At first glance, Morna Gerrard doesn’t seem like an undercover superhero. Spend time chatting with her about her work, however, and her superpowers gradually emerge. 

Growing up in the Bronx in the 1980s, Will Ramirez saw his mother, Alicia -- a devout Catholic and church volunteer -- show love and compassion to men who often were afflicted with a mysterious, deadly virus sweeping through New York City’s gay community.

For decades, the Rev. Duncan Teague has been one of Atlanta’s most charismatic, high-profile public-health warriors, a fierce advocate for the city’s Black and gay communities.

At the beginning of this year, law enforcement in Atlanta fired 57 bullets, taking Miguel “Tortuguita” Teran from Indigenous queer environmental activist to unwilling martyr. On January 18, 2023, 26-year-old Tortuguita was shot and killed by Georgia state troopers in Atlanta during a protest against a proposed police training facility called “Cop City.”

When a detainee at the Fulton County, Ga., jail in Atlanta was found dead in a filthy, vermin-infested cell in September, 2022, the federal Department of Justice announced an investigation into the death -- and into allegations of a pattern of mistreatment and danger at the Rice Street facility in downtown Atlanta.

Jason Hudgins began attending Westview Community Organization meetings well before he moved into the community.

He was house hunting and felt the best way to get an idea of what the community offered was to attend meetings and see firsthand.

“This is how it all started for me,” he told The Reckoning. “There was an older lady, Miss Hattie, who served as the organization chaplain. She stood up in one meeting and mentioned that someone who had recently left the community was supposed to paint her house.”

As Miss Hattie said, “he promised to paint my house,” it took no time for Hudgins to volunteer.