat. It’s the Homophobia.

July is apparently Hate Month across America. Is it just me, or is the summer heat really bringing out America’s inner bigot? Maybe it’s not the heat. It’s the homophobia. I submit to you evidence of the rising fever of intolerance toward gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender persons:

Here in Georgia, news broke this week of the firings of two public servants: a transgender woman and a lesbian. On Tuesday, former Sandy Springs Police Lieutenant Trudi Vaughan told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that she was fired because she was female and gay. Apparently you have to be male and heterosexual to properly fulfill Vaughan’s role as the supervisor of the city’s special operations officers, including the narcotics, anti-gang and SWAT teams. She was fired on July 16 and announced her intention to contest her termination and file a lawsuit claiming discrimination on July 22.

Vandy Beth Glen

The very next day, Lambda Legal issued a press release announcing its intent to sue the Georgia General Assembly’s Office of Legislative Council on behalf of Vandy Beth Glen, a transgender woman, who was fired after two years of service as a legal editor and proofreader. The federal lawsuit asserts that Glenn was fired in violation of the Constitution’s equal protection guarantee, because it treated her differently due to her female gender identity and her nonconformity with gender stereotypes. Glen told her supervisor, who told Legislative Counsel Sewell Brumby. Brumby reportedly fired Glenn, telling her that her gender identity disorder was “immoral” and her presence in the office would make other employees “uncomfortable.” (Read my post on Glen’s firing for more detail.) But it’s not just Georgia suffering from summer homophobia and transphobia. It gets worse.

Just over the Georgia state line in Anderson, South Carolina, an 18-year-old went to the Anderson County Sheriff’s office and filed two complaints against his father on Wednesday, July 16. Referred to only as “the teen” in an article published in the Independent Mail, his incident report stated that he was punched by his father Wednesday afternoon. He had returned home to get some clothes. He had left the house on P Street Sunday, July 13, after his father attacked him with a baseball bat. Reportedly, the incident began when “the teen” returned home from a gay pride parade. During the assault, his 49-year-old father yelled, cursed, swung a baseball bat, prayed and tried to “cast the demon of homosexuality out of him,” according to the Independent Mail. Maybe there’s something in the air in Anderson. The Independent Mail also reported this week that farm animals have been the targets of drive-by shootings in the area.

Angie Zapata

Angie Zapata, an 18-year-old transgender woman in Greeley, Colorado, was found murdered in her apartment on July 17. She died of wounds to the head and face. Family and friends believe her murder was a hate crime. At her funeral on Wednesday, the officiating minister began the service with one of those awkward, gender-neutralizing statements generally reserved for closeted queers. His uncomfortable approach to Zapata’s funeral service was described in an article by The Greeley Tribune:

Senior pastor Joe Sanchez solemnly stepped up to the front of the congregation, greeted those in attendance, and with a strong and commanding voice, offered his deep condolences. “We are here to celebrate the life of a person, the life of a person cut down in the prime of their life. What can I tell you in this situation, it never feels good to come before a congregation like yourself to express what we feel about a young person that is taken from in the prime of their life.” (Emphasis added.)

Jimmy Lee Dean

Also on July 17, a Texas man was pistol-whipped with a 9mm Glock handgun, kicked and stomped by two attackers who used anti-gay epithets before, during and after the attack. Jimmy Lee Dean, 42, was brutally assaulted in a gay neighborhood where he had lived for 20 years. The Dallas Voice reports that the Dallas Police Department has classified the incident as a hate crime for FBI reporting purposes, adding that it was unclear whether the crime would be prosecuted as such. Dean’s two attackers are so far only charged with aggravated robbery, a first-degree felony. The men admitted to police that they chose Dean’s neighborhood because they thought it would be easier to rob a gay man. Dean survived the attack, which was reported in graphic detail by the Dallas Voice. If you are sensitive to graphic violence, you will want to skip this excerpt from the article:

Dean reportedly suffered a broken jaw and vertebrae, as well as several other facial fractures and severe swelling. Witnesses reported that after the beating, his nose was attached only by a piece of skin. Dean’s injuries were so bad that police were unable to interview or identify him for days after the attack. On Tuesday, July 22, a spokesman for Parkland Memorial Hospital said Dean’s condition had been upgraded to fair, meaning he was no longer in intensive care.

El Paso's GLBTQ Center

Further south in El Paso, Texas, the LGBT community was preparing to celebrate the grand opening of the new GLBTQ Center downtown last week. The opening went on as planned last Thursday, July 17, despite an attack on the director of the center, Charles Sloane, who was kicked and hit in the head as his attackers yelled, “Faggot!” in the lobby of the Center on Monday, July 14. There was a second assault, also in downtown El Paso, that same day.

In the bright summer sunshine of south Florida, several Wilton Manors residents spent last Friday scrubbing anti-gay graffiti off their homes and cars. The Sun-Sentinal reported that the incidents are being tagged a hate crime by police, who apparently used their finely tuned investigative skills to deduce that spray-painting the words “gay” and “fag” on someone’s home is not neighborly.

Father Louis Braxton was beaten trying to stop an attack on a transgender woman.

Alessandra-Michelle Carver, a 21-year-old transgender woman, was brutally attacked and repeatedly beaten in the Astoria section of Queens, New York on Monday, July 7. The attack was reported on July 16 by the Queens Courier newspaper. Also attacked was a priest who tried to help her. Father Louis Braxton runs a shelter for gay and transgender youth called Carmen’s Place. It was on Steinway Street in front of the shelter where the attack on Carver took place.

If all this hate is not enough to make you break out into a sweat, there’s plenty more out there. A Google search for “hate crime” and the words gay, lesbian, transgender or bisexual returned 96,700 results today. It’s really hot out there. And if we can’t stand the heat, perhaps we should get out of the closet and work for understanding, acceptance and equal rights.

Ga. for Obama Kicks Off Canvassing 100 Days Before Election

The Georgia office of Obama for America is appealing to Georgians to participate in a canvassing event designed to register voters. In an e-mail to supporters, State Director Antwaun Griffin noted that we are now only 100 days away from the November 4 election. Sunday, July 27 will begin the 100-day countdown.

Georgia for Obama will kick off 100-Days Canvass events in every one of Georgia’s 159 counties. You can find a 100-Days Canvass event in your area at ga.barackobama.com/ga100days. Georgia for Obama says no political experience is required. The Campaign for Change staff will provide volunteers with everything needed to participate.

In his call for volunteers, Griffin said, “We can turn this state blue for Barack and other Democrats across the state, but it’s going to take a massive effort to increase registration and voter turnout. Face-to-face contact with friends, neighbors and undecided voters is the most effective way to grow our movement.”

If you would like to get involved but are already booked for this weekend, you’ll have other opportunities to participate. Check out the Georgia for Obama Website, which is regularly updated with new ways to get involved, including a calendar of events across Georgia.

Atlanta Transgender Woman Fired by State Official

Atlantan Vandy Beth Glenn was paid by the State of Georgia to check and change the language in state law. But when she examined her own life and determined that she had Gender Identity Disorder, her changes were not approved by her bosses. Now the transgender woman is suing the state in federal court for firing her, with the help of Lamda Legal.

Vandy Beth Glen

Glenn worked for two years in the Georgia General Assembly’s Office of Legislative Counsel, editing and proofreading the language of bills brought before state lawmakers. After years of private struggle, Glenn was diagnosed with Gender Identity Disorder (GID) and prepared to undergo gender transition. Glenn informed her immediate supervisor, Beth Yinger, that she planned to proceed with her transition from male to female last year. Yinger then told the General Assembly’s Legislative Counsel, Sewell Brumby, who runs the office where Glenn worked. Brumby confirmed that Glenn intended to transition from male to female, then fired her on the spot, according to information released by Lambda Legal.

Lambda Legal’s announced its intent to sue on behalf of Glen yesterday. The federal lawsuit asserts that Glenn was fired in violation of the Constitution’s equal protection guarantee, because it treated her differently due to her female gender identity and her nonconformity with gender stereotypes. In addition, Lambda Legal says that General Assembly officials disregarded Glenn’s GID and her needed treatment — also an equal protection violation.

“The leaders of the state of Georgia should be an example of fair–mindedness and ethical decision-making,” said Cole Thaler, Transgender Rights Attorney in Lambda Legal’s Southern Regional Office based in Atlanta. “Our client was a successful and professional employee who was fired because her boss didn’t like who she is.”

Glen’s case will be handled by Cole Thaler, Transgender Rights Attorney and Greg Nevins, Supervising Senior Staff Attorney in Lambda Legal’s Southern Regional Office in Atlanta.

“We should expect more from the leaders of our state than to fire me simply for being who I am,” Glenn said.

Yes, we should. But we would only be disappointed. It’s not surprising that the Georgia General Assembly’s treatment of its employees is just as intolerant as its treatment of LGBT Georgians in general.

See resources for the transgender community on our Transgender Info and Resources page.

Does My Blog Look Fat in This Template?

As repeat visitors will quickly notice, Life on Q has a new look! I thought it was time for a new, more flexible blog layout, with more room for content, photos and links. There have been several updates to Wordpress, the blogging platform used here at Life on Q, and the old template was a bit behind the times. The new look, based on the “Statement” theme by Blog Oh! Blog, is a newer, more flexible design that takes advantage of some of the latest Wordpress enhancements. It’s still under development, so please don’t be too alarmed if you spot a poorly functioning page or broken link. But please do let us know if you do, so we can get it fixed. Just post a comment or send an e-mail to editor@lifeonq.com. And stay tuned as we continue to fine-tune the design and add more content.

Prudential Offers LGBT Seniors a Piece of the Rock

Prudential Financial’s Group Insurance business has decided to target market long-term care insurance to the LGBT community. The company announced yesterday that it has established the Prudential Affinity Alliance program, essentially a forum for partnering with LGBT organizations backed by a training program for the company’s long-term care sales team. The company’s long-term care sales team will be educated on the unique issues facing gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender seniors. The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) was the first GLBT organization on board in the program.

“Prudential has a solid record of sponsorship support to LGBT community organizations, including HRC. But we’re also committed to ensuring that the LGBT community’s unique long-term care needs and the various options available to them are understood,” said Eric Holtzman, vice president of Long-Term Care Insurance, Prudential, in a company press release. “The reality is the LGBT community lacks the traditional support that married heterosexuals enjoy and as a result face a greater need for long-term care insurance.”

Prudential says it worked closely with Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders (SAGE) to develop a training program designed to help financial professionals understand cultural sensitivities and unique challenges facing the gay and lesbian community. The company cited some interesting facts about the issues faced by GLBT seniors.

According to the 2006 National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Policy Institute report entitled “Make Room for All: Diversity, Cultural Competency & Discrimination in an Aging America, nearly 90 percent of gay and lesbian seniors have no children to help them, while only 20 percent of heterosexual seniors are childless. The report also noted:

• Medicaid regulations protect the assets and homes of married spouses when the other spouse enters a nursing home or long-term care facility; no such protections are offered to same-sex partners:
• Social Security pays survivor benefits to widows and widowers, but not to the surviving same-sex life partner of someone who dies:
• Federal tax laws and other regulations of 401(k) s and pensions discriminate against same-sex partners, costing the surviving partner in a same-se relationship tens of thousands of dollars a year, and possibly over $1 million during the course of a lifetime:
• State tax laws, except in states that have legalized same-sex marriage, civil unions or domestic partnerships also discriminate against same-sex couples.

Prudential boasts a long and active history of commitment to the gay and lesbian community through grants, sponsorships and domestic partnership benefits for employees of same-sex relationships. As one of the first corporate sponsors of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act legislation, Prudential was also a leader in offering domestic partnership benefits to employees of same-sex relationships. Since 2003, Prudential has received a 100 percent score on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s annual Corporate Equality Index and also proudly supports organizations dedicated to improving the lives of gays and lesbians including the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), the Human Rights Campaign, and Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG).

Prudential has been in the long-term care insurance business for over 20 years. Prudential Financial, a $631 billion company, has operations in the United States, Asia, Europe, and Latin America serving over 50 million individual and institutional customers.

Pay Attention and Be Outraged

I knew better than to pay attention to the Georgia primary this week.  The clear lack of interest in Georgia perplexes and frustrates me.  After putting my heart and soul into the elections of 2004 as a staffer for then U.S. Senate candidate Mary Squires, serving as an active member of Georgia for Dean and a participant in the fight against the gay marriage amendment in Georgia, I was 0 for 3 and out of energy.  I devoted huge chunks of my time to politics that year, thinking people would be motivated to participate by the mismanagement, hatefulness and destructiveness of a Republican-dominated government.

I really thought that the people of Georgia could be convinced that discrimination against anyone, even people whose orientation they did not understand, was not the right thing to do.  But my fellow Georgians voted their bias anyway.  Our state constitution has an amendment discriminating against LGBT Georgians to prove it.  Georgia helped return Bush to the White House.  And the Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate didn’t have a chance.  In the face of massive Republican campaign war chests, the Georgia Democratic Party and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee threw in the towel before they even worked up a sweat.

In 2006, I voted, of course.  But I stepped away from any participation in the elections beyond that.  I just didn’t have the heart to be disappointed again.  This election cycle, I’ve taken an interest in the Presidential race, but have not been an active participant in any campaign.  So here we are again with a U.S. Senate seat on the ballot.  I purposely avoided the U.S. Senate race, hoping to avoid a repeat of my 2004 frustration.  But I felt it was important to vote, so I began looking at the Democratic candidates only a week ago.  As I feared, the frustration returned.   Again, the DSCC seems to be doing little to nothing to help field a candidate.  Now we have controversial DeKalb County politician Vernon Jones and former State Rep. Jim Martin, who ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor in 2006, in a runoff after yesterday’s votes were counted.

In my view, Jim Martin is a viable candidate who is on the side of the kind of change we need for our state and in Washington.  But enough of us have to turn out to vote in the runoff on August 5 to give him the chance.   And once one of the candidates earns the chance, we have to support them with time and money.  Saxby Chambliss has $4 million in the bank to buy his seat for another 6 years.  Unless, of course, he has that deposited at Indy Mac.

It must have been an easy night for the Secretary of State’s office.  Only about 15 percent of Georgia voters bothered to go to the  polls.  That’s only half of the 30 percent the Secretary of State had predicted.  That is really pathetic.  We are in two wars.  Gas is $4.00+ per gallon.  The Bush answer is to give oil companies tax breaks and permission to drill off our coasts. (Both measures that are supported by our Senator Saxby Chambliss, who’s up for reelection this fall). Utility prices are skyrocketing, and your gas and electric bills will soon help you feel the pain. There’s a mortgage crisis, and the Bush administration is doing nothing except bail out their buddies at Bear Sterns. Banks are failing.  Airlines are going bankrupt.  Healthcare insurance is impossible to afford, and even if you are lucky enough to have it, you have to fight to get care. Tainted products from China.  Tainted food here, a mystery which the government can’t solve.  Here in Georgia, we have no hate crimes law, despite several hate crimes against the LGBT community.  We have a water crisis.  Budget problems in the city of Atlanta, with fire stations closing and other services being cut.  We have a Fulton County sheriff who was on the job when Brian Nichols escaped, killed people in a courthouse, and terrorized the city.  He was on the ballot yesterday too.

Where is the outrage?  Where is the momentum for change?  Where is basic participation in the process?  If you don’t vote, nothing changes.  The 15 percent of us who do, and the even smaller percentage who try to work for change on various campaigns, are paying attention.  The way I see it, you can either get engaged in the process, or get ready to pay for it in higher energy prices, a planet in peril, inaccessible healthcare and ongoing financial worries.  Your vote does matter, more than ever.  This election cycle really matters, for all of us.  If the LGBT community in particular would get engaged, could unify as a voting block, things could change.  It’s too late to keep hate out of the Georgia State Constitution, but it’s not too late to fight hate in Washington, or to fight for the common issues that face us all, gay or straight.  When queers vote en masse, consistently, equality and fairness will win out.

Googling for Georgia Voters

Today is the day. Vote, Georgia, vote! I’ve continued my research on races that affect us, and thought I’d share some links to articles, voter guides and other resources I’ve found. Just think of me as your own personal election Googler. Check out these links and be an informed voter.

A great resource for General Voting info covering multiple races:

• The AJC and League of Women Voter’s 2008 Voting Guide
• Project Vote Smart’s Guide to Congressional races across Georgia
• A look at Congressional races across the state from Southern Voice
• Candidates for State Senate from Project Vote Smart
• Candidates for State House from Project Vote Smart

On the race for Fulton County Sheriff:

• Creative Loafing’s Voter Guide for the Fulton County Sheriff race
• The AJC Editorial Board’s assessment of candidates for Fulton County Sheriff
• 11Alive News’ story on the Fulton County Sheriff candidate debate

On the Democratic race to challenge U.S. Senater Saxby Chambliss:

• Creative Loafing’s Voter Guide for the Senate race
• Southern Voice on the Five Democratic Candidates for U.S. Senate
• My look at the Democratic Candidates’ stand on GLBT issues
• My blog post on the Senate candidate’s positions on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”

On the races for seats on the Public Service Commission:

This is an important race, people. Wake up–your utilities bills are skyrocketing. The winners in these races will be your advocate with the utility companies and will help drive policy on alternative energy in Georgia. Will this state focus on nuclear power or clean alternatives like wind and solar? The Public Service Commission will impact the energy options you will have for the future. Check out:

• Creative Loafing’s guide to the Public Service Commission candidates
• An AJC article on the PSC candidates

On the race for DeKalb County CEO:

• Creative Loafing’s Guide to the race for DeKalb County CEO
• The AJC’s endorsement of Burrell Ellis for DeKalb CEO
• GoDeKalb.com’s overview of the CEO candidates

So there you have it, dear voters. Incomplete to be sure, but I hope it is of some help to you. If you didn’t find what you needed, hey, do your own Googling!

Georgia Democratic Candidates for U.S. Senate Are Gay-Friendly in Varying Degrees

Over the last few days, I’ve attempted to research the five Democratic candidates seeking the party’s nomination for the right to challenge Sen. Saxby Chambliss in the fall. It has been a frustrating exercise, with limited media attention on their campaigns. Georgia Equality, Stonewall Democrats, Southern Voice–no one in the gay community Powers That Be are making any endorsements. While I would not characterize myself as a single-issue voter, I would say that I always check a candidate’s positions on LGBT issues before I cast a vote. I may not choose a candidate solely on their gay-friendliness, but I will certainly rule one out who isn’t. Facing radio silence from LGBT organizations and limited press coverage of the candidates (not to mention the meager coverage of their stand on LGBT issues), I decided to research it myself. Something we should all do for outselves anyway, granted, but the organizations that watch-dog such things for us are usually a good place to start. Apparently, as I mentioned in a previous post, no one is much interested in a challenge to Saxby Chambliss. But I won’t rant on about that again. I’ll move on to what I learned in my research. I hope it will be of some help or at least mild interest to you. And I hope you will vote tomorrow.

None of the Democratic candidates offer detailed positions on gay issues on their Websites, with the exception of a brief mention of protecting constitutional rights on Dale Cardwell’s issues page and an equal rights page on Rand Knight’s site that was so buried I didn’t find it until his staff sent me a link to the page. So, I sent an e-mail to each of the five candidates campaigns asking for more detail on their positions on issues of importance to the LGBT community. I received responses from Cole Haymond with Rand Knight’s campaign and from Morgan Martin Walters for Jim Martin. Dale Cardwell directed me to a Southern Voice article detailing candidate positions. The response, which appeared to come directly from Mr. Cardwell, was courteous. I cannot fault a campaign for not answering one e-mail within days of the primary, I suppose. On the other hand, neither Josh Lanier nor Vernon Jones responded. I’m just another blogger, not high on anyone’s media relations radar, I’m sure. But I’m also an active voter. There’s two off my list already. Here are the campaigns’ responses to my query.

From Rand Knight’s campaign:

“You will find under Rand’s issues, his stance on Equal Rights. He was the only U.S. Senate Candidate to march in the Pride Parade and he stood up for equal rights in a debate on Fox 5 Atlanta. He has been interviewed by the Southern Voice and stood up for Gay Marriage when Jim Martin did not.”

From Jim Martin’s campaign, I received the following detailed response:

Same Sex Marriage/Civil Unions
Jim believes we must protect all Georgians from discrimination and must treat all Georgians with respect and dignity. He does not support discrimination in any form and believes it is unjust to deny rights to individuals on the basis of their sexual orientation. For that reason, he supports civil unions.

Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell
Jim is a Vietnam veteran and believes that we should encourage citizens to serve in the military and support them when they’re there. He does not support the Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell policy.

ENDA
Jim is in favor of ENDA because he does not support discrimination in any form.

Gay Adoption
Jim believes the first and only concern should be what is in the best interest of the child. As Commissioner of Human Resources, he was responsible for all public adoptions in the state, so he knows firsthand that adding any other factor would take the focus off of the best interest of the child. He also believes we need more adoptive parents, not fewer. Many of our most troubled, sick, and at risk children would never be adopted if we took the focus off of the best interest of the child.

Hate Crimes
As a legislator, Jim was a leader on this issue at the State Capitol. Jim built consensus on and passed out of committee hate crimes legislation before it was amended on the floor of the House in a manner that caused the law to be struck down later.

Jim is one of the most fair-minded leaders in the state. He has a 35-year record of accomplishment to prove it. In the 1980’s, when few politicians would address the HIV/AIDS crisis, Jim was a leader in the state’s response to HIV and AIDS and in getting state and federal funds for the Ryan White program and other initiatives. When HIV/AIDS-related deaths were at their peak and same sex partners were facing obstacles as their loved ones were dying, Jim wrote the Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care Act, which created the right for people to make end of life decisions and burial arrangements for each other. Previously, only biological family members and spouses had that right. The fact of the matter is that no candidate for U.S. Senate has a record like Jim’s on issues important to the LGBT community.

This exercise settled it for me. While disappointed by the Democratic Party’s approach to this Senate race, I will vote for a Democratic candidate regardless. And I will vote for Jim Martin. While no gay organizations have made endorsements (much to my dismay), Jim Martin was endorsed by Georgia Equality in 2006 when he ran for lieutenant governor. He lost that race, but did manage a respectable 40 percent of the vote, making him the one candidate with proven ability to wage a statewide campaign and hopefully some name recognition from his failed bid for leutenant governor upon which to build. And his record of support for the GLBT community in Georgia is strong. Few candidates are perfect on gay and lesbian issues, but Jim is clearly the most thoughtful on GLBT voter concerns. And he has the record to back it up. Jim, for what it’s worth, you have my vote.

Remember the Recent Unpleasantness and Vote

I was a very young girl, about the same height as the lever that closed the curtains to the voting booth, when my father took me by the hand and led me into the phone-booth-sized metal contraption to experience democracy in action. At the risk of dating myself, I’ll tell you that he pointed to the names in the governor’s race section of the poster-sized ballot, and let me push down the little lever next to the name “Jimmy Carter” for him. A decade later, I entered a voting booth in that same small north Georgia town and again pushed down a lever next to the name “Jimmy Carter,” this time casting my own vote–my first “official” one–to register my support for the re-election of then President Carter.

That first vote was for the losing candidate, a disappointment I have since experienced more often than not. You see, I was raised a Democrat in an overwhelmingly Democratic state. My father was named after Franklin Delano Roosevelt. One of his best friends named his son Joseph Kennedy. Where I came from, Southerners didn’t vote Republican. Georgia had been a Democratic-leaning state since the “Recent Unpleasantness of 1860 to 1864.” At the risk of sounding like a Cracker, I have to say that it was quite true, in my experience as a native of this state, that there was no tolerance for the party of Lincoln in the North Georgia mountains. For me, and for my family, it had nothing to do with slavery. There was no racial language or attitude in the community where I grew up. Being anti-Republican was a reaction to the destruction our area endured during the Civil War. There was a sense that we Southerners knew who we were. We were Democrats. Everyone was. In rural Georgia, there were a lot of yellow dogs. By the time I turned 18 and cast that first vote, things were starting to change. In little more than a decade, more than a century of Georgia loyalty to the Democratic Party was fading fast. I have never missed an election, and I have never voted for a single Republican. As a Georgian, that means I have supported the losing side in a lot of political races.

In the last several general elections, Georgia has been written off by the Democratic Party as too red to win. The Republican Party, and the media, also assume our color. Until now. Suddenly, with the audacity of Barack Obama’s candidacy, Georgia may be a battleground state. It’s just too bad the Georgia Democratic Party didn’t hold out much hope. Democrats have refused to fight in many critical Georgia races of the last several election cycles, fielding mostly unknown, inexperienced and drastically out-financed candidates. The party didn’t put up much of a fight in the 2004 election that sent Johnny Isaakson to the Senate. The state’s two strongest and best known Democrats, Kathy Cox and Mark Taylor, chose to fight instead for the Governor’s mansion in 2006. When the Democrats’ leading contenders fight each other rather than coming together to defeat Republicans, we all lose. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton replayed a similar scenario on the national stage this year. The wounds are still healing.

Now we find ourselves just four months away from the general election, and Georgia Democrats are barely paying attention. Even though there’s only a razor-thin Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate, few seem to have noticed that Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss is up for re-election. Few seem aware of the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee’s goal to maintain a “firewall” of about 45 Republican Senators, for the purposes of filibustering any legislation, rendering as ineffective a slim Democratic majority in the Senate and cloture-blocking a possible President Obama. Few Georgia Democrats seem motivated by what the Republicans consider their most difficult election cycle since Richard Nixon resigned. Secretary of State Karen Handel told the Atlanta Journal-Consitution that turnout will be mostly motivated by local elections, not the statewide contest that will decide the Democratic challenger to Sen. Chambliss. She projected turnout statewide to be only 30 percent. Where is the momentum for change?

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