With the virtually constant onslaught of national political news, it is incredibly demanding to ask the general public also to be well-versed in our nation’s foreign policy. Those interested in foreign affairs are likely immersed in the issues of Ukraine and/or the Israel-Palestinian conflict. While debate and air time remain primarily dedicated to these noteworthy issues, another foreign affair was heavily debated but rarely centered. 

Like most commencement weekends, the mood was festive and upbeat one weekend last month on the stately campus of Carleton College, a small liberal arts school just south of Minneapolis. The graduates, wearing everything from bright dresses and heels to shorts and sneakers beneath their gowns, filed into seats arranged in a broad, grassy field incongruously called The Bald Spot.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution and Atlanta Civic Circle, have partnered to publish a nonpartisan guide that allows voters to compare political candidates and learn more about their views on important issues. The Reckoning, in partnership with AJC, has been given permission to republish the guide.

Election Day is Nov. 8.

The guide provides voters with a side-by-side look at the candidates for office, their views on issues voters care about most, their party affiliation and their history in elective politics.

Georgia Decides provides information on candidates for statewide office and those for elected office in Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton, and Gwinnett counties. It includes candidate responses to a 12-question survey designed to help voters better understand how the candidates might approach their elected position.

“The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is proud to partner with the Atlanta Civic Circle in this important public service,” said Leroy Chapman, Managing Editor at the AJC. “Our goal is to make the Georgia electorate the most educated in the country, if we can.”

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has made Florida ground zero in the latest manufactured Republican culture war targeting the LGBTQ+ community. This development follows the passage of his controversial Parental Rights in Education Bill, commonly referred to as the “Don’t Say Gay Bill” that went into effect on July 1. 

The law bans “instruction” about sexual orientation or gender identity “in kindergarten through third grade or in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students per state standards.” A provision in the law also requires school staff members to alert parents about “critical decisions affecting a student’s mental, emotional, or physical health or well-being,” which many advocates believe will result in the involuntary outing of students. 

In Lee County, FL, the recent adoption of an LGBTQ Guide is amplifying advocates' fears. 

According to its authors, The LGBTQ Guide is “intended to create guidelines for teachers and administrators to help students who need it and to outline state laws for employees.” A provision in the LGBTQ Guide will notify parents — by form — if a student who is "open about their gender identity," is in a physical education class or on an overnight trip. The guidelines further instruct: “Upon notification or determination of a student who is open about their gender identity, parents of the affected students will be notified of reasonable accommodation options available.” 

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is officially the newest United States Supreme Court member.

Jackson became the 116th member of the Court Thursday, June 30, at noon, following the official retirement of Justice Stephen Breyer. Her appointment came after tense confirmation hearings in April. With her appointment, confirmation, and swearing-in, Jackson is the first Black woman to sit on the country’s highest court

At a time when the needs of students across the state of Georgia should be the top priority, state leaders, as far as Everton Blair is concerned, are distracted.

“They are busy picking fights with each other and squandering a $3.6 billion surplus opportunity,” Blair told The Reckoning. “We are not taking advantage of the moment before us.”

Blair, currently chairman of Gwinnett County’s Board of Education, is running to be Georgia’s next school superintendent. By all accounts, his campaign is touted as a historic one. If he is elected, Blair will be the first Black, first openly gay, and youngest person to hold the position. But making history is not exactly the motivating factor for Blair.

Doug Shipman is settling into his new role as Atlanta City Council president. Since his swearing-in earlier this month, he’s appointed committee chairs, presided over a couple of council meetings, and met with state officials.

He’s also poring over hundreds of pages detailing city finances and funding distribution processes, all packed into three thick binders. It’s here where he says he can find ways to fix the city’s long-beleaguered HIV housing program.

“It’s really a tactical thing,” he says of finding a solution. “And often the devil is in the details.”

After months of debates, campaign ads, meet and greets, and canvassing, Atlanta is close to naming a new mayor and potentially welcoming some new and familiar faces to the City Council and Board of Education.

Unfortunately, some of those faces will not include the dozen or so Black LGBTQ identified candidates who launched campaigns for the council, school board, and the mayor’s office.

Of the slate of Black LGBTQ candidates, Keisha Waites is the only candidate with a chance of possibly winning their campaign. A native of Atlanta and a former state legislator, Waites is in a runoff against Jacqueline “Jacki” Labat for the Council’s Post 3 At-Large seat. Labat’s husband, Patrick Labat, is Fulton County Sheriff.

Waites’ platform is centered on four issues: public safety, restoring public trust, regional transportation, and affordable housing.

When he was in the fifth grade at F. L. Stanton Elementary School, Jason B. Allen led a group of classmates in a community service activity.

His teacher at the time overheard him venting about what was happening in the community and how he felt like no one cared about its upkeep.

“She, Miss Edwards, who is still teaching today, inspired me to do something about it,” Allen told The Reckoning. “Instead of going to Six Flags for a class trip, we cleaned yards, cut grass, and picked up trash.”

There he was at ten years old, leading his classmates and helping to sustain the community. Today, Allen is one of two candidates seeking to replace Jason F. Esteves, the current board chair of the Atlanta Public Schools Board of Education, as the at-large District 9 representative. D’Jaris ‘DJ’ James, founder of a college and career coaching program, Secrets of a Southern Belle & Gent, is the other candidate.

When a young 12-year-old boy, reportedly named Tyler, was ridiculed live on social media for being effeminate, Devin Barrington-Ward was one of the first community activists to reach out in support of the pre-teen.

He reached out, he told The Reckoning, because there is a lack of safety nets available to young people like Tyler.

“There are countless young people like Tyler who are Black and LGBT who need an advocate and someone to care.”

Barrington-Ward is one of a handful of LGBTQ+ individuals running for Atlanta City Council. He is looking to unseat the incumbent Councilmember Dustin Hillis for the District 9 seat.

Mike Russell easily admits he is not a politician.

He is a retired military officer with a background in law enforcement who moved to Atlanta, in large part, due to its civil rights history.

But last summer, after people took to the streets to march and riot in cities across the country, Russell found himself increasingly upset as he watched what has been described as an uprising in downtown Atlanta.

“It was really upsetting,” he told the Reckoning. “So much so that I started yelling at the television. My husband kept saying to me, ‘You do know they cannot hear you. If you are really this upset, get involved.’”

He did but started out slow.

“As I started expressing my ideas and frustrations on social media, people took notice and began suggesting that I run for office,” he said.

During a random conversation at an event in early May, Bethsheba Rem found herself assessing her life. She met someone who mentioned they were recruiting people interested in being campaign managers or running for local office.

“I told him I am a professor and spoken word artist when he asked what I did for a living,” she told The Reckoning.

Without missing a beat, he suggested that she run for the school board.

“In two seconds, I assessed my whole life,” she said. “I took an inventory of where I am and what I have done. For me, I am either going to do something 100 percent, full speed ahead, completely all in, if I believe in it.”

In those two seconds, running for Atlanta School Board made sense.

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.”

Keisha Waites wants to make one thing clear. “I am not a politician,” she told The Reckoning. “I am a problem solver and a public servant.”

A native of Atlanta and a former state legislator, Waites is vying to replace Andre Dickens, one of nearly a dozen candidates in Atlanta’s mayoral race, on the Atlanta City Council. She is one of five candidates running for the council’s post-3 at-large seat. It is a crowded, and in some respects, an impressive field of candidates that include familiar names like Jacki Labat, as well as Ralph Long, Sherry B. Williams, and Jodi Merriday. But of all the candidates in her race, Waites believes she is the one with the best chance of helping to move the city forward.

Even in death, Commissioner Joan Garner continues to make history. On Monday afternoon, dozens of supporters, city officials, and friends gathered outside of Ponce De Leon Library in Midtown for a renaming ceremony in honor of the late Fulton County Commissioner who passed away in 2017 after battling breast cancer. In 2011, Garner became the first openly gay Fulton County Commissioner, representing District 4. Now, she becomes the first Black openly LGBTQ+ person to have a Fulton County public library renamed as the Joan P. Garner Library at Ponce De Leon, in her honor.

From his grandfather, Johnny Foreman, Larry Carter learned one important lesson—service first.

Foreman served as a former bishop in New York and Virginia for the United Methodist Church.

“He taught us that being of service is all about what is best for the community,” said Carter. “He used to always say, ‘You can't take things for granted. Life is fleeting, but it is also important to do what you can when you have the time’.”

Foreman’s guidance has been the driving force for Carter’s life and is at the root of his current endeavor—a campaign for Atlanta City Council.

Jason Hudgins began attending Westview Community Organization meetings well before he moved into the community.

He was house hunting and felt the best way to get an idea of what the community offered was to attend meetings and see firsthand.

“This is how it all started for me,” he told The Reckoning. “There was an older lady, Miss Hattie, who served as the organization chaplain. She stood up in one meeting and mentioned that someone who had recently left the community was supposed to paint her house.”

As Miss Hattie said, “he promised to paint my house,” it took no time for Hudgins to volunteer.

Last week, Atlanta City Council member Antonio Brown announced he would enter the Mayoral race. With Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms no longer seeking re-election, the Atlanta political landscape has exploded. Council member Brown made history in 2019 by becoming the first Black LGBTQ person elected to Atlanta City Council representing District 3. Many of us wonder, will Brown make history yet again?

Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced last week that she would not run for reelection. As the Bottoms era comes to a close, we now grapple with its meaning. I think her legacy will be shaped in part by her willingness to grapple with and commemorate a part of our city’s past that so many of us still struggle with—the history of the Atlanta child murders.

There has been an outpouring of support for queer Democratic State Rep. Park Cannon (D-58) in the aftermath of her March 25 arrest, where she was apprehended by Georgia State Troopers at the office of Gov. Brian Kemp. In a viral video that has been viewed over two million times on Twitter, Cannon can be seen knocking on Kemp’s office door during the signing of SB 202, a controversial voting rights bill critics say targets Black and Brown voters, effectively making it harder for minorities to exercise their right to vote.

“This is our time. This is our moment. We are at a very critical juncture as a country and as Black people we’ve always been at a critical juncture, but at this moment I believe that things are shifting.” Devin Barrington-Ward speaks to Charles Stephens for The Reckoning.

As Americans are laser-focused on the upcoming presidential election on November 3, there’s another local election that may have slipped under the radar for some, but like all down-ballot races, is equally important. Longtime Atlanta politician, Kwanza Hall (D-District 5), 49, a former member of the Atlanta City Council and a former mayoral candidate, is facing a runoff on December 1 against challenger Dr. Robert Franklin (D-District 5) after neither candidate secured fifty-percent of the vote during a special election in September to fill the District 5 congressional seat left vacant after the death of the late civil rights icon John Lewis.

The Reckoning spoke with Hall, who has been endorsed by Lewis’s son, John Miles-Lewis, about his campaign, his political platform, his allyship to the LGBT community, and his agenda for his short stay in Congress, if elected.