Gilmore “Gil” Robison (1947- ) was born in Macon, Mississippi, to Sue Bess Robison (1912-2017) and John Conrad Robison (1910-1999). The family lived in Scooba, Mississippi, until 1958 when they moved to Atlanta, Georgia. Robison attended Emory University between 1965 and 1966, graduated from San Francisco Art Institute in 1972 with majors in film and photography, and earned a Juris Doctor from Woodrow Wilson College of Law in 1982. He founded the first Atlanta Gay Center in 1976, and later opened a second location. Robison was active in Atlanta politics as a proponent of LGBT rights. He was one of the first openly gay Georgia politicians, serving on the Georgia State Democratic Convention and the Executive Committee of the Fulton County Democratic Party. In 1988, he was the first openly gay person to run for a seat in the Georgia House of Representatives. He won the majority vote on the east side of Fulton County. Robison wrote and was a photographer for several alternative Atlanta publications, including the Great Speckled Bird and theMetropolitan Gazette, where he served as the editor between 1980 and 1982. Robison advocated for HIV/AIDS related issues between 1986 and 1990, securing funds through the Georgia General Assembly to fight the epidemic, and working as the first Atlanta attorney dedicated to related legal matters. In 1996 Robison was ordained as a monk in the Drikung Kapyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism.