While constantly growing and changing, Atlanta's queer community also places a high value on its history. When the Atlanta Lesbian Feminist Alliance disbanded in 1994, the group carefully preserved its archives so that future queer activists could learn about the growth of lesbian organizing in their city.

The Atlanta Lesbian and Gay History Thing was founded in 1991 by a group of activists including lesbian historian Maria Helena Dolan. Until its demise in the late 1990s, the History Thing worked closely with the Atlanta History Center to collect and preserve documents and memorabilia from the early days of queer activism in Atlanta, Georgia, and the Southeast.

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Contemporary Atlanta

Although something of an island in an intolerant state, Atlanta enjoys a reputation as a notably gay-friendly city, with a diverse glbtq population and a plethora of businesses and services that target glbtq residents and visitors.

The city has adopted non-discrimination laws and domestic partner benefits. However, there is some question as to whether some of these laws can withstand constitutional challenge, especially if attacked by an anti-gay state legislature and state voters who overwhelmingly adopted a constitutional amendment barring same-sex marriage (recently affirmed by the state supreme court). For example, in 2005 the city abandoned its attempt to enforce its non-discrimination statute against the Druid Hills Golf Club when the state legislature passed a bill prohibiting local governments from fining private organizations for not offering marital benefits to same-sex couples.

Mayor Shirley Franklin, Atlanta's first African-American female mayor, has been a vocal supporter of the glbtq community. The Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau has implemented a gay tourism campaign as both a statement of the city's support of the gay and lesbian community and an attempt to attract gay and lesbian visitors.

The glbtq community played a significant role in the gentrification of the Midtown area of Atlanta in the 1990s; this area is now the center of the visible gay community, an oasis of gay bars, restaurants, and coffehouses, a part of town where gay couples can freely hold hands without fear of harassment.

While many gay men live in the Midtown area of the city, a neighboring town, Decatur, has attracted many lesbian residents.

Boycotts, the refusal to patronize companies or institutions, have in recent decades been organized by glbtq rights advocates to protest discriminatory practices and policies.

Glbtq people have been in the vanguard of gentrification, a process of renewing neighborhoods that has both positive and negative effects.

Oral history has been an especially effective tool for lifting the curtain of invisibility from glbtq history.

Both parades and marches have served to render the glbtq community visible; whereas marches typically attempt to effect political change, parades and pride events affirm identity and community.

Sodomy laws, which provided the legal basis for police harassment of sexual minorities, were conclusively overturned by the United States Supreme Court in 2003, after more than half a century of efforts at reform.

The Southern Baptists have become the most intolerant of the major American religious denominations, especially (but not exclusively) for their opposition to equal rights for gay men and lesbians.

Two of the most significant Supreme Court decisions regarding constitutional liberty for glbtq people are Bowers v. Hardwick (1986) and Lawrence v. Texas (2003).

Activist and author Keith Boykin has committed his life to advancing the rights of the African-American and glbtq communities and to enhancing communication between them.

Former beauty queen, popular singer, and orange juice pitchwoman, Anita Bryant became the poster-girl for homophobia in the late 1970s; her name continues to be a byword for bigotry.