The Atlanta Constitution September 2, 1993 copied with permission from the Journal/Constitution By Shelley Emling STAFF WRITER Decatur Mayor Mike Mears says his town is the land of openness and inclusion, and he's urging all Cobb County residents who feel oppressed to "come on down." "We in Decatur officially recognize same-sex families, single-parent families, everyone," Mayor Mears said. "We in Decatur take a 180- degree opposite view of that in Cobb." The seat of DeKalb County, occasionally referred to as the "Free State of Decatur," is home to 17,000 people, including a number of homosexual groups, including the Digging Dykes of Decatur and the Lesbian Avengers. Recently, a DeKalb Christian Coalition organizational meeting drew more protesters than coalition members. "As a gay person, I've never had a negative prejudice experience in Decatur," said Chester Old, a sculptor who renovated a home in Decatur. Compared to Cobb County, where commissioners passed an anti-homosexual resolution after a complaint about a production at Marietta's Theatre in the Square, Decatur is a paragon of progressiveness, resident say. For example: A group of DeKalb County residents is trying to raise money to lure Theatre in the Square to the Decatur Square; and theater officials said they would consider the move, after the current season ends next year. The Decatur city manager this month plans to propose benefits for the domestic partners of employees, which Atlanta recently approved. DeKalb and the city of Atlanta have the only ordinances in the state forbidding discrimination against homosexuals in public employment. DeKalb police administrators added to the curriculum of police cadets in 1992 a segment on homophobia and other legal problems of the gay community. Gay activists say homosexuals locate in Decatur because they feel comfortable there and because of the leadership of Mayor Mears, who is a lawyer for the indigent and who was state co-chair of Jesse Jackson's 1988 presidential bid. But not everyone welcomes gays with open arms. "If the domestic partnership issue comes up, we'll come out against it because we don't want our tax money going for that sort of thing," said Doug Marshall, head of the DeKalb Christian Coalition. He also opposes government funding of the arts, claiming that the government ends up either censoring "or giving money to everybody and funding junk." DeKalb earmarked $450,000 for the arts this year, and Decatur's splashy Decatur Arts Festival and Neighborhood Playhouse productions are popular. This makes Decatur an enticing place to be, says Michael Horne, co-founder and production artistic director of Marietta's Theatre in the Square, especially in the wake of the Cobb Commission's decision to yank arts funding after this year. But a move won't even be considered until the end of the theater's 1993-94 season in July. "The arts is a difficult field in the best of times, but in an inhospitable atmosphere, it's almost impossible," he said. "We're giving serious thought as to if [Marietta] is the best place for us to be. "I think the mentality in DeKalb is much more open and more hospitable to diversity," he said. Alberto Herald Garcia, a candidate in the DeKalb County Commission race last year, is leading an effort to lure the theater to a vacant county-owned building on Ponce de Leon Avenue in Decatur that used to house a county library. Says resident Don Printz: "You've got a cluster of small restaurants right there, and MARTA, and a nearby parking deck that handles 600 cars, so this could serve as the nucleus we've needed in that square for so long." Mr. Horne said he could easily be coerced. "The image of Cobb County has been tarnished and that affects us," he said. "Morale is what keeps us going, and that's what's been kicked."