If Midtown is the epicenter of gay Atlanta, then Piedmont Park is its heart. The greenspace plays host to Pride and other LGBT events, drag queens playing softball, kiss-ins and cruising. It’s that last one that Atlanta police tend to frown upon – at least late at night.
The park closes at 11 p.m. Hustling through there after midnight might not provide the happy ending you're seeking. To wit, the Blotter Diva from Creative Loafing:
Officers stopped and attempted to ticket a man they spotted casually strolling through Piedmont Park — at around 2 a.m. (FYI, night owls, Piedmont Park is officially closed from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m.) The man, a 24-year-old from Stone Mountain, became belligerent and yelled that police "were assaulting him and sexually violating him by stopping him in the park," an officer wrote. "He said he didn't like the city ordinance about being in the park after hours." The man made clear he was determined to continue his late-night meanderings, so the officers took him to jail.It’s within the realm of possibilities that police were having their sexual ways with him – just ask members of the now-defunct Red Dog Unit. But the park after dark is just as risky as it is cruisy.
