Wednesday, December 14, 2011

HAPPY HOLIGAYS!

It’s that most wonderful time of the year again! GO Atlanta wants to make sure you have everything you need to get your 2011 stockings filled.
Here are some queer friendly suggestions for the Holiday Season!
Get jittery for the Holiday with Gay Coffee!
Gay owned and operated— the Gay Coffee (http://www.gaycoffee.com) story begins in 2004 in a college town in Massachusetts in a tiny cafe built in a former ATM kiosk. Since then founder Melissa Krueger opened one of the very first Free Trade Coffee Shops in MA . Now a master coffee roaster Krueger and her partner launched GayCoffee.com- complete with flavors such as Red Hanky Roast, Weekend Pass, Second Date, Good Morning Mary!, and Stone Butch ( $13 each ).  1% of all profits are donated to the LGBT Task Force.
GO Atlanta appreciates a good cup of joe, as our Coffee Talk members can tell you.  Let us buy you a cup of coffee next year- look for new Coffee Talk dates and times in January on our main webpage.  These sessions are held in local coffee hotspots, and are focused on introducing men to our Gay Outreach.

Get in touch with your primitive side!

Planet Green brought the “Fabulous Life of the Beekman Boys” into the public eye. The show chronicles the life of Josh Kilmer-Purcell and his partner Brent Ridge as they learned how to become farmers and launch their lifestyle brand, Beekman 1802. While the show wasn't picked up by the Discovery Network for a third season, the Beekman name and product line is still alive and flourishing! (http://beekman1802.com/)

Available on their webpage are gifts sure to stand out underneath or beside any tree, bush, or other holiday appropriate plant.  Such as a personalized autographed copy of the Beekman 1802 Heirloom Cookbook by Brent and Josh and goat-milk soaps made on the Beekman 1802 farm. The A Year in the Country, Gift Set features a collection of 12 bars of soap, all hand and farm made, that captures the pairs’ favorite fragrances from a year spent at Beekman 1802. With fragrances like that of the December soap described as “Cutting down pine boughs for garland and returning home to warm cookies”- who wouldn’t appreciate this unique gift and smells? The gift set comes in a hand-crafted cedar tray with galvanized metal top and is $70 plus shipping.

Make underWeAR not war!

In coordination with this year’s DADT repeal the sexy elves over at 2(X)IST’s (www.2xist.com) winter wonderland  have released their new Military line for the winter. The underwear is modeled after modern combat uniforms and body armor and accents strong lines to reinforce masculine features. GO Atlanta supports our city’s sergeants and soldiers marching to the front of this holiday shopping lines with this sexy and stylish underwear.

Ask, tell, and remember!

Speaking of repealing DADT, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” a portrait work by Jeff Sheng  (starting at $24.95 at www.dadtbook.com and your local LGBT bookstores! ) is another great holigay find. The project showcases the portraits and stories of service members in the United States armed forces who secretly served under DADT.  These poignant photographs and beautiful, powerful stories are a good way to remember and celebrate this progressive moment in history.  

Without stories and discussions, our voices seldom find recognition. Let the New Year serve as a fresh start to tell your own story and learn more about our history as LGBT people.  GO Atlanta invites you next year to discuss topics such as the latter at our ONE NIGHT STANDS. Real men and real talk about issues that directly affect our lives and wellness of our community at large. Check our website WWW.GETUPANDGOATLANTA.COM for updates as to what we’ll discuss next!

Give a little love…

Philanthropy should always hold a line on your holiday to do list.  Atlanta is full of worthy causes that would benefit from a holiday donation.  Among those causes is Project Open Hand.  Project Open Hand exists to help prevent or better manage chronic disease by offering Comprehensive Nutrition Care to its clients here in Atlanta.  They are actively seeking volunteers to help package meals and drive meal delivery routes. This is the perfect opportunity to give back to the community while making new friends and connections along the way.  Remember this time of year is not just about receiving! For more information log onto http://www.projectopenhand.org

Shop Local:

With the recent noted financial struggles that LGBT owned bookstores like Outwrite Books & Coffee House (http://www.outwritebooks.com) in Midtown and Charis Books & More (http://www.charisbooksandmore.com/) in Little Five Points are facing here in Atlanta, GO Atlanta encourages everyone to spend their dollars in their very own gayborhood!

Tis the season to avoid the old adage- “You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone” by shopping and dining at the bookstores, clothing, novelty shops, and restaurants, that are locally LGBTIQQ owned.

For us Atlanta and Metro queers a good resource for trying out a new restaurant, looking up seasonal events, or finding a local queer friendly shop here in the city is:  http://www.gay-atlanta.com

At GO Atlanta we show our support through our monthly outreach initiatives. Our Out2Eat events encourage guys to try a new place and come together over a meal.  Our Happy Hours, for the 21 and up crowd, promote local gay bars and foster safer-sex discussion over a cocktail (or two)-first one’s on us!

Be sure to check our main webpage in January to see where we will go next!

Donate:

Next year marks AID Atlanta’s 30h year anniversary!  Since its humble beginnings in 1982, AID Atlanta has offered a broad range of services and has since grown to be the Southeast’s largest, most comprehensive AIDS Service Organization. Our mission here is to reduce new HIV infections and improve the quality of life of our members and the community by breaking barriers and building community. To this end, programs funded by AID Atlanta such as our own GO Atlanta, and the magnificent Evolution Center could not exist without the support of the LGBTIQ community.  We strive to our wits end at times to make our programs relevant to the community we service.

AID Atlanta has existed for 30 years because the agency recognizes that as our community grows and the landscape of Atlanta continues to shift, our message and commitment to reducing new and secondary HIV infections must become louder and more visible— or else we risk being swept underneath the populace’s rug.  “Reducing new HIV infections and improving the quality of life of our members” is not just the mission of our agency, but a commitment every staff, intern, and volunteer takes when working at the agency. By donating to the agency, you’re helping sustain the overall agency’s, GO Atlanta’s, and a myriad of other valuable program’s  continued growth and development towards seeing an end to new infections here in Atlanta, the US, and the world alike.







  

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