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

Contents:

• A DEADLY ARSON AT A GAY BAR WAS NEVER OFFICIALLY SOLVED. A NEW PODST EXAM WHY.
• IN 1973, AN ARSON KILLED 32 PEOPLE AT A GAY BAR. FOR YEARS, IT WAS FOTTEN
• 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
• REVISG A DEADLY ARSON ATTACK ON A NEW ORLEANS GAY BAR ON ITS 42ND ANNIVERSARY
• A ‘FOTTEN TRAGEDY’ AT A NEW ORLEANS GAY BAR AND A NEW EFFORT TO HONOR VICTIMS’ REMAS
• A NEW ORLEANS GAY BAR INFERNO KILLED 32. ROY REED WAS FIRST TO REPORT THE TTH.
• FIGHTG DRAG BANS? LISTEN TO BENDELACREME & LSONS FROM A GAY BAR MASSACRE
• BEFORE ORLANDO SHOOTG, AN ANTI-GAY MASSACRE NEW ORLEANS WAS LARGELY FOTTEN
• FOTTEN VICTIMS OF 1973 GAY BAR ARSON ATTACK
• THE UPSTAIRS LOUNGE FIRE: WHEN DOZENS OF GAY PEOPLE WERE KILLED 1973
• COLORADO GAY BAR SHOOTG SPECT FACG MURR, HATE CRIME CHARG

A DEADLY ARSON AT A GAY BAR WAS NEVER OFFICIALLY SOLVED. A NEW PODST EXAM WHY.

Bettmann via Getty ImagThirty-two people died and 15 were jured a vastatg arson fire at the UpStairs Lounge, a gay bar New Orleans’ famed French Quarter, on June 24, 1973. Compoundg the tragedy was the cy’s failure to properly vtigate or even publicly acknowledge the fire once beme known that the victims were gay.

The man spected of startg the fire, Roger Dale Nunez, was himself believed to be gay and a equent visor to the UpStairs Lounge. Inditns of this disregard were seen almost immediately after was unrstood the UpStairs was a gay bar. Whether we attribute that to a behd-the-tim culture of homophobia and bigotry, paired wh shame that may have been ternalized by queer folk which likely kept them quiet and trapped a proverbial closet ― the UpStairs Lounge was not a loud moment queer history, as we’ve e to thk of Stonewall, but no ls pivotal.

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

Chargg anyone for this crime — pecially someone who for all tents and purpos was the clear perpetrator, was scribed as havg ma a threat to burn the bar down that night upon his expulsn, who matched the scriptn of someone who purchased a large n of lighter fluid at a nearby Walgreens mut before the fire was started (the exact same n which was later found at the scene of the crime), and who is alleged to have ma multiple nfsns to iends the aftermath — would have brought more attentn to the fire and to the liv of the gay men who perished . While the alleged arsonist’s motiv and ame of md will forever be unknown, he was still someone who existed wh this muny and wasn’t an outsir attackg this place based solely on the fact that was a gay bar. Several acunts of the UpStairs Lounge have likened to a “gay Cheers, ” a real place that you uld go where everybody knew your name.

They hoed Sunday church servic for the gay-clive MCC when they had no other place to worship, they staged theatril plays and held chary events for the lol children’s hospal, and they had drag shows and sg-a-long nights. And I thk part of the magic of queer spac (gay bars, dance clubs, etc.

A history of attacks on gay nightclubs.

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

A June 24, 1973, arson attack on the Up Stairs Lounge, a gay bar, killed 32. A fire termed to be arson tore through the Up Stairs Lounge, a gay bar the French Quarter, killg 32 people. He wasn’t there at the Up Stairs Lounge on June 24, 1973, when igned lighter fluid a stairwell unleashed hell on New Orleans’ gay muny.

One patron featured Cama’s film said those the bar beme his fay; he no longer felt fortable wh his own bee he was gay.

Lnched 1968, was the world’s first Christian church to offer an clive mistry to the gay, lbian, bisexual and transgenr muny. Three years before the Up Stairs Lounge arson attack, Perry helped plan the first Gay Pri Para Los Angel. On December 31, 2013, an attempted arson attack at a Seattle gay nightclub threatened to burn 750 people alive.

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

Three men threw chunks of ncrete to a gay bar Galvton, Texas, March 2009. A man opened fire a Roanoke, Virgia, gay bar September 2000, killg one and jurg six.

REVISG A DEADLY ARSON ATTACK ON A NEW ORLEANS GAY BAR ON ITS 42ND ANNIVERSARY

Eric Rudolph, the famo Olympic Park bomber, was behd a Febary 1997 bombg of a gay and lbian nightclub Atlanta.

And the woman he married soon after the attack later told the fire marshal their relatnship had never been nsummated and that he’d admted he was gay. 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.

A ‘FOTTEN TRAGEDY’ AT A NEW ORLEANS GAY BAR AND A NEW EFFORT TO HONOR VICTIMS’ REMAS

" Police would raid gay bars equently and employment discrimatn agast gays was " rigr. " Homosexualy was nsired a psychiatric disorr. " The man spected of startg the fire, Roger Nunez, was gay himself and had been kicked out of the bar earlier.

A NEW ORLEANS GAY BAR INFERNO KILLED 32. ROY REED WAS FIRST TO REPORT THE TTH.

The Tim-Piyune said the fire was "a turng pot for the cy's gay muny.

"By early fall, there was creasg evince that the tragedy had roed a dre of gay New Orleanians ways unthkable jt a season before, " thor Robert Fieler wr Trbox: The Untold Story of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire and the Rise of Gay Liberatn.

About was six months after the adly fire, December 1973, the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn clared homosexualy was not a mental disorr.

FIGHTG DRAG BANS? LISTEN TO BENDELACREME & LSONS FROM A GAY BAR MASSACRE

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. 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.

BEFORE ORLANDO SHOOTG, AN ANTI-GAY MASSACRE NEW ORLEANS WAS LARGELY 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.

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.

FOTTEN VICTIMS OF 1973 GAY BAR ARSON ATTACK

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.

Sillen Glenn, who moved to New York om Florida 2015, said the fire had ma them thk of the mass shootg at Pulse, a gay nightclub Orlando, Fla., where a gunman wh an asslt rifle and a pistol killed 50 people and wound 53 more 2016. Photograph: Marie Le Ble/Zuma Wire/Rex/ShutterstockThis week, New York Cy’s mayor, Eric Adams, posned the cy as a welg place for queer people ntrast to plac like Florida, where Governor Ron DeSantis jt signed a “don’t say gay” law. New York Cy’s most well-known cint is the police raid at Stonewall Inn that sparked the 1969 Stonewall Uprisg – and helped lnch the morn gay rights movement.

THE UPSTAIRS LOUNGE FIRE: WHEN DOZENS OF GAY PEOPLE WERE KILLED 1973

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. 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. NEW ORLEANS – For nearly a half-century, the remas of gay World War II veteran Ferris LeBlanc have been hidn away an overgrown potter’s field on the far east si of New Orleans.

COLORADO GAY BAR SHOOTG SPECT FACG MURR, HATE CRIME CHARG

Fifteen people, mostly men, were also jured at the popular New Orleans gay bar, which served as one of the cy’s ma LGBTQ safe spac at the time.