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

Contents:

• BEFORE ORLANDO SHOOTG, AN ANTI-GAY MASSACRE NEW ORLEANS WAS LARGELY FOTTEN
• NEW ORLEANS SEARCH FOR REMAS OF 4 VICTIMS OF 1973 GAY BAR FIRE THAT KILLED 31
• IN 1973, AN ARSON KILLED 32 PEOPLE AT A GAY BAR. FOR YEARS, IT WAS FOTTEN
• A ‘FOTTEN TRAGEDY’ AT A NEW ORLEANS GAY BAR AND A NEW EFFORT TO HONOR VICTIMS’ REMAS
• FORTY FIVE YEARS AGO A FIRE NEW ORLEANS GAY BAR TOOK 32 LIV – AND WAS MET WH APATHY

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

Arnold/Associated PrsJune 14, 2016The terrorist attack that killed 49 and wound 53 Orlando, Fla., was the largt mass killg of gay people Amerin history, but before Sunday that grim distctn was held by a largely fotten arson at a New Orleans bar 1973 that killed 32 people at a time of pernic anti-gay stigma. “His mother refed to llect his ash bee she was too embarrassed that she had a gay son, ” Mr.

People have a place at the table now that they did not have then, ” said Clayton Delery-Edwards, who wrote a book about the arson that was published fire was an open wound for the gay muny New Orleans for years. Survivors had to ny any nnectn to the fire, cludg the loss of loved on, bee they uld lose their jobs or apartments if boss and landlords spected they were gay. 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.

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

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. 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.

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

" 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.

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.

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

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. 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.

Until the Pulse nightclub shootg 2016, the UpStairs Lounge fire was the adlit known attack at a gay club U. “The entire intifitn [of the remas] was summarily dismissed by cy ernment bee they simply did not want to go through the effort of notifyg his fay and also bee they simply didn’t re about another ad gay man, ” Morrell said. “We are a cy that is seen as one of the most welg ci to the LGBTQIA+ muny, but we were also a cy that was horrifilly homophobic, ” he add.

The popular French Quarter gay bar was one of the cy’s ma LGBTQ safe spac at the time. LeBlanc was a 50-year-old gay man who was loved and accepted by his fay.

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

Robert Fieler, journalist and thor of “Trbox: The Untold Story of the UpStairs Lounge Fire and the Rise of Gay Liberatn, ” chronicled the tragic event not jt his book but to the cy uncil and “anyone who would listen. His book tails the aftermath of the fire, which was no ls trmatic – fai ashamed to claim loved on, the church this eply Catholic cy refg proper burial rights, and a botched vtigatn all reflected a world of toxic prejudice and rampant homophobia that thrived after the fire. In New Orleans, lol verage has been scribed as sensive, llo, and homophobic wh ltle foc on the vtigatn.

He tracked down survivors of the fire and relativ and iends of those killed to pile an acunt of a fotten moment gay history his book, “Let the Faggots Burn: The UpStairs Lounge 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.