LGBTQ+ and feminist rights activist Maria Helena Dolan (1954- ) was born to Helene Nina Esposito Dolan (1935-2010) and Larry Joseph Dolan (1933-1994). In 1978 Dolan was a leader of the approximately 2,000 picketers who protested Anita Bryant, an anti-LGBTQ+ activist, when she spoke at the Southern Baptist Convention at the Georgia World Congress Center. Dolan was also one of the featured speakers at the rally. She served as an Automatic Train Control Foreman and then as a Safety and Quality Assurance Engineer with the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA). Additionally, Dolan was the Southern Regional Organizer for the first and second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights in 1979 and 1987. In 1995 she served as the Atlanta Pride Grand Marshal. Dolan is a supporter of feminist and lesbian arts and helped to found the Mother of the Sisters of No Mercy theater troupe and Mother of Lucina Music. She was also a member of the gardening group Digging Dykes of Decatur. A prolific columnist, she wrote articles for the Atlanta Lesbian Feminist Alliance ALFA newsletter; Gabriel; Gazette; Cruise; Etc.; and Southern Voice. Other organizations Dolan helped establish include Southern Ladies Against Women (SLAW), Georgia Lesbian EcoFeminists for Animal Rights, and Triangle Video. She served as an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Georgia board member and co-chaired the Privacy and AIDS committee. In the 1990s Dolan helped found the Atlanta Gay and Lesbian History Thing, a nonprofit group that worked to preserve LGBTQ+ history in Atlanta; documents collected and generated by the project were donated to the Atlanta History Center.