“I was fresh out of college, all bright-eyed, and a new gay in a big city,” he told them. After he moved to Atlanta six years ago, he said the bar was formative to his coming-of-age as a gay man. If the Atlanta Eagle is, indeed, granted historic status, Ramey has said that he intends to keep the bar in its 306 Ponce De Leon location, and Jonathan Standish is one of many who hope to see the business return to its old space. Ramey describes the raid as a watershed moment that led to improved relations between the Atlanta Police Department and the local queer community. The resulting lawsuit led to the city paying a $1.5 million settlement, a public apology from the mayor, and a vow to conduct police training. The public outcry was swift, particularly as reports arose that the officers had been drinking. In 2009, cops raided the bar, forced patrons to the floor, handcuffed them, and called them homophobic slurs. Like Stonewall in Manhattan’s West Village, the Atlanta Eagle was also the site of political mobilization. Powerhouse drag artists - including drag legend Charlie Brown, Nina Bo'Nina Brown (no relation), Mariah Paris Balenciaga, Phoenix, and Violet Chachki - have been coming out of Atlanta ever since. In the early ‘80s, the building was home to Celebrity Club where then-newcomers RuPaul Charles and Lady Bunny made their start. If it passes, the Eagle will be the first building in the Deep South to be landmarked for its queer history, and that history is substantial. has previously reported, the position is the first of its kind in the southern United States.Īs a longtime patron of the bar, Brown said he was “proud” to see Bottoms take “such a decisive step to ensure the Atlanta Eagle remains a safe space for us all.” “Safe spaces for LGBTQ people have closed their doors at a disproportionate rate this year due to the devastating effects of COVID-19,” he said in a statement, noting the shutdown of dozens of queer businesses across the U.S. And on Thursday, the bar was officially put forth to be landmarked by Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms - the city’s latest gesture toward inclusion after naming Malik Brown as the city’s first director of LGBTQ affairs. In November, the Georgia Trust named the building a “place in peril” for 2020. What Ramey did not know at the time was that Historic Atlanta, a preservation advocacy organization, had been building a case for the bar to be landmarked since February. “If we were closing for good, I’d have said we were closing for good,” he remarked. He said he signed a three-year lease on the space that happened to wrap up during the shutdown, making moving inevitable. Ramey maintained, though, that rumors circulating earlier this year that the bar was done for were always overblown. When the bar briefly resumed operation, bartender Kirby Morin said the staff was told that it “was going to be an uphill battle.”
The Atlanta Eagle reopened in June for limited outdoor gatherings, then quickly closed again. Eagle shut down last May amid the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, and the legendary San Francisco Eagle now features a “for sale” sign.
“The Eagle was probably the most diverse melting pot of leather and kink communities in Atlanta,” said Neon the Glowgobear, a resident DJ there for the past six years.īut despite its importance to the leather community, the Atlanta Eagle wouldn’t have been the first casualty of COVID-19: The D.C. It’s home base for Onyx Southeast, a national leather organization for people of color. The Atlanta Eagle is equally intentional about including people of varied ages, body types, and racial identities. While Midtown power gays rub shoulders with east Atlanta queers on busy nights, young kinksters in their first harnesses flirt with old-school leathermen and leatherwomen.
That’s one thing I’ve worked on the hardest.” His work is evident in the crowd, with kinksters across the gender spectrum present. “When I first took over the Eagle, there was a bit of a stigma situation,” he told them. Richard Ramey, its longtime proprietor, took this responsibility seriously, making it his mission to be more welcoming to women when he started running the bar 22 years ago.