Book chronicl 1973 arson at gay club that barely ma to the papers, or even to the nscns of the muny
Contents:
- FORTY FIVE YEARS AGO A FIRE NEW ORLEANS GAY BAR TOOK 32 LIV – AND WAS MET WH APATHY
- IN 1973, AN ARSON KILLED 32 PEOPLE AT A GAY BAR. FOR YEARS, IT WAS FOTTEN
- SEARCH RENEWED FOR REMAS OF 4 VICTIMS OF 1973 GAY BAR FIRE
FORTY FIVE YEARS AGO A FIRE NEW ORLEANS GAY BAR TOOK 32 LIV – AND WAS MET WH APATHY
* french quarter gay bar fire *
An oasis for the cy’s sizeable but, for the most part, strictly closeted gay male populatn, a lack of visibily was many ways s most valuable 1973 when the club was set ablaze an act of arson that st a staggerg 32 liv, that lack of attentn endured, the news barely makg to the papers or, seemed, even to the nscns of the lol muny. “An ordary reactn New Orleans society would have been effive sympathi and a large outpourg, ” said Robert Fieler, whose new book Trbox: The Untold Story of the UpStairs Lounge Fire and the Rise of Gay Liberatn, chronicl the blaze and s aftermath.
“Homosexualy was not supposed to be talked about openly, and when was thst to the open ma a lot of people panic, ” he told the Guardian an the time, New Orleans was a place of strange dualy for LGBT people. “A gay man uld, 1973, live a very full life that he might not be able to enjoy other plac.
IN 1973, AN ARSON KILLED 32 PEOPLE AT A GAY BAR. FOR YEARS, IT WAS FOTTEN
Forty-five years after the UpStairs Lounge fire, the largt gay mass murr prr to the Pulse shootg, one of the "unclaimed" victims has fally been ID'd. * french quarter gay bar fire *
Acrdg to Fieler, unrver police would regularly nduct stg operatns to tch gay men solicg for sex public spac, and if ught and arrted on a dread “crim agast nature” charge, the ramifitns the wir world were absolute. You’d lose your job, your home, everythg, ” Fieler the time, a rince occupied by two spected gay men (or two “spsters”) uld be clared a hoe of ill-repute and seized wh ltle to no due the relatively safe space of the UpStairs lounge, a quietly well-known place where gay men (Fieler not that durg this era, the lbian scene was polilly and socially isolated om the gay scene) uld openly be themselv. “It almost highlights even more the gree of opprsn that many homosexuals lived this time perd.
SEARCH RENEWED FOR REMAS OF 4 VICTIMS OF 1973 GAY BAR FIRE
” Fieler were reports 2016 that, like Nunez, the Pulse shooter was a sexually nflicted man who may have been engaged gay relatnships prr to his rampage.
On June 24, 1973, a fire ripped through the Up Stairs Lounge — a gay bar the French Quarter of New Orleans. Much of the history was swept om memory due to homophobia. The Tim-Piyune scrib the cy at the time as "extremely homophobic.
" Police would raid gay bars equently and employment discrimatn agast gays was " rigr. " Homosexualy was nsired a psychiatric disorr.