Thursday, August 6, 2009
News Memorial for local LGBT rights leader Allen Thornell today
Posted by Patrick Saunders on Thu, Aug 6, 2009 at 12:41 PM
The memorial for local LGBT rights leader Allen Thornell is today at 2:30 p.m. at St. Mark United Methodist Church.
Thornell, 38, passed away Monday morning due to complications from a stroke he'd had the day before. The news was met with shock throughout the Atlanta community, with extensive coverage by Southern Voice and Project Q Atlanta, followed by numerous tributes on Thornell's Facebook page that led to a statement issued by his family Monday night:
We would like to express how incredibly appreciative and touched we are by the outpouring of love that have you have shown Allen. To know he touched so many people’s lives during his brief stay with us is a measure of comfort in the face of this loss. Please know how much he cared for all of you. He was an extraordinary son, brother, partner and friend. We will miss him terribly. This update is on behalf of Allen’s Mother, Cheryl, his siblings Mark, Ann, Sandy, Lisa and, his partner Chad.
Tributes continue to pour in to the page several days after his passing, and a Facebook group called Allen Thornell Is My Hero has attracted hundreds more of those affected by his death.
Coverage of Thornell's death has spread to the AJC, Georgia Public Broadcasting and the Advocate.
In 2004, Thornell wrote an opinion column for Southern Voice about that year's (ultimately successful) amendment to the Georgia constitution to ban same-sex marriage, saying words that continue to inspire the LGBT community five years later, and even more so after his passing:
We cannot wait and expect a court or valiant state legislators to hand us our rights on a silver platter. Court decisions, at their most fundamental level, are based on societal attitudes. If we are ever going to have court victories that the legislature or Congress won't take away, then we have to do the work of changing society.
(Courtesy Project Q Atlanta)
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