Contributing blogger Darian Aaron is an Alabama native who now calls Atlanta home. He’s the creator of Living Out Loud with Darian, a blog that offers his take on social, political and religious issues that impact the LGBT community. Atlanta resident Tyler Perry's latest film “Madea Goes to Jail” may have topped the box office with more than $40 million in ticket sales over its opening weekend, but that's not the only thing that has Hollywood talking. More after the jump.

Contributing blogger Monica Helms has been an activist for the transgender community since 1998 and has lived in Atlanta since 2000. She is a co-founder and president of the Transgender American Veterans Association and blogs at Trans Universe. For the first time in the history of the Transgender American Veterans Association, a mainstream print media outlet presented the stories of transgender veterans and the problems they face. Journalist Carol Ann Alaimo conducted more than three weeks of interviews, research and education to create a two-part, 3,500-word article on our veterans. More after the jump.

Contributing blogger Darian Aaron is an Alabama native who now calls Atlanta home. He’s the creator of Living Out Loud with Darian, a blog that offers his take on social, political and religious issues that impact the LGBT community. A new op-ed appearing in Morehouse College's the Maroon Tiger newspaper by student writer Gerren Gaynor is sure to fan the flames of homophobia once again on a campus that has had it's share of anti-gay attacks and bullying. "Is Gay The Way?" is the title of the piece and Gaynor poses a series of questions to the reader in an effort to determine which is more important--protecting the Morehouse image or embracing the "others," which is in this case the Morehouse "homosexual population." More after the jump.

Contributing blogger Darian Aaron is an Alabama native who now calls Atlanta home. He’s the creator of Living Out Loud with Darian, a blog that offers his take on social, political and religious issues that impact the LGBT community. A new op-ed appearing in Morehouse College's the Maroon Tiger newspaper by student writer Gerren Gaynor is sure to fan the flames of homophobia once again on a campus that has had it's share of anti-gay attacks and bullying. More after the jump.

Contributing blogger Monica Helms has been an activist for the transgender community since 1998 and has lived in Atlanta since 2000. She is a co-founder and president of the Transgender American Veterans Association and blogs at Trans Universe. This is one tranny who doesn’t find the word “tranny” offensive. I know that discussing this will make a lot of my trans friends angry. But it seems that the recurring label issue is brewing yet again. I have been reading in various places where people act incensed at the mere mention of the word “tranny.” More after the jump.

It’s not so much that Rick Warren is coming to Atlanta next month that bothers me. It’s that he’s trampling all over the annual services celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr. and doing so with the blessings of those entrusted with protecting King’s legacy. A new chapter in Warren-gate is being written, this one with a setting in the South. Long before President-elect Barack Obama invited Warren, the evangelical mega pastor from California, to deliver the invocation at his swearing-in, organizers of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Annual Commemorative Service asked Warren to headline their event at Ebenezer Baptist Church where King once preached. News of the Atlanta invite hadn’t surfaced until Warren-gate became a national story and now gay activists here are plotting their next steps. There's more after the jump.

The Army is whining again. This time, they want 30,000 more troops to "meet current demand and get the dwell time." But it's hard to feel sorry for the Army -- or any military branch -- when it complains of being short-handed as they continue to dump gay and lesbian soldiers under the military's ban on openly gay members. It's the same reaction I have to pleas from the American Red Cross that they need blood donations, yet they -- with the FDA's blessing -- continue to reject donations from gay men on outdated beliefs that we'll bring contamination, disease and trouble to the nation's blood supply. There's more after the jump.