Christian Benoit was one of dozens of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer Georgians from across the state who traveled to the Capitol on Tuesday morning to take part in the Pride to the Capitol rally.
“We have to stand in solidarity for those that won’t or can’t stand and represent themselves,” Benoit said. “We have voices that need to be heard and we deserve the same rights as everyone else [because] they are our constitutional rights.”
The rally was organized by Georgia’s division of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ civil rights organization. Demonstrators carried signs that read “Liberty and Justice For All,” “Proud and Free” and “LGBTQ Rights are Human Rights.”
Although they weren’t part of the 35 civil rights and advocacy organizations to partner with the HRC for the event, Benoit and members of the Trans Women of Color Healing Project, an organization in Tyrone, Georgia, traveled to Atlanta to take part in the rally.
After the rally, many of the organizers descended on the Capitol to advocate for civil rights and show legislators they are a powerful part of the electorate. Advocates from around the state met with lawmakers to champion legislation they said will protect the rights of all Georgians.
“Across the South, the responsibility is falling on small nonprofits like [Savannah Pride Center], organizations that are working every single day to fill massive caps in access, prevention, and dignity in health care,” said Michael Bell, Savannah Pride Center’s executive director, to reporters and legislators in front of the south steps in the Capitol.
Savannah Pride, one of the groups that partnered with HRC for the event, is helping to push for bills that address public safety, economic security and health care access.
Central to the advocacy campaign is the view that a majority of the legislation the organizers support is not exclusive to the LGBTQ community and would improve the quality of life for all residents.
This legislative session they are backing bills like one to expand Medicaid – which Gov. Brian Kemp has refused to do since taking office – a bill to guarantee reproductive freedom, and a bill to require U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to display visible identification and prohibit face coverings.
For Benoit and the Trans Women of Color Healing Project, their focus is primarily on uplifting trans people in their area who may not be able to travel to Atlanta for services and programs dedicated to the trans community. Soon, he said, the organization is working on opening a clinic for trans and queer people to access gender-affirming care, HIV/STI testing, and HIV prevention medication.
Other than Washington, D.C., Georgia has the highest rate of new HIV cases in the country, with 11.3 new cases for every 100,000 people, according to the most recent government data from 2022.
Nationally, advocates are concerned about federal officials trying to reduce access to HIV prevention medication by removing it from the list of drugs health insurers, including Medicare and Medicaid, must cover. In Georgia, however, this year a bill expanding access to HIV prevention medication by allowing pharmacists to prescribe the drug has gained bipartisan support, passing the House with 155 yes votes and 7 no votes in February.
The legislation has the potential to have a particularly large impact on Georgia’s Black communities that bear the brunt of new cases. While HIV is overwhelmingly associated with men, Black women in Georgia, regardless of sexuality, are significantly more likely to be diagnosed with HIV than white women.
“The HIV modernization bill [is] a step forward after 20 years of work in treating people with dignity and aligning our laws with current science,” state Rep. Karla Drenner said.
When Drenner was first elected in 2000 to represent House District 85, a majority-Black district, she became the first openly LGBTQ person elected to the state legislature in the South. Still, she pointed out the continued need for progress and for LGBTQ people to tell their stories and those of the people who came before them.
Despite the success of the HIV modernization legislation that Drenner supported, the House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee also advanced a bill that advocates spent the day asking lawmakers not to support: Senate Bill 74 would create criminal penalties for librarians who knowingly allow minors to check out material with “harmful” content.
Previously, librarians had been exempt from criminal penalties set by Georgia’s obscenity law, which includes homosexuality, masturbation, and sexual intercourse under its definition of content that is harmful to minors.
Advocates said the bill, if passed, would be an attack on the First Amendment rights of children, librarians, and LGBTQ Georgians.
“When I first entered public life, it was still illegal to be gay in this country,” Drenner said. “That was not ancient history, that was within my lifetime.”
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