Maria Helena Dolan and Dave Hayward oral history interview, October 22, 2018

Maria Helena Dolan is a primal force in expanding Atlanta Pride from the mid-1970s on. For many years in rallies right before the Pride marches, Maria’s fiery rhetoric galvanized our community to hit the streets to proclaim our human and civil rights. At the 1978 Anita Bryant protest at the Southern Baptist Convention at the World Congress Center, Maria set off pandemonium when she declared “I come to you today as a defiant dyke!”, and her speech was picked up by media worldwide. Of all her acts of civil disobedience, Maria is especially proud of “dying” on the steps of the Supreme Court in October 1987, the day after the second National March on Washington for LGBT Rights. She and the late Ray Kluka and scores of others laid their bodies down to protest the Court upholding USA sodomy statutes in the 1986 Bowers v. Hardwick case, finally reversed in 2003. Maria is a widely published author and columnist who embraces her Italian, Irish and Latina heritage.