Gay Carnival - 64 Parish

Contents:

• GAY CARNIVAL
• UNVEILG THE ME: THE LOST HISTORY OF GAY CARNIVAL NEW ORLEANS
• GAY MEN POSTERS AND ART PRTS

GAY CARNIVAL

Gay Carnival tradns began mid-twentieth-century New Orleans as a genr-bendg parody of ele Mardi Gras tradns, particularly the humorls ronatn balls of aristocratic, segregated clubs like Rex and the Mistick Krewe of Com. After the rise of gay Carnival krew the 1960s and 1970s, queer culture beme a mastay of Carnival New Orleans and a force for LGBTQ+ visibily and muny engagement Louisiana. One of Mardi Gras Day’s great allur for gay men, therefore, was the abily to exprs onelf stume and, a sense, be seen public whout fear of arrt.

Gay life and maskg beme rrelated ncepts this era, as gay men often lerally masked themselv while Mardi Gras stume and also symbolilly masked themselv as “bachelors” to avoid discrimatn when Carnival end.

“I was raised to be a pole young gentleman, ” relled gay Carnival pneer John Henry Bogie the 2010 documentary The Sons of Tennsee Williams. “We did not discs my beg gay.

UNVEILG THE ME: THE LOST HISTORY OF GAY CARNIVAL NEW ORLEANS

Gradually, gay men challenged anti-maskg laws and societal nventns.

The first gay Mardi Gras club, the Fat Monday Luncheon, began 1949. This tradnal rtrant bnch for gay iends culmated the reveal of a tiara and the crowng of one gut as “queen” of the luncheon. When the Krewe of Yuga, the first gay Mardi Gras krewe, formed 1958, they took genr-play to a new level by holdg private drag balls, where gay men put on women’s attire and prented themselv as “queens, ” or godss figur.

The Yuga raid provoked a rponse that marked a turng pot for gay Carnival. Dixie Fasnacht, owner of Dixie’s Bar of Mic, a popular Bourbon Street gay bar wh a si door “For Male Bachelors Only, ” knew many Yuga members. “The raid didn’t end gay Mardi Gras, ” remembered Ray Durand, who was at Dixie’s that eveng.

GAY MEN POSTERS AND ART PRTS

It put more anger out on the street among gay guys.