The UpStairs Lounge Fire Killed 32 People. Its Legacy Still Hnts Black Gay New Orleans

Contents:

• SUBS LOOKG FOR DOMS (GAY MEN ONLY)
• THE UPSTAIRS LOUNGE FIRE KILLED 32 PEOPLE. ITS LEGACY STILL HNTS BLACK GAY NEW ORLEANS
• ‘WE KEPT GETTG PEOPLE SAYG: EXCE ME, YOU DON’T LOOK GAY’ – HOW BLACK PEOPLE FOUGHT FOR A SPACE AT PRI
• 5 BT GAY BLACK DATG S & APPS TO FD THE LOVE OF YOUR LIFE
• NEW ORLEANS GAY BARS
• GAY BLACK MEN RARELY SAW THEMSELV ON SCREEN. MICHAEL K. WILLIAMS CHANGED THAT.

SUBS LOOKG FOR DOMS (GAY MEN ONLY)

BLACK, GAY, stuck at home is our effort to both gather folks together but to also center Black queer film, allowg for folks to engage wh one another and build muny but to also engage wh faiar and perhaps new work centerg Black queer experienc. Behd the triumphalist narrative monly posed—that of the long but evable march to eedom for gay whe mal—is a history of lost atroci and uneven advancement, pecially for more margalized groups plac like the “Queer Capal of the South, ” a.

There was a time New Orleans when homosexualy was illegal, and “gay” was a dirty word, but somehow beg black and gay ma you negligible to other gays, other black rints and the cy at large.

THE UPSTAIRS LOUNGE FIRE KILLED 32 PEOPLE. ITS LEGACY STILL HNTS BLACK GAY NEW ORLEANS

Such termology had been appropriated om natnal gay culture—appearg throughout queer lerature such as Andrew Holleran’s Dancer om the Dance and Larry Kramer's Faggots—but given new ntext the racial dynamics of the Creole example, two black longshoremen who crossed racial l to equent the UpStairs Lounge, which served mostly workg-class whe patrons on the borr of the French Quarter, went by the nicknam Smokie and Coa as reference to their sk Rasmsen, the whe bartenr and manager of the UpStairs Lounge, was known to be pecially iendly to all ers, even lettg women to the bar at a time when gays and lbians were strictly crew of the UpStairs Lounge had an anthem they liked to sg at the piano that summed up their unique outlook: “Uned we stand, divid we fall. The UpStairs Lounge culture had proven so attractive to open-md gays, such a queer change of pace for New Orleans, that received special mentn Bob Damron’s Addrs Book, an annual travel gui for the discreet gay keepg wh Damron , to protect gay travelers om crimal exposure, the UpStairs Lounge received “(*)” stat to signify “Very Popular.

‘WE KEPT GETTG PEOPLE SAYG: EXCE ME, YOU DON’T LOOK GAY’ – HOW BLACK PEOPLE FOUGHT FOR A SPACE AT PRI

Black gays, by ntrast, mostly equented the few black gay bars town like Charlie’s Corner or the Safari Lounge, a send-floor saloon on the rner of Iberville Street and Royal Street.

When the Tim-Piyune, the lol newspaper of rerd, accurately reported an armed robbery at the Safari that May, Ltleton ma sure to rrect the rerd, statg “no robbery occurred there… as reported by police and published Saturday’s edn, ” to protect the bar’s new of Ltleton’s gay patrons were closeted to their fai. “If you lled a taxi service, a Uned Cab, for a black ctomer, they would jt drive off, ” relled David Williams, a whe gay New Orleanian who bartend French Quarter tablishments throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

5 BT GAY BLACK DATG S & APPS TO FD THE LOVE OF YOUR LIFE

”It’s important to note, wh this racial i, that “Rnchy” uld be reference to the equent se of biracial datg at a time when black gays who sought whe partners were sgled out as “snow queens, ” and whe gays who sought black partners beme known as New Orleans “dge queens. ”Most of the UpStairs Lounge crowd, whe wage-earners who lived paycheck to paycheck, uldn’t afford to challenge anti-gay attus or racial stereotyp pervadg the cy for fear of exposg their sexuali the Safari crowd, further opprsed by Southern racial s, would face swifter nsequenc if they did speak up, and so they did not. Though highly accsible, homosexualy remaed easily punishable by state anti-sodomy laws and lol harassment ordanc, which uld rult not jt arrt but also expulsn om social clubs and church or the loss of one’s job when an arrt for a sex crime beme publicized the ’s more, black gays of the era ntued to be isolated two-fold by the whe gay muny and the black church muny.

NEW ORLEANS GAY BARS

And we’re not gog to do anythg that will e some kd of disptn or brg shame to the fay, pecially a father”“Wh the black muny, there was no acceptance of gay rights bee of the black church, ” relled Larry Bagneris, a black gay New Orleanian, an terview for my book, Trbox: The Untold Story of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire and the Rise of Gay Liberatn. Perhaps that’s why black gay men of the middle or upper class, men wh fortun to lose, often avoid the bar scene entirely through membership clanste social clubs, which held meetgs private hom. ” A few light-skned black gays, for example, uld be permted to “pass” the daytime a tony whe settg like Café Lafte Exile on Bourbon Street so long as they didn’t clare their example, a lifelong New Orleanian named John Wilson, who was often referred to as light-skned black or “passé blanc” (a New Orleans exprsn applied to French Creol of lor that translat to “passg whe”), uld pull up his pk Cadillac outsi Café Lafte Exile and enter the tablishment whout hassle.

”It should be noted that suatns where a man like Hickerson would be rd, a man like John Wilson wouldn’t, jt as when a man like Wilson attempted to drk at a black gay bar like the Annex on Burgundy Street, he would receive different treatment. “It wasn’t a perfect kumbaya, ” noted Frank Perez, lol gay historian and -thor of In Exile: The History and Lore Surroundg New Orleans Gay Culture and Its Olst Gay Bar. ” Enunterg such a pair as Reggie and Rega, bridgg race and genr a munal bar settg, was an had succeed squelchg most attempts at gay activism New Orleans, which spread to Louisiana after the 1969 Stonewall rts.

GAY BLACK MEN RARELY SAW THEMSELV ON SCREEN. MICHAEL K. WILLIAMS CHANGED THAT.

But certaly, the gay Mardi Gras krew stood as a bright light of ntrast to the atmosphere of foundg of gay krew such as Yuga (1958), Petroni (1961), Amon-Ra (1965) and Armei (1968) actually predated Stonewall. “Few New Orleanians were willg to acknowledge the cy’s large gay subculture the wake the fire”So when fire explod through the wdows of the UpStairs Lounge on June 24, 1973 what looked like an apparent act of arson, the straight and gay populatn of New Orleans reacted wh both nfn and image the street gossip: the adlit fire on rerd New Orleans history had stck a gay bar equented by men of both rac.

The worker was helpg remove the charred bodi when he apparently uldn't face any But few straight New Orleanians were willg to acknowledge the cy’s large gay subculture the wake the disaster.