Allen Thornell (center), with his parter, Chad Prosser, and Cathy Woolard. (Image from SoVo.)
My thoughts are with LGBT activists in Georgia, who this week are mourning the loss of one of the LGBT community’s leaders there, Allen Thornell. He was 38 and died of a stroke on Monday morning. The Southern Voice has extensive coverage of Thornell’s service to the state. Among his accomplishments:
Thornell was employed as director of strategic communications at CARE, an international non-profit based in Atlanta that works to end global poverty.
He served as executive director of Georgia Equality from May 2002 to April 2004 and was serving as chair of the statewide LGBT political group’s board of directors at the time of his death.
. . . .
During Thornell’s tenure as GE’s executive director, he successfully lobbied for domestic partner benefits for Fulton County employees and also led the fight in the state legislature against the 2004 state constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. Though that measure ultimately passed, Thornell is widely credited with helping to bog down the measure in the state House before it was approved on a second vote.
Thornell left his post at Georgia Equality after the 2004 legislative session ended to become regional deputy political director for Service Employees International Union. He remained a dedicated activist on gay issues in the city, including serving on the steering committee for Georgians Against Discrimination, which formed to fight the amendment on the ballot.
My thanks to Thornell for his work in Georgia and thoughts go out to his family and friends for their loss.
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Chris Geidner is the award-winning senior political editor at D.C.'s Metro Weekly and has written for The Atlantic Online, The American Prospect, Advocate.com, Salon and other publications, as well as at his blog, Law Dork. In 2011, he received the Excellence in News Writing Award from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association for his coverage of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" repeal. Prior to moving to D.C. in 2009, he served as an attorney on the senior staff at the Ohio Attorney General's Office and had earlier worked for a leading Columbus law firm. An extended biography can be found