Author: Jessica Douglas

by Jessica Douglas

Black LGBTQ History w/ Dr. Ashley Coleman Taylor

In honor of Black History Month, Georgia Equality was fortunate to interview historian Dr. Ashley Coleman Taylor. Dr. Coleman Taylor has worked on the oral history project, Atlanta as Black Queer Space, for several years.

The interview is conducted by Kermit Thomas, state outreach manager, denoted by “K,” and Dr. Coleman Taylor, “A,” and it explores race, space, identity, the ever-changing politics of the south, and more.

 

K: Could you introduce yourself and the project you’re working on?

A: I’m Ashley Coleman Taylor and I am an Atlanta native; my family has been in Atlanta since the 1970s. I am a professor of Religious Studies and Women and Gender Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. My work is primarily about Black embodiment, Black gender, sexuality, and Africana religions. My work is situated in Puerto Rico and also Atlanta. 

K: Can you tell us a little about your work in Puerto Rico and Atlanta?

A: Yeah, so in the Puerto Rico work, I look at religion as a tool of white supremacy, so I look at how it’s impacted Black and Indigenous embodiment in Puerto Rico. I particularly focus on Black women and how they use their bodies as tools of resistance; to resist racism, sexism, classism, and coloniality. My Atlanta work is an oral history project with Black LGBTQ elders, so I look at how they have used their bodies as tools in the fight for social justice as activists over decades.

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by Jessica Douglas

Welcoming New Staff

Georgia Equality is excited to welcome three new staff members to the team! Please join us in welcoming Alexandra Audate, Deputy Director, Jessica Douglas, Development and Communications Manager, and Halle Vargas-Sullivan, Field Organizer.

Alexandra Audate (she/her) is the Deputy Director of Georgia Equality. She earned a Bachelors Degree, a Masters of Laws Degree in Intercultural Human Rights and a law degree from St. Thomas University. She is licensed to practice law in the state of Florida. Prior to joining Georgia Equality, she worked as the managing attorney of the QueerMigration Law Group in Florida where she represented and supported queer and transgender immigrants.

Her career in human rights advocacy spans over a decade and consists of legislative lobbying, policy writing, and coalition building. Prior to practicing law, she worked as a social worker providing direct service to survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking.

She also worked as a community organizer and spent the last fifteen years traveling all over the United States advocating on issues related to 2LGBTQIA+rights, immigration, racial equity, police brutality, HIV/AIDS, disability rights, environmental racism and the school-to-prison pipeline. She is the author of the legal portion of the most recent edition of the Broward County Public Schools LGBTQ+ Critical Support Guide.

Alexandra is a proud immigrant from Haiti and is fluent in Haitian Creole, French, English and Spanish. During her spare time, she loves painting, going to the beach, reading and writing about Black feminist theory.

Jessica Douglas (she/her) is the Development and Communications Manager at Georgia Equality. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Georgia, where she also minored in African American Studies and served as a Student Government Senator and activist. During her time at UGA, Jessica interned for Georgia Equality twice, working in communications, legislative advocacy, and field organizing.

Jessica previously served as an external relations officer for the Center for Victims of Torture in Georgia, advocating for refugee and immigrant survivors of torture and other conflict-related trauma. She is passionate about approaching social issues from a trauma-informed and intersectional lens. In her spare time, Jessica enjoys reading and spending time with her cat, Felix.

Halle Vargas-Sullivan (she/her) is the Field Organizer at Georgia Equality. Her background includes art activism, creative entrepreneurship, and community engagement. Since being cast as “Young Nala” in Disney’s The Lion King on Broadway at nine years old, she has been committed to utilizing art as a pathway towards reshaping the world into an inheritance that is sustainable, just, and joy-focused. She studied Recorded Music at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts prior to transferring to Spelman College. There, she majored in Comparative Women’s Studies and curated a research focus of “Representations of Blackness, Latinidad, and Womanhood in the Media.” Engaging with her intersectional, bilingual perspective (English/Spanish), she is dedicated to doing the work required to secure the protection, equity, and representation of those who have been historically oppressed.