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
• 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.
• UP STAIRS LOUNGE FIRE KILLED 32 GAY PEOPLE 1973 NEW ORLEANS
• ALMOST 50 YEARS LATER, ADLY ATTACK AT NEW ORLEANS GAY BAR REMAS UNSOLVED
• A ‘FOTTEN TRAGEDY’ AT A NEW ORLEANS GAY BAR AND A NEW EFFORT TO HONOR VICTIMS’ REMAS
• IN 1973, AN ARSON KILLED 32 PEOPLE AT A GAY BAR. FOR YEARS, IT WAS FOTTEN

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.

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

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.

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

” 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.

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.

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

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. The other replied, g a slur for homosexuals, "Let 'em burn. 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. Frost (above), cir 1962 or 1963This year marks the 45th anniversary of the UpStairs Lounge arson, an event that was the largt mass murr of gay people U. History for over four s -- until the Pulse June 24, 1973, an arsonist set fire to the popular gay bar loted on the edge of the French Quarter New Orleans.

UP STAIRS LOUNGE FIRE KILLED 32 GAY PEOPLE 1973 NEW ORLEANS

A major source of nam was the New Orleans branch of the Metropolan Communy Church, a recently formed gay-affirmg Christian nomatn wh ngregatns around the untry. Troy Perry, the founr of the Metropolan Communy Church, Larson's mother didn't claim Bill's body for burial bee she was embarrassed that he was publicly intified as a gay man who died a gay bar. Nancy fend her mom, sayg, "I wouldn't say she was open-md and I'm sure my father fely was not, but 's not like I thk they would disown [Larry] or anythg like that [for beg gay]....

In the wake of the adly fire, most people turned their backs on the victims and the gay muny. 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.

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

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. Thirty-one men and one woman died what was then the largt mass killg of gay people Amerin history.

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

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. 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. More than 40 years before 49 people were fatally shot at Pulse nightclub Orlando, Florida, the Up Stairs Lounge arson New Orleans was the largt mass murr of gay people U.

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

On June 24, 1973, the French Quarter gay bar the Up Stairs Lounge was crowd wh dozens of people enjoyg the Sunday beer bt. He said was the largt gay massacre U.

I didn’t know, and that wasn’t part of our gay history. It didn’t spawn a gay rights revolutn.

“It wasn’t long afterward that an difference appeared the gay muny. In January 1973 beg gay was classified as a mental health disorr.