Feb 16, 2007  |  By: DYANA BAGBY  | COMMENTS     

When Atlanta lesbian activist Venus Landin was shot to death by her ex-partner on March 2, 1993, in a murder-suicide, her close friend and fellow gay rights activist Charlene Cothran expressed deep grief for the loss of a vibrant soul.

“Nobody can fill the shoes of Venus Landin,” she said 13 years ago. “She was always trying to bridge the gaps between everybody.”

Cothran, a respected lesbian in the 1990s in Atlanta’s black gay community, wanted to pay tribute to her friend, and in 1995 she founded Venus Magazine with the mission of informing black gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people across the country about issues affecting their lives.

But today Cothran has a new mission with the magazine — to help lead black gays out of what she believes is a sinful life.

“We believe that homosexuality is outside of the will of God. We know that many new and longtime Venus readers have been instilled with a belief system that is in line with this teaching but are still living ‘in the life,’” the new mission statement reads. “These readers will find the new Venus an anointed and refreshing tool for kingdom work.”

THE NEW MISSION of the magazine followed soon after Cothran, who now lives in Trenton, N.J., says she stepped away from being a lesbian last June after speaking with a minister.

“It was never my belief system I was born this way and I always believed it was sinful,” she said of her life as a “card-carrying” proud lesbian.

Raised in the traditional African-American church, Cothran acknowledged she always became angry when preachers used the pulpit to gay bash. But today she remains adamant that homosexuality is a “sin of the flesh.”

Cothran, 49, said she is proud of the 30 years of gay activism she was a part of and still considers herself part of the gay community.

“What I’m not proud of is that my work pushed forward a movement that has no respect for God,” she said.

Rev. Irene Monroe, a lesbian and regular columnist for this publication, at one time wrote spiritual columns for Venus.

“My feeling about her epiphany is that it has more to do with money than conversion,” she said, adding she believes Cothran is receiving financial support from right-wing black churches to keep the magazine afloat.

Cothran denied this, saying she is essentially alone now because most black churches don’t accept her because she was once an out lesbian and gay people feel betrayed.

FAITH TRIMEL, a filmmaker who now lives in Los Angeles, was acquainted with both Cothran and Landin while living in Atlanta. She directed, produced and starred in a movie based on the murder-suicide of Landin titled “Black Aura on an Angel” released in 2004 and now available on DVD.

“She was handling the legacy of Venus. But to keep the name of the magazine as Venus — that’s a slap in the face,” Trimel said.

Cothran said she won’t change the name of the magazine.

“[The magazine is] is known as Venus. From a marketing standpoint, it doesn’t make sense,” she said.

Monroe added Cothran is not the “prodigal daughter” and by renouncing her lesbianism and telling others in the black gay community their lives are sinful, she risks hurting the collective black gay population.