Jereme Sharpe is convinced that most people don’t know what to think of him, and he likes it that way.

Sharpe is among a handful of Black LGBTQ+ identified candidates for Atlanta City Council. He, along with three others, is seeking to unseat Michael Julian Bond for the Post 1 At-Large seat. The other candidates include educator Alfred Brooks, attorney Brandon Goldberg, and former Atlanta Board of Ethics member Todd Gray.

“From the outside, people tend to make all sorts of assumptions about me,” Sharpe told The Reckoning. “I don’t like being put in a box. I know the struggles of life. I have seen life’s highs and lows and been in places and situations that maybe I should not have been. But my experiences have taught me important lessons that help me to understand how to help people, regardless of who they are and where they come from.”