Almost 50 years later, adly attack at New Orleans gay bar remas unsolved — Mississippi Center for Invtigative Reportg

Contents:

• A ‘FOTTEN TRAGEDY’ AT A NEW ORLEANS GAY BAR AND A NEW EFFORT TO HONOR VICTIMS’ REMAS
• A DEADLY ARSON AT A GAY BAR WAS NEVER OFFICIALLY SOLVED. A NEW PODST EXAM WHY.
• 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

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. 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.

A DEADLY ARSON AT A GAY BAR WAS NEVER OFFICIALLY SOLVED. A NEW PODST EXAM WHY.

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.

LGBT is still a popular term ed to discs genr and sexual mori, but all GSRM are wele beyond lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr people who nsent to participate a safe space.

REUTERS/Kev Mohatt/File PhotoNEW YORK, Nov 23 (Rters) - After the 2016 massacre at the Pulse nightclub Florida, the owners of New York Cy gay bar C'mon Everybody hired more secury staff, and the LGBT landmark Stonewall Inn ran active-shooter safety drills wh s bars and other LGBT spac around the untry are aga weighg how to keep their staff and patrons safe after a gunman killed five people and jured 17 more at an LGBT club Colorado Sprgs.

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

Many worry that physil secury measur n only go so far, and that stnchg a surge of flammatory anti-LGBT rhetoric is a better Club Q attack, which is beg vtigated as a hate crime, has pound the fear and anger of a muny already nontg a wave of Republin legislatn directed at transgenr youth and gay Amerins, and what they say is a related rise threats and vlence agast s members.

"It's really tirg for the gay muny that time and time aga we have to e up wh the solutns for problems that other people make, " said Jonathan Hat, executive director of Drag Queen Story Hour, a nonprof group that aniz drag performers readg books to children 45 stat that has been repeatedly targeted and threatened this year. "Jt hours before the attack at Club Q Colorado Sprgs, someone threw a brick through the wdow of gay bar Vers the Hell's Kchen neighborhood of New York Cy for the fourth time this month, acrdg to police. Erik Bottcher, the cy uncil member reprentg Hell's Kchen, has joed other officials over the last week to warn that one or more people are dggg and robbg gay men the rponse to those attacks and the Colorado shootg, the Anti-Vlence Project, a non-prof group found 1980 after a spate of attacks on gay men, plans to hold a safety event at a Hell's Kchen gay bar on Wednday night.

Volunteers will talk wh staff and patrons about ways to heighten vigilance bars, on hook-up and datg apps, and wh partners at attack on the Pulse gay nightclub Orlando six years ago, durg which a man shot ad 49 people, forced many bars to review their secury plans. In Texas, Governor Greg Abbott has said he is tryg to protect children om abe by prohibg many typ of genr-affirmg medil re for Lentz, a -owner of Stonewall Inn, the se of the 1969 rts that talyzed the gay liberatn movement, echoed others the dtry sayg venu are reachg the lims of what physil fens n achieve. A state senator Tennsee has troduced a bill that would crimalize drag performanc the prence of still performs for adults, cludg a drag bgo night he was hostg on Tuday at a Nashville gay bar.