Philip Rafshoon has founded, owned, and operated Outwrite, Atlanta's LGBT Bookstore & Coffeehouse since 1993. Born in New York, Philip has lived in Atlanta since age six, graduating from Georgia Tech with a BS in Industrial Management. After graduating, he worked in the computer industry for ten years. In 1993, he dramatically changed careers, and opened what became the physical center of Atlanta's LGBT community, and one of the largest independent bookstores in the Southeastern United States.

More than a bookstore or a coffeehouse, Outwrite serves as a welcoming space for Atlanta residents and travelers and is an unofficial community center; educating and entertaining customers while helping people come out and grow. Outwrite also provides a unique venue for an extraordinarily diverse array of public literary events, ranging in a recent single week from actress Roseanne Barr reading from her raucous Roseannearchy, to literary scholar Madhavi Menon presenting her academic collection Shakesqueer.  Equally important, Outwrite provides a place for local writers and artists to gather and connect with interested audiences.

Philip is involved in a broad range of community and political organizations and has served on the advisory committee of the American Booksellers Association. He currently sits on the LGBT Advisory Board for the Atlanta Police Department, and has received numerous awards over the years, including the HRC Humanitarian Award and two Atlanta Phoenix awards. Philip served as a corporate co-chair of the 2004 AIDS Walk Atlanta, and received the Community Service Award from Aid Atlanta in the same year. This year, he was awarded the Ivan Allen Alumni Legacy Award from Georgia Tech College of Liberal Arts.