Louisiana gay rights group plans to challenge state's same-sex marriage ban | Equal marriage | The Guardian

Contents:

• LOUISIANA GAY RIGHTS NEWSWIRE
• LOUISIANA’S ‘DON’T SAY GAY’ BILL PASS, ADVANC TO SENATE
• LOUISIANA GAY RIGHTS GROUP PLANS TO CHALLENGE STATE'S SAME-SEX MARRIAGE BAN
• LOUISIANA'S 'DON'T SAY GAY' BILL PASS, ADVANC TO SENATE
• LOUISIANA JUDGE ENDS STREAK OF GAY RIGHTS VICTORI WH MARRIAGE LG

LOUISIANA GAY RIGHTS NEWSWIRE

HistoryHomosexual activy Louisiana? Homosexual activy Louisiana is legal. Current statSce Sep 20, 2011Legal Don't Ask, Don't Tell is officially repealed throughout the Uned Stat, and gays and lbians may openly donatns by MSMs Louisiana?

Gay rights prottors march through a French Quarter street to prott sger Ana Bryant performg New Orleans on June 18, 1977.

LOUISIANA’S ‘DON’T SAY GAY’ BILL PASS, ADVANC TO SENATE

Rints who would now intify as “queer” have existed Louisiana sce before s foundg, but the polil movement for lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, and queer (LGBTQ) rights emerged slowly throughout the late twentieth century, as pared to other Amerin stat wh sizable queer populatns.

Into the 1970s “gay polics” was often nsired a dangero phrase Louisiana society, where same-sex acts had been illegal sce 1805.

LOUISIANA GAY RIGHTS GROUP PLANS TO CHALLENGE STATE'S SAME-SEX MARRIAGE BAN

Natnal movements such as Gay Liberatn experienced early rejectn to the 1960s, but a grassroots polil awakeng did occur 1977, when anti-homosexual spokperson and sger Ana Bryant vised New Orleans and spired a massive gay prott. The 1980 foundg of the Louisiana Lbian and Gay Polil Actn Cc, popularly known as LAGPAC, gave the state s first staable gay polil group.

In 1991 LAGPAC led a aln that secured the passage of a nondiscrimatn ordance protectg homosexuals New Orleans. Statewi efforts, however, would be largely stymied wh the exceptn of a hate-crim law protectg gays and lbians, which passed 1997. Prr to World War II, “homosexualy, ” as flourished wh the state’s cultural herage, lacked a fg amework or even an agreed-upon language.

LOUISIANA'S 'DON'T SAY GAY' BILL PASS, ADVANC TO SENATE

It wasn’t until World War II, when draft boards intified homosexualy as a disqualifyg “4-F” characteristic, that the medil term “homosexual” entered mon age. Likewise, Louisianans rejected the words “gay” and “lbian” to the 1970s, as their e of eher was nsired an act of advocy for then-crimal behavr. As secrecy erned same-sex behavr for several centuri, Louisiana’s earlit gay history mostly exists the form of crimal rerds for flagrant offens.

One of the first rerd stanc of homosexualy Louisiana dat to 1724. Heterosexual cizens who attacked or robbed sex “viat” (a mon midcentury term ed by police and public officials to scribe homosexuals) were rarely charged or nvicted, as such victims were nsired to be outsi the law’s protectn.

LOUISIANA JUDGE ENDS STREAK OF GAY RIGHTS VICTORI WH MARRIAGE LG

For example, 1958 a Mexin tour gui named Fernando Rs was lured om a Bourbon Street gay bar and then ambhed and beaten to ath. Lol harassment ordanc to “drive out the viat” expand amid the anti-munist hysteria followg World War II, unterg a postwar populatn boom that occurred when a generatn of gay men who’d served foreign nflicts moved to ci like New Orleans. The ordanc mandated the firg of “immoral workers, ” the arrt of patrons imbibg an immoral tablishment, the evictn of gay tenants, and the seizure of property.

Gays and lbians uld also be arrted for dancg a close embrace or for “obstctn of ee passage, ” legale for blockg a siwalk. For example, 1962, when the state’s first gay Mardi Gras anizatn, the Krewe of Yuga, held a clanste drag ball Metairie, Jefferson Parish police raid the ftivi and arrted 96 men for “disturbg the peace. Neher natnal homophile anizatns—part of an early homosexual-rights movement that emphasized sex g the Greek words homo and phile, meang “same love”— the 1950s and 1960s nor the Gay Liberatn movement, galvanized by the 1969 Stonewall Uprisg New York Cy, found eager recs among Louisiana’s gay aristocrats or s gay workg class, both of which feared exposure.

For example, a New Orleans ntgent of the Gay Liberatn Front (GLF), found 1970 by workg-class gays and lbians, picketed Cy Hall and negotiated a temporary halt to police stg operatns.

Followg World War II a fledglg gay subculture arose New Orleans that gave the cy the nickname “Queer Capal of the South.

” Popular gay bars such as Dixie’s Bar of Mic and Café Lafte Exile offered well-known anchors for queer life on Bourbon Street. Startg 1949 gay men began to meet for bnch on Shrove Monday the French Quarter for an event that me to be lled the Fat Monday Luncheon.

Siarly, 1953 a myster gay gentleman’s group lled the Steamboat Club was tablished. Membership private groups, however, was strictly guard, and accs to popular gay bars often required troductns, so as to assure that a new patron was not an unrver vice officer or a vlent assailant. Gay black men—isolated threefold by the gay whe muny, the straight whe muny, and the straight black muny—ngregated clanste clubs such as Fourth World, which met private hom.

A small Dghters of Bilis chapter formed New Orleans 1960, reflectg the velopment of an early lbian nscns the state, while gay whe men found Mardi Gras krew such as Yuga (1958), Petroni (1961), Amon-Ra (1965), and Armei (1968). Kennedy as part of a “homosexual thrill killg, ” and a jury acquted Shaw of all charg. In rponse, a nsortium of gay krew met 1972 wh a rival ndidate for district attorney named Harry Connick Sr., who went on to unseat Garrison.

Though Stt reprented the first openly queer Louisianan to seek elected office, her genr placed her across a divi that gay el of the time hated to cross. It was the 1973 Up Stairs Lounge fire, an ternatnally reported cint at a New Orleans gay bar rultg 32 aths, that first forced Louisiana to acknowledge a large queer populatn, timated at 60, 000 of New Orleans’s then 600, 000 rints.

The first article of the seri, entled “No Mardi Gras Magic: Gay Communy Surfac Tragedy, ” emphasized how the cy’s queer populatn “do not magilly appear on Mardi Gras” but exists year-round.