Marietta organizers promote first gay pride

MARIETTA, Ga. (AP) — A suburban Atlanta county where accusations of gay bashing once cost officials the opportunity to host an Olympic event will have its first ever gay pride event this weekend.

A group called the North Georgia Rainbow Coalition has organized the Marietta Rainbow Festival. It will be held Saturday at the LeBuzz bar and organizer Johnathon Murphy says he hopes it erases Cobb County’s reputation as anti-gay.

That reputation was born in the early 1990s, when then Cobb County Commissioner Gordon Wysong proposed a resolution denying arts funds for anything that did not support what he called a family values lifestyle.

Resulting conflict eventually led officials to scrap the county as a location for a volleyball event during the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.