New Orleans search for remas of 4 victims of 1973 gay bar fire that killed 31 - CBS News

Contents:

• FORTY FIVE YEARS AGO A FIRE NEW ORLEANS GAY BAR TOOK 32 LIV – AND WAS MET WH APATHY
• NEW ORLEANS SEARCH FOR REMAS OF 4 VICTIMS OF 1973 GAY BAR FIRE THAT KILLED 31
• SEARCH RENEWED FOR REMAS OF 4 VICTIMS OF 1973 GAY BAR FIRE
• 50 YEARS AGO, THE FIRE AT THE UP STAIRS LOUNGE GAY BAR NEW ORLEANS KILLED 32
• A FIRE KILLED 32 AT A NEW ORLEANS GAY BAR. THIS ARTIST DIDN’T FET.
• BOOK REMEMBERS VASTATG 1973 FIRE AT GAY NEW ORLEANS BAR
• IN 1973, AN ARSON KILLED 32 PEOPLE AT A GAY BAR. FOR YEARS, IT WAS FOTTEN
• ALMOST 50 YEARS LATER, ADLY ATTACK AT NEW ORLEANS GAY BAR REMAS UNSOLVED

FORTY FIVE YEARS AGO A FIRE NEW ORLEANS GAY BAR TOOK 32 LIV – AND WAS MET WH APATHY

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. 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.

NEW ORLEANS SEARCH FOR REMAS OF 4 VICTIMS OF 1973 GAY BAR FIRE THAT KILLED 31

” 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. Nearly a half-century after arson killed 32 people a New Orleans gay bar, the Cy Council has renewed the search for the remas of four victims, cludg three who were never intified.

SEARCH RENEWED FOR REMAS OF 4 VICTIMS OF 1973 GAY BAR FIRE

Nearly a half-century after arson killed 32 people a New Orleans gay bar, the Cy Council has renewed the search Thursday, Aug, 4, 2022, for the remas of four victims, cludg three who were never intified. Rooted pervasive anti-gay sentiment" ma sufferg worse for victims' fai and iends, stat the motn wrten by Councilmember J.

The blaze was the 20th century's largt mass killg of gays, the Cy Council's apology and Thursday's motn noted. LeBlanc was tranged om his fay California — not bee of his homosexualy but bee he hadn't paid money owed to his grandfather, Fieler wrote "Trbox: The Untold Story of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire and the Rise of Gay Liberatn.

50 YEARS AGO, THE FIRE AT THE UP STAIRS LOUNGE GAY BAR NEW ORLEANS KILLED 32

The other replied, g a slur for homosexuals, "Let 'em burn. Sunday marks the 45th anniversary of the UpStairs Lounge arson, a flash fire that killed 32 people the New Orleans gay bar on June 24, 1973.

”But the UpStairs wasn’t jt a space for the New Orleans gay muny to e together and socialize.

A FIRE KILLED 32 AT A NEW ORLEANS GAY BAR. THIS ARTIST DIDN’T FET.

Some of those who were intified went unclaimed by fai who were too ashamed to llect the remas of their gay sons and brothers.

Bettmann via Getty ImagWhat happened the aftermath of the fire mak clear the pervadg homophobia at the time. “It took a good five or six years before I would fally walk to a gay bar, ” he said.

” Click below to see more pictur of the UpStairs Lounge before the earlier versn of this article was published June You GoGay Pri Around The World.

BOOK REMEMBERS VASTATG 1973 FIRE AT GAY NEW ORLEANS BAR

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Nearly a half-century after arson killed 32 people a New Orleans gay bar, the Cy Council has renewed the search for the remas of four victims, cludg three who were never intified. Rooted pervasive anti-gay sentiment” ma sufferg worse for victims’ fai and iends, stat the motn wrten by Councilmember J. ”The blaze was the 20th century’s largt mass killg of gays, the Cy Council’s apology and Thursday’s motn noted.

IN 1973, AN ARSON KILLED 32 PEOPLE AT A GAY BAR. FOR YEARS, IT WAS FOTTEN

LeBlanc was tranged om his fay California — not bee of his homosexualy but bee he hadn’t paid money owed to his grandfather, Fieler wrote “Trbox: The Untold Story of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire and the Rise of Gay Liberatn. The other replied, g a slur for homosexuals, “Let ’em burn.

”___Follow AP news about gay rights at. Up Stairs was a workg-class bar for workg-class gay men and lbians. Wns saw him buy lighter fluid at a nearby allegedly threw the ntaer ont of the stairwell that went to the entrance to the bar and journalist and thor of Trbox: The Untold Story of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire and the Rise of Gay Liberatn Robert Fieler explaed to The Advote, the fire ially was ntaed the stairs until the door to the bar was opened, g somethg like a tidal wave of fire to crash to the lounge.

Thirty-one men and one woman died what was then the largt mass killg of gay people Amerin history. Fe’s rnage-filled imag and ribald tribut to gay life the early 1970s. Fe lls “a fantasia of gay culture” — imag of a cht-barg Burt Reynolds and the swimmer Mark Spz that appeared the origal club are there, as wood cutouts, as are other bawdy pictur om the time.

ALMOST 50 YEARS LATER, ADLY ATTACK AT NEW ORLEANS GAY BAR REMAS UNSOLVED

Sexy ’70s tun play om a speaker Orleans Tim-Piyune, via Associated PrsIn his new book on the tragedy, “Trbox, ” the thor Robert Fieler lls the UpStairs Lounge a secret getaway for “an unrclass of closeted gays who feared fg themselv as a mory group. It was also a kd of gay muny center: a gay Christian group met the back room for prayer, and theatril performers often took to the stage at Mr.

Fieler not, 70 percent of Amerins 1973 thought adult homosexual relatns were “always wrong, ” acrdg to a survey by the Natnal Opn Rearch Center at the Universy of Chigo; and the L. Fieler pots out that “the UpStairs Lounge fire had not been a turng pot for homosexual rights Ameri. NEW ORLEANS – On Sunday June 24, 1973, dozens of patrons had gathered at the Up Stairs Lounge, a gay bar New Orleans when an arsonist set fire to the buildg.

Fieler has e out wh a new book "Trbox: The Untold Story of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire and the Rise of Gay Liberatn, " that tails the fire and s aftermath:WRITING THE BOOKAs a gay man, Fieler said he thought he knew a lot about the gay liberatn movement but then 2013, his journalism profsor — who was om the New Orleans area — told him about the fire: "I was fascated and pelled. "On a personal level, wrg the book was also a way to rennect wh a relative whose ath had been an important turng pot Fieler's life, a gay man who had died of AIDS when Fieler was 13. Attendg his funeral was "life-changg" for Fieler as he went om feelg that he was entirely alone to unrstandg that there were other gay men like LIFE OF A BARFieler scrib the book how the Up Stairs Lounge had a fay-like atmosphere some ways where manager Buddy Rasmsen ran a tight ship: no htlg of patrons, no sloppy dnks and no dg e.