WHO WE ARE
OUT Georgia Business Alliance is Georgia’s LGBTQIA+ Chamber of Commerce.
As the business voice of Georgia’s LGBTQIA+ community and our allies, OUT Georgia Business Alliance represents a diverse network including small business, nonprofit, and corporate members who are united in advancing diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, and belonging throughout Georgia’s workplaces and economy.
We serve as a proud connector across the Peach State, with a focus on economic empowerment, certification and contracting, and business development programming.
We activate an ecosystem of LGBTQIA+ and allied Georgians; engage employees and professionals through networking and volunteer service; increase visibility and awareness of underrepresented entrepreneurs, leaders, establishments, and causes; advocate for business and civil rights; align commerce with community; and invest in grassroots agencies through the OUT Georgia Impact Fund.
LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
OUT Georgia Business Alliance uplifts the Muscogee people, (also called the Creek) who lived, worked, produced knowledge on, and nurtured the land where our organizational identity is rooted and Atlanta is now located.
In 1821, the Muscogee were forced to relinquish this land, and we recognize the sustained oppression, land dispossession, and involuntary removals of the Muscogee and Cherokee peoples from Georgia and the Southeast.
We commit to recognizing and celebrating the diversity and intersectionality of two-spirit and other gender-diverse identities expressed by Native & Indigenous businesses, scholars, and leaders within our community and beyond.
OUT Georgia seeks to honor the Muscogee Nation and other Indigenous caretakers of this land by humbly seeking knowledge of their histories and committing to respectful stewardship of the land.
WHAT WE DO
Business Empowerment & Opportunity
Member Success and Belonging is our #1 Priority
- Provide business development programming and resources for growth
- Position your organization as supporting OUT Georgia’s pursuit of diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, and belonging in the workplace and economy
- LGBTBE Certification ($899) + Re-Certification ($499) fees waived
- Connect Members and Certified LGBTBEs to contracting opportunities
- Promote progressive business policies and best practices
- Build chamber experience with radical acceptance, inclusion, and belonging
Community Engagement & Visibility
Fueling the Ecosystem, Amplifying Excellence
- Activate an inclusive ecosystem of LGBTQIA+ and allied Georgians
- Engage employees and professionals through networking and volunteer service
- Prioritize inclusive collaboration and accessible Member-driven support
- Increase visibility and awareness of Member businesses and organizations
- Spotlight Members, amplify excellence, and recognize impact
Advocacy & Policy
Represent our Members, Advance the Movement
- Represent business voice of Membership to elected officials and agencies through advocacy efforts, legislative agendas, and policy priorities
- Strengthen internal and external leadership through active Councils & Coalitions
- Prioritize investment and partnerships in Research, Analysis, and Reporting to articulate quantifiable economic impact, challenges, and outlook
- Advance pro-business, pro-LGBTQIA+, and pro-civil rights policy, influencing workplaces, Georgia’s economy, and the broader LGBTQIA+ movement
Philanthropy & Impact
Honoring our Community, Investing in our Future
- Spotlight the critical role of Georgia’s LGBTQIA-centered nonprofits, grassroots agencies, and community-led efforts
- Encourage business engagement and action to drive social impact
- Provide equitable access to OGBA Membership, Programming, and Events
- Award grants and financial support to professionals and small businesses
- Energize individual, business, and corporate participation in LGBTQIA-centered volunteer and board service, fundraising, and future-focused development
- Invest in leading grassroots nonprofits across the state through the OUT Georgia Impact Fund, powered by United Way of Greater Atlanta
OUR ROOTS
OUT Georgia Business Alliance has a long history and deep connection to the activists, business owners, advocates, employees, organizations, and fellow citizens who demanded fair and equal treatment of LGBTQIA+ people when it was more dangerous than ever to be out as gay, lesbian, or queer, especially in the U.S. South.
Beginning with the late 1970s, LGBTQ+ business owners began organizing professional associations to provide opportunities for networking, promote other LGBTQ+ companies, and to collectively advocate for LGBTQ+ political and economic interests. The developments of these groups revealed the economic strength and growing influence of LGBTQIA+ Atlanta and Georgia in politics starting in the 1980s.
Atlanta Business and Professional Guild
The Atlanta Business and Professional Guild was established in 1978 as a non-profit service corporation by a group of bar owners in Midtown who were concerned over issues with the city’s liquor licensing process for LGBTQ+ drinking establishments. Organized “to promote, protect, nurture, and advance the interests of gay and lesbian professionals and business owners in the Greater Atlanta area,” the Guild published a directory of lesbian and gay-owned and operated businesses and effectively served as the city’s “gay chamber of commerce.”
The organization’s meetings were often held the second Tuesday of each month in member businesses or other public locations in Midtown. Just three years after its founding, the Atlanta Business and Professional Guild had established a credit union and legal defense fund for its nearly 300 members. Early in its existence, The Guild sponsored monthly dinners with guest lecturers, hosted fundraisers and special holiday parties, and assisted with organizing the Atlanta Pride events. Beginning in 1983, it sponsored the Midtown Classic charity road race and later helped finance several non-profit HIV/ AIDS education and healthcare services in the city.
Fourth Tuesday
Fourth Tuesday was founded in 1982 as a lesbian networking and professional organization that held monthly luncheons and special events at LGBTQ+ owned or welcoming locations throughout the city. The group’s name was derived from its first meeting on the fourth Tuesday of October 1982 and for the code word for a place to gather and socialize in a safe space with other lesbians.
Fourth Tuesday published its own newsletter and was the primary sponsor of the Business Expo ’89 in collaboration with the Atlanta Business and Professional Guild. Held at the Holiday Inn in Downtown Atlanta in March 1989, the Expo (later renamed the Atlanta Gay & Lesbian Business Expo) provided a showcase for 50 LGBTQ+ businesses and organizations from metropolitan Atlanta.
By the mid-1990s, Fourth Tuesday’s membership had grown to more than 500 people throughout the metropolitan Atlanta area. Beginning in 1992 the group started the Pat Hoban Memorial Scholarship for lesbian college students and in 1995 established the Fourth Tuesday Lesbian Cancer Project to provide advocacy, educational, and health support services for lesbians living with cancer.
Atlanta Executive Network
The Atlanta Executive Network (AEN) formed in 1991 by a group of lesbian and gay business professionals who sought to establish new networking opportunities in the Atlanta corporate and government sectors. The AEN originally kept the sexual orientation of most of its membership private.
By 1994, AEN counted 600 members, making it the largest business association in the city. That same year, AEN’s leadership went public that it was a majority LGBTQ+ organization and it embarked on a mentoring campaign for younger lesbian and gay businesspeople and combating employment discrimination against LGBTQ+ workers.
OUR HISTORY
Greater Atlanta Business Coalition
1994-2003
In July 1994, Fourth Tuesday teamed with Atlanta Executive Network to create the Greater Atlanta Business Coalition (GABC) to sponsor the 6th Annual Gay & Lesbian Business Expo with the theme “The Buck Starts Here.”
The first meeting was held at the 14th Street Playhouse in November of 1994, with Pat Murphy selected as chairperson of what was considered the first LGBTQ+ Chamber of Commerce recognized in the United States. In 1998, GABC hosted its inaugural Community Awards Dinner to celebrate and showcase the positive contributions of member businesses and organizations.
Atlanta Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce
2003-2019
In 2003, GABC updated its name to the Atlanta Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (AGLCC) and formally joined the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC) as the only local affiliate chapter in Georgia.
AGLCC was recognized as NGLCC’s Affiliate Chamber of the Year in 2007 and 2016, and the organization received Best in Programming honors in 2014 and 2018. The chamber launched the LGBT Business Summit & Expo in 2017, connecting to its Fourth Tuesday lineage and Expo roots that reached back to the 1980s.
OUT Georgia Business Alliance
2019-today
In 2019, AGLCC celebrated its 25th anniversary, hired its first Executive Director, and unveiled its bold rebrand as the OUT Georgia Business Alliance, serving the LGBTQIA+ business community and our allies across Georgia.
In 2021, OGBA created the OUT Georgia Impact Fund, powered by United Way of Greater Atlanta, to invest in LGBTQIA+ centered nonprofits. That same year, the chamber launched TGX360, the economic empowerment initiative for Georgia’s Transgender, Nonbinary, Gender Expansive, and Intersex community.
OUT Georgia celebrates 30 Years in 2024, a milestone moment that wouldn’t be possible without the bold leadership of lesbian women, the sacrifice of our LGBTQIA+ elders, and the commitment of our members, volunteers, and supporters.
