Danielle Bonanno continues to carve out a space for LGBTQ+ acceptance and recovery

Navya Shukla

Multimedia (photo, story)

Minutes before her weekly board meeting for the Athens Pride and Queer Collective at Hotel Indigo on Wednesday, April 20, 2023, APQC President Danielle Bonanno is confident and ready to get down to business. (Photo/Navya Shukla)

Danielle Bonanno steps out of her car enveloped in a whirlwind of color, from the pink glasses perched on her head and the inky blue tattoos curling around her arms to the sign she sets down in front of her support group’s meeting space, “LGBTQIA+ In Recovery,” splayed across in compact colorful letters. 

After all, bringing a rainbow wherever she goes is only fitting for one the most influential leaders for the queer community in Athens, Georgia.

Since moving to Athens five years ago, Bonanno has immersed herself in advocating for LGBTQ+ rights and inclusion. She is determined to prevent others from undergoing the same trauma she experienced as a transgender woman in long-term recovery. 

Bonanno is the director of the Athens Pride & Queer Collective (APQC), a group  dedicated to securing the equity and wellness of Athens’ queer population. She is also the founder of Inclusive Recovery Athens (IRA), which works to provide specialized care to queer individuals recovering from addiction.

IRA’s unique mission to bridge the gap between the queer and addiction communities was born from Bonanno’s own battle with addiction. Through her long and uncomfortable experience with recovery homes, Bonanno said she realized the importance of having a space to heal where she felt both safe and wanted. With over 21.8% of sexual minority adults struggling with addiction, compared to 11% in the overall population as of 2020, she saw a real need in the community needing to be addressed.

“We did a community needs assessment last year and 42.9% of people that responded said that they wanted to seek help for their substance use challenges, but they didn’t know where to go, or they knew where to go, but they didn’t feel safe,” Bonanno said. “And that’s a huge number.”

Now, weekly support groups for queer individuals in recovery is only one of the services Bonanno provides through IRA, where she also uses knowledge from her own extensive certifications to develop programs and give trainings on how to provide support specifically to the LGBTQ+ community.

Danielle Bonanno sets down a colorful sign in front of Inclusive Recovery Athens’ temporary meeting space on Sunday, April 17, 2023, for its weekly support group for recovering queer addicts. The sign acts as a guide for new members of the group and marks the beginning of the meeting. (Photo/Navya Shukla)

“She’s just an extremely admirable person,” said Emma Taylor, a regular member of the IRA support group, who has known and worked with Bonanno for almost a year. “Whenever she says things, I always listen, because she’s always got just a lot of wisdom.”

However, not everyone is as willing to hear what Bonanno has to say. As director of the APQC, whose numerous rallies and events are largely responsible for LGBTQ+ visibility in Athens , Bonanno’s daily routine consists of facing recurring groups of angry protestors and dissenters. 

Surprisingly though, she does not believe handling them is the hardest part of the job.

“A lot of times, everything else going on is so loud, like, they’re just kind of background noise,” Bonanno said.

Bonanno said in reality, the biggest challenge she often faces is not having answers for her community. She said her work as director is a “mix between administrative work and being out in the community,” and as a result, she is often at the receiving end of fears and concerns about the ever-changing laws governing LGBTQ+ rights. 

Bonanno’s most recent struggle has been with the community’s reaction to the passing of Senate Bill 140, which has barred transgender minors from receiving gender-affirming care. 

“I’ve had to have a lot of really uncomfortable conversations with parents, and it’s heartbreaking to be able to not know what to tell people, you know,” Bonanno said.

Danielle Bonanno interacts with the other members of the Athens Pride and Queer Collective at Hotel Indigo in downtown Athens on Wednesday, April 20, 2023 . (Photo/Navya Shukla)

Nevertheless, Bonanno continues to work towards her goal of advocating and providing support for the LGBTQ+ community. She is glad to have been able to carve out her role in Athens as both a leader and a helper.

“Today, I am able to show up for other people, I’m able to show up for myself, and I’m able to be a valued part of my community,” Bonanno said.

Why I Wrote the Story:

The reason why I initially wanted to do this story is because it had a very unique angle: while initiatives for supporting the LGBTQ+ community have been on the rise, I’ve rarely come across an organization specifically dedicated to queer recovery, which I think is very newsworthy. The main skill I gained from this story is how to try and make your interviewee feel more comfortable so that they can talk about themselves more freely, which is very important for a profile story.

Mayor Kelly Girtz believes Georgia Square Mall redevelopment will improve Athens housing crisis

Navya Shukla

Multimedia (photo, story)

Athens Mayor Kelly Girtz speaks to University of Georgia journalism writing students about the Georgia Square Mall redevelopment project at a news conference in the Instructional Plaza on Feb. 26, 2023. (Photo/Navya Shukla)

Athens Mayor Kelly Girtz discussed how the new proposed Georgia Square Mall redevelopment project plans to address Athens’ current housing crisis at a news conference on Feb. 26 in the Instructional Plaza South Auditorium at the University of Georgia.

The proposal’s primary aim is to transform the currently deteriorating Georgia Square Mall on Atlanta Highway into an amenity-rich, mixed-use development, which Girtz believes will “magnetize the west side of Athens” and attract more development to the area.

With the Athens-Clarke County Point-in-Time (PIT) Count reporting at least 283 individuals experiencing homelessness in early 2022, housing availability remains a pressing issue in Athens, which is why a cornerstone of this redevelopment will be the addition of approximately 1,200 homes. 

Girtz said these homes will lessen the current stress on housing by increasing supply and stabilizing housing prices. With the PIT count revealing a 112% increase in total homeless individuals from 2021 to 2022, this will be an important step towards increasing housing availability.

Girtz said 10% of the 1,200 homes in the project are also intended to be permanently affordable at 80% of area median income, which is currently $49,503. However, as much as 29.9% of ACC’s population is still sitting below the poverty level, making it unclear how much this initiative will affect more affordable housing in Athens.

Girtz acknowledged the Georgia Square Mall redevelopment project cannot act as the only solution to the city’s current housing crisis.

“No one project is going to get you everything you need in any regard: around housing, around youth development needs, around environmental needs,” Girtz said. “And so we’re having to work overtime as a local government and take this seriously that we’re going to be bringing many, many, many housing opportunities to the table.”

The redevelopment project was also discussed from other aspects, including its effect on current and future employment in the mall, how it would attract and rebuild a community on the west side of Athens, and its environmental sustainability.

After facing multiple delays, the final vote on the Georgia Square Mall redevelopment proposal will take place on March 7.

Why I Wrote the Story:

This story was extremely newsworthy for Athens residents, as the housing crisis is getting worse and urgently needs solutions, one of which may be the Georgia Mall redevelopment project. The main skill I learnt from this story was how to take large amounts of information, such as the variety of topics discussed during this news conference, and filter through them to find a strong, relevant news angle, such as the focus of my story on the Athens housing crisis.