Jt time for Southern Dence, historian Frank Perez tells the tal of vibrant gay New Orleans.
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MOMENTS GAY NEW ORLEANS HISTORY
The sle of Southern Dence, markg s 46th anniversary 2017, and the gay tradns sprouted om Mardi Gras show the celebratn of the New Orleans LGBTQ muny. * lgbt history new orleans *
New Orleans has always been a cy that champned the arts and celebrated culture, which has fostered a lively gay social scene and drew many LGBTQ artists and performers to the French Quarter, home to Café Lafte Exile, one of Ameri’s olst gay bars. The longt nng gay event, the Fat Monday Luncheon, kicked off 1949, and the olst gay social anizatn, the Steamboat Club, was lnched 1953. Mardi Gras fostered s own gay tradns wh the Krewe of Yuga, the first gay Carnival club formed 1958.
Notable gay lols and rints clud Tennsee Williams, who me here 1938 and wrote “A Streetr Named Dire” om his home at 1014 Dumae St. Gay Pri Contt 1981, long before she me out publicly 1997.
A climate of change across the Uned Stat fomented gay activism the early 1970s New Orleans as well, wh groups like the Gay Liberatn Front of New Orleans, a lol chapter of the natnal lbian anizatn, Dghters of Bilis, gay pri events and the foundg of the Tulane Universy Gay Stunts Unn. The Gert Ste Society, which began 1975, brought together a group of men and women who were stmental velopg an active muny astcture the 1980s: the Louisiana Gay Polil Actn Cc (1980), the State Gay Conference (1981), the New Orleans Gay Men’s Chos and a lol chapter of P-FLAG (both 1982), and the NO/AIDS Task Force (1983). LGBT rights were (fally) regnized by New Orleans Cy Council 1991, wh the passg of a gay non-discrimatn ordance.