cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/53966671

Keisha Lance Bottoms will be the first Black female governor elected in the country, after she won the Georgia governor's race, according to a race call by the Associated Press.

Bottoms' win marks the first time Georgia has elected a Democratic governor in more than 20 years, breaking the Republican hold on state government in Georgia. But she will likely be working with a Republican majority in at least one chamber of the legislature.

Bentley Hudgins has discovered that online bigotry sometimes trips over accidental affirmation.

“Some of them are like, ‘I can’t tell if you’re a man or a woman,’” Hudgins says. “I’m like, ‘Thank you. That’s the point.’”

Another stranger declared the Georgia Democrat a “coward, sir.” Hudgins’ reply: “Sir? Oh, is that how this engagement’s going to go? Thank you for your politeness, and I’m not your dom, so don’t call me ‘sir.’”

Milner PD Chief Lamar Bunn and his entire department will be stepping down; one officer's resignation letter cited frustration with the mayor and some city council members

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/53058909

Bentley Hudgins is a 33-year-old Democratic Socialist who spent the past three years advocating for LGBTQ rights in the Georgia State House.

Bella Bautista is 10 years younger, the first transgender woman to win a legislative primary in Georgia and head of a nonprofit distributing supplies to at-risk young adults.

A Georgia high school won’t let a transgender girl run for homecoming queen. Now she’s challenging the restrictions that kept her off the ballot and pushing for other transgender students to have an equal chance to participate.

Riley Williams, a student at Charles R. Drew High School in Riverdale, launched a Change.org petition on September 22 calling for schools to allow students to participate in activities such as homecoming based on their gender identity.

When Carter and President Gerald Ford broke a nearly two-decade debate freeze in 1976, they established a prime-time standard still shaping modern politics.

Riley Williams, a transgender teen who attends Clayton County's Charles R. Drew High School, writes in the Change.org petition that she was barred from running for the homecoming position due to state policy, which she says "enforces traditional gender roles on students."

"The policy in question requires students to run for homecoming court positions based strictly on the gender assigned at birth, ignoring their authentic gender identity," Williams wrote. "This not only infringes upon the rights of transgender students like myself, but it also promotes an environment of exclusion and discrimination."

A Georgia teenager is fighting back after she was told she can’t run for homecoming queen because she is trans. Clayton County Public Schools claims allowing her to run would violate its enforcement of Title IX rules, but it’s unclear whether those would actually apply here. The student has now launched a petition asking for Georgia schools to change their policies.

“I’m not doing this for me; I’m doing it for the next transgender person who decides to run for the role that makes them feel comfortable,” high schooler Riley Williams told Atlanta News First (ANF). “People are behind me and people support me for who I am.”