An electric and intimate story of 1970s gay Atlanta through its bedazzling drag clubs and burgeoning rights activism.Coursing with a pumped-up beat, gay Atlanta was the South's mecca—a beacon for gays and lesbians growing up in its homophobic towns and cities. There, the Sweet Gum Head was the club for achieving drag stardom.Martin Padgett evokes the fantabulous disco decade by going deep into the lives of two men who shaped and were shaped by this city: Jo...

The little-known story of the man who sparked a groundswell of gay activism after a wrongly decided Supreme Court decision.Michael Hardwick had no idea that when a police officer stood at his bedroom door on August 3, 1982, he would become a face of the gay rights movement. Arrested for sodomy, Hardwick sued for his right to privacy all the way to the Supreme Court, even as the HIV/AIDS epidemic began its toll. When he lost, his era-defining case inspired a half-mi...

An electric and intimate story of 1970s gay Atlanta through its bedazzling drag clubs and burgeoning rights activism.Coursing with a pumped-up beat, gay Atlanta was the South's mecca—a beacon for gays and lesbians growing up in its homophobic towns and cities. There, the Sweet Gum Head was the club for achieving drag stardom.Martin Padgett evokes the fantabulous disco decade by going deep into the lives of two men who shaped and were shaped by this city: Jo...

The little-known story of the man who sparked a groundswell of gay activism with a wrongly decided Supreme Court decision.When a police officer stood at his bedroom door on August 3, 1982, Michael Hardwick had no idea that he would become an avatar of the gay rights movement. Arrested for sodomy, Hardwick sued for his right to privacy all the way to the Supreme Court, as the HIV/AIDS epidemic spiraled. When he lost, his era-defining case inspired a half-million peo...