Atlanta annexations and why should anyone care...

I've decided to dust off my blog and post again for the first time in a while.  This brief discussion is on the merits and idiocy of detractors of the Atlanta annexation of Sandtown and Loch Lomond areas of unincorporated Fulton County.

Well, some may not know but the City of Atlanta of only makes up approximately 134 square miles of the sprawling metropolitan area known as "Metro Atlanta".  Since the recent and ongoing antics of (aversively racist) white Republicans of the Georgia General Assembly has been to essentially sever the artery of Fulton County, as a governmental entity providing service delivery to unincorporated areas within its boundaries, the City of Atlanta has been offering the possibility to close a historic unincorporated "donut hole/peninsula" in along Cascade Road along with the Sandtown and Loch Lomond areas in unincorporated southwestern Fulton County.

About this time last year, some city officials coordinated with members of the General Assembly about drafting legislation to provide an avenue for a public referendum to be held to annexing most of unincorporated Fulton north of Georgia State Route 6 (locally known as "Camp Creek Parkway" and the actual waterway known as Camp Creek into Atlanta.

While as a result the some longtime so-called "pro-black" detractors revived the idea of municipalizing all unincorporated Fulton in a proposed municipality named the "City of South Fulton", which failed at the referendum ballot 2-1 in 2007.  This proposed municipality would be majority black and capture those very communities of Sandtown, Loch Lomond, and the aforementioned areas along Cascade Road all of the unincorporated areas in Fulton County.  He along with a number of state legislators, whom of which oddly represented parts of the city of Atlanta in their respective districts as well, drafted a bill to revive this City of South Fulton idea.  The supporters of this proposed municipality is Roger Bruce, a state legislator I know of whom spends more time gallivanting with ignorant whites like the Good Ol' Boys of Douglasville in Douglas County, an area that is apart of his oddly shaped House District 53.  Bruce did everything in his power to stall and prevent the passage of the legislation that allow the Atlanta annexation of southwest Fulton to passage and go to the ballot for public vote.  That in fact did occur, but so did bill to revive the South Fulton municipality.  But it gets better...

In April 2015, citizens in those communities of Sandtown, Loch Lomond, and a subdivision named South Oaks at Cascade submitted petitions to the Atlanta Municipal Clerk's office requesting annexation into the city.  To date, the South Oaks at Cascade petition was vetted and approved by Atlanta City Council in November, but the Loch Lomond, and Sandtown petitions are still pending.  The most controversial one is the Sandtown petition which covered a vast territory including the properties of the Fulton County-operated Sandtown Park and two Fulton County Schools, Sandtown Middle and Asa Philip Randolph Elementary schools.  However, this has cause an uproar because many parents outside of the Sandtown community send their children to this aformentioned schools.  They have organized against the annexation on the grounds of preventing these schools from being absorbed into the Atlanta Independent School District, colloquially known as Atlanta Public Schools.  This is where the lawsuits galore begins.

The City of Atlanta filed a lawsuit against the Atlanta Public School (APS), the municipal school district and the State of Georgia, repealing the state law requiring any annexed areas the option of sending their children to APS schools or remain in their county school district.  Which in my personal opinion is STUPID and should be a no.  However, Mayor Kasim Reed thinks this is a way to assuage the interests of the detractors in the Sandtown annexation and allowing this to progress forward.  In November, a Georgia Circuit Court, i.e., the Fulton County Circuit Court, ruled that the lawsuit was frivolous and ruled against the plaintiff, the City of Atlanta.  However, Atlanta has appealed this ruling all the way to the Georgia Supreme Court to be decided in 2016.

Here's my summary...yes it makes logical sense for the City of Atlanta to annex these areas into the city limits because they already use the Atlanta zipcode and postal designation, these areas already serviced by the City of Atlanta Watershed Management (the local water & sewer system), property values range around $500,000 to $1 million+, upgrade in law enforcement protection (because Fulton County Police is underfunded due mass municipalization in the county over the past decade), also upgrade in fire protection (same reasons for underfunding for law enforcement with the county government), and finally the logistics would clean up discrepancies with service delivery because of municipality limits of Atlanta are jagged depending on the neighborhoods in southwestern Fulton County.

I just written a lot but the conclusion provides the logic behind why this should happen.

Congratulations Birmingham...

Birmingham have beaten Atlanta on the marriage equality forefront.  Meanwhile, the regressive fold are beacons of chaos about the recognition of marriage equality in other parts of Alabama.

In other words, if you LGBT or SGL (same-gender-loving) couples go to the Jefferson County Courthouse in Birmingham to get your licenses...LOL

SHOUT-OUT TO THE BLACK LGBTQ/SGLs in Birmingham getting your marriage licenses today!

As I've said, here in Atlanta, these clowns need to get it together, ASAP.  The city has so many thirsty shrews here doing the absolute most and circus tricks for some random dick and ass and constantly disrespecting themselves, but cannot get a steady significant other for peanuts, SMH.

Oh yeah, above is Olanda Smith and Dianah McCaryeo, the first same-gender-loving couple married in Alabama, and they are black too!

My take on some tidbits...

On this new year, 2015, and oh yeah, Happy New Year, my hometown Birmingham has won the rights to the World Games in 2021.  I must say congratulations to Birmingham since it has been downtrodden places for nearly 4 decades where most other Southern major cities have surpassed it in many ways.  However, Birmingham has seen itself rebound, revitalize, and begin an urban renaissance in the past 5 years especially for its downtown.  FYI, Birmingham also has some one of the best restaurant and lounge scenes in the nation, so us foodies and lounge lizards would enjoy the city.

I don't live there anymore, I'm in Atlanta now.  However, it's still has a long way to go on many fronts that are too extensive to diatribe upon in this post without derailing my original purpose, but I digress.  (Look up my older post tags for Birmingham, Metro Birmingham to understand that)  Birmingham is a major US city to watch, for sure!

Recent firing of Atlanta's former fire chief, Kelvin Cochran, for distributing his book Who Told You You Were Naked? to his subordinates unsolicited back in 2014.  Uh, where do I start?  Let me keep it as simple as possible for everyone (including my own) attention span.

The guy is a moron, he gave his book to former subordinates to read unsolicited and then he was suspended without pay in November 2014 for violating the City of Atlanta Ethics Code.  Then in January 2015, Kasim Reed fired him because instead of using his time as a lesson learned instead he decided to go on a book tour to further add flames to the fire (no pun intended) and solicit the attention of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), the same racist religious denomination that would have hung his black ass up as an effigy less than 5 decades ago.  (Sidebar: there are many pragmatic, articulate, and level-head religious leaders of many other nominations so this is not shade or a snipe at you guys)

I'll get to the fuckery of why us black LGBTs are always caught in between a rock and a dumb place when it comes to fellow folk when in reality we (all black Americans) are in this together on the race front.

Meanwhile, now he is crying religious discrimination and last week got with the SBC and bunch of maroon black ministers whom are looking for a come-up held a rally in downtown Atlanta. The icing on the cake is his moronic attempt to file an EEOC complaint against the City of Atlanta because of religious discrimination.

Now the real deal, this idiot doesn't realize the SBC has been using him to pass a downright bigoted law in the Georgia General Assembly that would give any private business owner the right to fire people based on religious grounds.  Can you say instant federal lawsuit?  Cochran's smug ass and the brigade of black come-up ministers don't realize the SBC is using their asses like a cheap ho, but they are too dumb to 1) read up on the history of the SBC or 2) realize when you are being used.  Cochran is a big ole dummy.

On to the black folk/black LGBT issue, well I'm going to be as objective as possible.  Some black people, i.e. folk, will allow themselves to be led to slaughter on the mindless trip of always looking at being born LGBTQ as being a "choice".  People don't choose to be born into 2 different marginalized groups (black and LGBTQ).  Then you have some folk  will even will become as duplicitous look for an enemy from within because some individuals are LGBTQ aka same-gender-love (SGL).  Meanwhile, they don't realized that people like Angela Davis, Baynard Rustin, James Baldwin, and Langston Hughes were some of the strongest pro-black foot soldiers in the past, but ironically they are LGBTQ.  It throws me off that you have folk of now trying to marginalize, fight, and even downright ridicule their fellow pro-black folk, but gets mad when they find out that most pro-black LGBTQ folk are actually very well-rounded, worldly, and articulated individuals that can hold their own.  This is where I get off and say, to black people that are always looking for an enemy from within, please get some psychological help.  There is no heaven or hell for you to put pro-black, black LGBTQ people in so get over yourself and stop derailing the fight because of your own insecurities, indeficiencies, and maybe own struggles with your own sexuality that projects itself onto others...

Finally, the Lee Daniel's show, Empire, which is clearly biting off of Starz show, Power, but that's not my issue.  The issues are part of the aforementioned paragraph on folk whom stir up issues over queerism and the other one is Daniel's attempt to push the tacit optics that black folks can't have a functional relationship unless its with a non-black person.  Catch that, shade.  Yeah, I watch the show, but I know when somebody always is projecting their internal racial issues involving intra-racial intimate relationships.  Yeah, Daniels has a Hispanic partner of Anglo European lineage, so am I surprised...no really.  I wish there were more depictions of pro-black love even amongst LGBT/SGL people.

I'm back sorta...

It's been nearly 11 months since I've last posted.  I'm back and hopefully on a regular basis.  Life happens, but I'm working on moving back into Intown areas of Atlanta since I'm starting a new gig in my career field.  Hopefully, I can continue to deliver my analyses of the things occurring in Metro Atlanta, Greater Birmingham, everywhere, and some life/social issues.

I will say this...why are there so many obtuse black gay and bisexual men or males in Atlanta.  Let me be more specific, I was just reading a post by another blogger than mainly focuses on porn, yeah the gay kind.  He was in shock or thrown off by a) how many people but particularly gay and bisexual males that are two timing backstabbers and b) how few people are truly your friends.  I was like, "Uh, I've learned years ago from sheer observation but also some quasi-personal experiences that most of the guys that tend to migrate here are thirsty, whores, attention whores, narcissistic/sociopaths, and finally, the come-up artist aka "stunt queen".  The few that do not fit these narratives are usually homebodies, low-key, or too busy with their careers to be caught up in the shenanigans.

I mean, I have a few friends that happened to be gay or bisexual males, but most of them are not.  It's hard enough as it is to encounter and befriend decent people in general in any major city.  However, befriending one that falls into the gay/bisexual fold is even rarer.  Let's not pretend there aren't thirsty mofos on Adam4Adam, BGCLive and/or Jack'd, (and if you are foolish enough to be on these following ones then the joke is on you) Grindr and/or Manhunt that have profiles based in Atlanta to know what is going on.  The thirst in real in this region and I can log onto any of these websites and look at how quick somebody is looking to fuck you before getting to know you.  So the porn industry is a dog-eat-dog world for sure.  I cannot even begin to tell you how warped the sense of reality because they are already not paid well because it is (black) urban gay porn.  Then you have the come-up-artist and "survival" mode mentality then you will likely not find many whom are really a friend.

*le sigh*

I'm not saying, but I'm just saying...

This has gotten ridiculous

I swear the movement to municipalize all of Dekalb County has gotten to the point of ridiculous. This is the proposed "City of Stonecrest":

What is up with the donut hole in the center? Wouldn't it make sense to just let Lithonia just annex all of this and create a new city that would be a merger between the "old city of Lithonia" and this Stonecrest addition?

GEEZ!

I see where you both are coming from, but sorry, you both are WRONG!

I have to say the take on the cultural appropriation of black male slang by and the discussion that followed was so ODD.  It just shows the rift that exists between the black heterosexual and black LGBTs over such simple issues.

Anyways, black LGBT author and blogger, Rashid Darden, wrote on his own personal blog, Dopalicious District, how he is perped by the usage of "black gay male slang" by black heterosexual females in everyday life and on certain TV shows. ***COUGH*** The Real Housewives of Atlanta & Married to Medicine ***COUGH***

This week’s Real Housewives of Atlanta was quite eventful, and other blogs will give you a proper recap.  For me, seeing Cynthia Bailey give Mynique Smith an “education” in gay black slang made me uncomfortable.

I am a black gay man and for years I’ve seen our culture and language appropriated by white people and by women.  On one hand, I can’t be too mad because that’s just the way culture and language works.  On the other hand, stop stealing our shit.

Darden expresses how he feels that many black heterosexual females have stolen the lingo of black gay men for their usage, but many of them are quite homophobic.

On the flipside, the blog post wind up becoming discussion of the popular black female lifestyle blog, Madame Noire, where columnist, Charling Ball, posted an extrapolated take/rebuttal on the topic.  Meanwhile, the commentator comes out on both sites (mostly black females) antagonizing Darden and other black gay males for feeling that slang/lingo was their originally.  As a matter of fact, many posters on the Madame Noire site kept refuting this about black LGBT culture:

cheekee baby: Ummmm Gay black men have been fashioning themselves after black women for ages. I mean really they are walking around with purses and high heels meant for women. Hello! Too many act like sassy caricatures of black women. So he clearly needs to get over himself.

Nikia D-Shiznit: So, gay black men walk around looking and dressing like women, behaving in ways that are feminine or what they think women do.... But their language is being misappropriated? I cry why I see a limp wristed man in a dress and high heels saying "hheeeyyyy."

While others went to the usual attacks of saying this about black gay males:

lockstress: So ya'll can borrow and wear our panties but I can't say hunty??? Boo...get a cramp and complain for REAL!

Chaz : Why did this writer even take the time out to write this article? He is talking about black females using words that supposedly black gay men came up with? LOL. Wow. You don't see us black females going around talking about how much gay men wanna be women. How they go around calling themselves "girl" , wearing eyelashes, make up, weave, they get butt implants, breast implants... must I go on?

Now, I'm not here for homoantagonism nor am I here for misogyny, but this is some bullshit...

This is where I feel both are wrong because 1) Yes, many black LGBTs have taken their behaviors, manners, etc. from older black women like their grandmother, aunts, mothers, etc. so it isn't for black males to claim originally, but 2) The terminology "read" isn't from black female culture at all because that was popularized by the NYC drag queens popularized by the documentary "Paris Is Burning" and finally 3) Yes, there are some asinine black heterosexual and homoantagonist bisexual females that ridicule black gay/bisexual/transgendered males will use that particular lingo and hypocritically hate on, express strong dislike, or possess hatred for that aforementioned group.

It is not my place to take sides on this subject because my last point is poignant about the whole topic. Additionally, there is not excuse for black heterosexuals regardless of gender to possess homophobic bias or homophobia towards black LGBTs when we are all in the same boat together in this seemingly anti-black Western society.  This has to cease if we are to push forward as a culture.  Attacking black LGBTs is as unbecoming of black folks as attacking mixed raced/biracial individuals for only having 1 black parent because they don't possess 2 black parents.  Just like black LGBTs didn't ask to be born with feelings of sexual attraction towards the same gender, both genders, or gender dysmorphia about themselves is the same as those mixed race or biracial individuals being born to parents with 2 different racial/ethnic backgrounds.

Oh the things, I haven't forgotten at all...

For starters, I do remember the days when I was younger and saw acceptance from others due to my earlier struggles with my weight.  However, when one comes to terms to understand yourself from your race (and for some their ethnicity), it gets even more complicated when you add sexuality to the mix.  My sexuality has been more of non-factor for me because I have never really allowed it to be placed at the forefront of my personal identity.  On the other hand, when one does began to interact with their peers and form relationships, it does become a kind come into play along with the other aforementioned characteristics such as race, ethnicity, height, and body type (weight).

Anyways, to get to the point.  I came across this article from GMFA, a UK-based organization that promotes positive and good health practices for gay, bisexual, and queer males.  The article is very true and quite on point of some of the things many non-white but particularly black gay and bisexual males have to deal with when they are on their journal of self acceptance and confidence.  This interesting segment of the article stuck out to me:

As a 17-year-old, seeing the “no Blacks, no Asians” statement displayed on a profile would sadden me, but that was nothing compared with getting those remarks back as a response after I had broken the ice in a direct message. Rejection is always worse when you are not expecting it, and people can react to sexual racism in various different ways. Ten years ago it would have made me angry and I would have instantly questioned how the rest of the world was viewing me, but these days, I really don’t give a damn about the thoughts of people who are clearly incapable of at displaying common decency. My school days, when I would attempt to ‘fit in’ with the majority, are long gone, and I am not going to spend my time worrying about the sexual preferences of a bunch of morons! 

Honestly, that is my journey to now went except I was 19 versus 17.  At the point and time now, I am confident in myself and don't care for anyone regardless of race if they aren't attracted to me.   However, I do still sigh for many SGL of color that seek companionship with those that maybe white face rejection for their race.  I have said time and time again, that exclusively seeking any group is going to be recipe for constant rejection, but with time I have found myself desiring a long term relationship and companionship with another black male.  It's not to say I cannot be with somebody that isn't a non-black male, but the truth is the likelihood is very high considering how so often sexual racism and fetishization plays a heavy role in interracial interactions still on a same-gender loving (SGL) relationships.

At the moment, I have been happily dating someone new for 6+ months and yeah it is a black guy, but I still to remember those days of the past when this was one of my challenges of personal growth.