“Draggin’” in Milledgeville
Radio Commentary, 90.7, 91.7 New Life FM, September 26, 2014 – By Sue Ella Deadwyler
Good morning. Ninety-nine miles southeast of Atlanta is the town of Milledgeville, which was the state capitol before the capitol moved to Atlanta. Milledgeville was the site of elegant architectural structures, such as the Old Governor’s Mansion that exemplified Greek revival architecture so well that it was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1973. Now it’s operated by Georgia College & State University as an antebellum historic house museum.
Georgia College, created as an industrial college for females, was the women’s version of the then-new Georgia Institute of Technology. In 1922 Georgia College was a two-year teacher’s college, but ten years later offered four-year degrees and became part of the University System of Georgia. During World War II Georgia College was a training center for female volunteers who wanted to serve in the Navy. At that time, they were called WAVES.
There’s much more to the distinguished history of Milledgeville and Georgia College, but recent publicity in the The Baldwin Bulletin reflects drastic cultural changes in the little town that birthed an industrial college for women deep inside the Southern Bible Belt. On page eight of The Baldwin Bulletin of June 5th is an article entitled, “Draggin’ in Downtown Milledgeville.” In years past, “draggin’” meant going round and round the town square in a cool car or hot rod, but photographs in that article showed a different kind of draggin’ in Milledgeville. The caption under the first picture identified four college students as “drag queens, performing an energetic, laugh-out-loud show at Buffington’s in downtown Milledgeville.” The second picture showed a female English major at the microphone describing the day she told her mom she was bisexual.
The drag show was a fund-raiser to help that bisexual English major go to the week-long Camp Pride training session in Nashville, Tennessee, where she would learn leadership and networking skills from prominent lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender activists and meet LGBT students from across the country.
Georgia College’s Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender program coordinator explained that the downtown performance was a continuation of on-campus fundraising efforts for the Camp Pride trip. That coordinator, explaining the time-sensitive value of their efforts, said college “is a pivotal, mind-molding time in a person’s life.” Of course, college is a mind-molding time, but are parents happy that colleges are steering their sons and daughters toward LGBTQQ lifestyles?
“Draggin’ in downtown Milledgeville” is a breath-taking picture of social decline and moral decay. That doesn’t bode well for the country or the Southern Bible Belt. For Georgia Insight I’m Sue Ella Deadwyler, your Capitol correspondent.