Atlanta Pride and Out on Film commemorate LGBTQ+ history with ‘Reel Resistance’ summit
On Aug. 1 and 2, Atlanta Pride partnered with Out on Film for “Reel Resistance,” a film screening and summit honoring Atlanta’s LGBTQ+ history and Atlanta Pride’s 55th anniversary.
A crowd of about 150 gathered at Agnes Scott College in Decatur on Friday night to watch a film critical to the early LGBTQ+ rights movement in Atlanta and beyond: 1968’s “Lonesome Cowboys.” The controversial and provocative underground film, directed by Andy Warhol, is a satire of American Westerns, lauded as a groundbreaking portrayal of homosexuality and gender fluidity.
“We believe that film is not just the tool to spark imagination, to start conversations, to create dialogue, to help people create a better understanding, more acceptance, and social change, but it’s also a powerful tool for capturing and preserving the stories of marginalized communities, including LGBTQ+ people,” Justice Obiaya, the Executive Director of Out on Film, told the audience. Along with being a pioneering piece of queer media, “Lonesome Cowboys” played a distinct role in the development of Atlanta’s LGBTQ+ movement.
On Aug. 5, 1969, only a month after the Stonewall Uprising in New York City, Atlanta police raided a screening of the film at the Ansley Mall Minicinema, a since-closed art house theater owned by George Ellis. About fifteen minutes into the movie, the lights came up and police came into the completely full theater and harassed and arrested “known homosexuals.”
Abby Drue, the CEO of the Ben Marion Institute and one of the last known attendees of the raided screening, shared her experience both after Friday’s screening and at Saturday’s summit with Martin Padgett, author of “A Night at the Sweet Gum Head” and “The Many Passions of Michael Hardwick.”
Drue recalled the brutality by the Atlanta Police Department against the LGBTQ+ community and the constant raids of queer spaces by officers during the 60s. She was visiting friends in Atlanta in the summer of 1969, and they invited her along to see “Lonesome Cowboys.”
“I’d never been in a raid of a movie like that, I’d never been in a raid of that sort. People jumped up, men jumped up over seats,” Drue said. “There was one exit door near the screen, and people were running out that way… The police came in, pushed everybody back in and threw them against the walls… They had photographers in with cameras that had the old flash bulbs, and everybody was lined up. A lot of the men were being frisked up and down and then handcuffed and taken out. They had two paddy wagons that I know of.”
Drue would later move to Atlanta and become the city’s cultural arts director. She had the ear of Mayor Maynard Jackson and encouraged him to proclaim the first Gay Pride Day in 1976.
“Queer people found their voice after the raid. It was a start, but it’s been a long finish,” Drue said, referencing the anti-LGBTQ+ agenda from the Trump administration and Congress.
During a Saturday panel called “Reflections on the Early Years,” journalist and author Rich Eldridge and New South Associates historian Wes Nimmo discussed the aftermath of the “Lonesome Cowboys” raid.
In 1970, activist Beryl Boykin organized the first Gay Pride rally at Piedmont Park to commemorate the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. The Georgia Gay Liberation Front, which also sprang up after the raid, would hold the first Gay Pride March in 1971 despite being refused a permit by the city.
“The march had to be held on the sidewalk and stop at every traffic light because the police were at every corner just waiting to arrest someone for jaywalking,” Touching Up Our Roots co-founder Dave Hayward recalled.
Other panels on Saturday touched on a variety of topics, including “Drag as Resistance” with speakers Taylor Alxandr, drag queen and founder of Southern Fried Queer Pride, and drag king Mr. Elle Ayre. Award-winning author and journalist Mark S. King and activist Craid Hardesty talked about the intersection of HIV/AIDS activism and filmmaking.
Michael Shutt and Vandy Beth Glenn discussed the personal and political impact of legal battles for workplace protections and gender identity rights, while Dist. 58 State Rep. Park Cannon was in conversation with Bentley Hudgins, Georgia State Director for the Human Rights Campaign.
Trans bodybuilder Siufung Law and social media star/filmmaker Antonio Baldwin, aka Tony Talks, talked about their activism online via TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.
Related stories:
• Out on Film announces first selections for 2025 festival
• Atlanta Pride announces grand marshals for October festival
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