Everyday Heroes: Georgia man advocates for LGBTQ health, equality

“At Georgia Equality, our mission is to advance fairness, safety and opportunity for LGBTQ communities and our allies throughout the state of Georgia,” Graham said.

Credit: Emma Buker

Credit: Emma Buker

Graham is a gay man who came out in 1984 when he was attending college in San Antonio, Texas. This was a tumultuous time for the gay community, with the AIDS crisis in full swing and misinformation about the illness running rampant.

Graham was part of a group who formed the first queer student organization on his college campus: Gay & Lesbian Support Group, today known as Trinity P.R.I.D.E. The group tasked him with peer outreach, and he would regularly talk to fellow students about his experiences as an openly gay man on campus.

“Inevitably, I would get asked some form of the question, ‘Why do you choose to be gay if you know you’re going to die of AIDS?’” Graham said. Ignorance about the disease, he said, inspired him to pursue a life of LGBTQ health advocacy.

As the ‘80s progressed, so did the AIDS crisis. Graham said he and other gay men grew increasingly frustrated with government inaction, as well as the stigma they faced from other communities.

“Even though I was still in my mid-20s at this point in time, I had friends that were starting to die,” he said. “I felt I needed to do more.”

Graham channeled his anger into action and got involved with ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), a grassroots group working to end the AIDS crisis and support people living with the disease.

It was during this period of Graham’s life when he got arrested multiple times. ACT UP regularly staged acts of civil disobedience to draw attention from lawmakers and the community. Members knew they were risking arrest, he said, but they knew the importance of their mission outweighed the risks.

“I was arrested a couple of times during the campaign to change the definition of AIDS,” he said. “We were in the offices of the leadership of the HIV division at the CDC, and a group of us were arrested there. The first time I was arrested was at the state Capitol in my pajamas on the opening day of the legislative session in 1990. I protested the sodomy law here in Georgia.” Georgia’s sodomy law criminalized any private sexual relations between consenting same-sex adults. In 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated sodomy laws across the country with its ruling in Lawrence v. Texas.

“Jeff is an outstanding thought leader, advocate and encyclopedia of Georgia politics and Atlanta politics, just the LGBTQ history of Georgia,” said Marc Ebelhar, the vice chair and treasurer of Georgia Equality’s board of directors. “He is the almanac when it comes to that and [is] such a treasured resource.”

Graham said Georgia Equality works on behalf of all people living with HIV and AIDS, not just those who identify as LGBTQ. He brings an intersectional framework to the organization that addresses not only LGBTQ issues, but racial injustice, housing inequality and the health care coverage gap, too.

“We understand and have made a commitment as an organization that people don’t live their lives in boxes, and we’ve got a very strong commitment to supporting and engaging in efforts that also address racial equity, gender equity and geographic equity here throughout the state,” he said.

During the 2024 Georgia legislative session, lawmakers proposed a number of bills that would negatively affect members of the LGBTQ community. None of those bills passed due to the efforts of Georgia Equality. In the past, the group worked with 18 counties across Georgia to pass nondiscrimination protections, not just protecting LGBTQ people, but also immigrants, women, people of color and people of faith, Graham said.

“I have a lot of respect and admiration for [Graham,]” said Noël Heatherland, Georgia Equality’s statewide organizing manager. “And I think it’s part of why our organization is able to be really successful with the work that we’re doing, because we’ve got somebody coming into this with years and years and years of experience. I just think we are so lucky to have him.”

Much of Georgia Equality’s current work focuses on expanding protections for the transgender community due to the rise in anti-trans legislation in recent years, Graham said.

“There is a lot today that is happening in the LGBTQ space that I think we can learn lessons from the ACT UP movement, very specifically around transgender health and the attacks on the transgender community,” he said. “The well-being of especially young people is being impacted by elected officials that are setting policy based on stigma and misinformation, as opposed to science and the public good. That’s what I started my career fighting for. That, unfortunately, is what I’m [still] doing today.”

HOW TO HELP

For more information on Georgia Equality, go to georgiaequality.org.