What Is AEN And What Is It Doing Here?

By Bonnie Barton

I often encounter this question as I talk with people about AEN. As a longtime member, volunteer and now president, I would like to share my views on the topic.

AEN is first and foremost a networking organization. But networking can have a variety of meanings. When I first joined AEN in 1992, I saw it as a place I could promote my business. As my relationship with the group evolved, so did my understanding of its special and unique role as a networking organization.

AEN is perhaps the only organization of its kind in the Atlanta LGBT community. It not only provides the opportunity to network with potential clients, alliances and friends but also allows its members to interact with the broader Atlanta and national communities through the diversity of occupations and prominence of its monthly speakers. Where else can one go to see, hear a state governor, symphony conductor, leader of a local and national bank, a radical, feminist lesbian, a publisher of a prominent local magazine, a leading contender for the U.S. presidency and so on and so on?

As I sat listening to these speakers, I began to realize what a unique opportunity AEN, through its large membership, offers our community and what a significant contribution it makes to the understanding and acceptance of our community to the greater community. AEN not only provides me the opportunity to network my business -- it "networks" the LGBT community.

Many people view AEN as an affluent organization, but I have come to learn that this affluence is solely the result of the large and diverse membership and attendance at meetings. When the heads of a worldwide organization such as CNN can sit at the speaker’s table and look out on an audience of 300 members of the LGBT community, then you know what AEN is and what it is doing here.

Join us in networking.