Some of the victim’s families were ashamed refused to claim the bodies. No politician had a word to say about the tragedy and the Archbishop forbade Catholic funerals for the victims. The public reaction to the tragedy reflected the homophobia of the time. No one was ever arrested and Nunez, who drunkenly admitted to starting the fire, committed suicide about a year and a half after the fire. In the aftermath, the bartender, Buddy Rasmussen, identified Nunez to authorities, but the police were not interested in questioning him. Three more died from their wounds in the days that followed. Within twenty minutes, twenty-nine people were dead. But he was.Ībout thirty minutes later, someone, presumably Nunez, set the stairwell leading to the bar on fire. As he was being escorted out of the bar, he angrily threatened to come back and “burn you all out.” No one thought he was serious. Upstairs you’ll find two bars and also a large video bar. This is a lively place where you can have fun and chat with the locals. One of the most popular gay bars in New Orleans, located near to the other gay venues on Bourbon Street. On Sunday, June 24, 1973, a troubled young man, Roger Dale Nunez, was ejected from the bar for being belligerently drunk and harassing customers. 801 Bourbon St, New Orleans, USA, LA 70116 map. The New Orleans MCC had once held worship services in the bars entertainment area before securing a place of its own. On Sundays, the UpStairs Lounge hosted its weekly beer bust which was attended by many members of the newly formed Metropolitan Community Church, a gay-friendly denomination.
Despite the French Quarter’s “anything goes” reputation, gay bars were routinely raided in the early 1970s and being out of the closet was unthinkable to many in the LGBTQ community. It was a friendly, neighborhood bar that afforded gay men a safe space to gather and enjoy each other’s company. The UpStairs Lounge was a gay bar that occupied the second floor of a building at the corner of Chartres and Iberville Streets in the French Quarter. “Nobody cared about us.Paper Monument Project #025: Despite the French Quarter’s “anything goes” reputation, gay bars were routinely raided in the early 1970s and being out of the closet was unthinkable to many in the LGBTQ community. "In Orlando, those poor people know at least that the whole world is behind them,” he said. Moreau, the outpouring of support for the victims in Orlando has been an “uplifting” sign of progress, he said. “People now feel more of a sense of their own history,” he said.įor Mr. Johnny Townsend, who interviewed survivors in the late ’80s and finally published their accounts in 2014, said the 40th anniversary commemoration gave it a kind of public attention it had not had before. As time passed, the tragedy became “a rumor” to new generations of L.G.B.T. Rey said people who lived through that period did not talk about it for decades. Survivors had to deny any connection to the fire, including the loss of loved ones, because they could lose their jobs or apartments if bosses and landlords suspected they were gay. “There was never any sense of justice,” said Sebastian Rey, the president of the L.G.B.T. He committed suicide a year after the blaze. No one was charged with the attack, and a man viewed by many as the primary suspect was never arrested. The fire was an open wound for the gay community in New Orleans for years. people have a place at the table now that they did not have then,” said Clayton Delery-Edwards, who wrote a book about the arson that was published in 2014. Forty years later, a son of his, the current mayor, Mitch Landrieu, declared a day of public mourning for the fire’s victims on its anniversary. The mayor, Moon Landrieu, did not cancel his vacation. “They dug a hole in the ground and put a bag in it and covered it back up,” Mr. Those three were buried in unmarked graves in a potter’s field along with a fourth person, Ferris LeBlanc, whose family did not know his fate until last year, Mr.
There are three people who were never identified at all. “His mother refused to collect his ashes because she was too embarrassed that she had a gay son,” Mr. Camina, who directed a documentary, UpStairs Inferno, about the blaze. He was one of many who died without ever coming out to their families, and his mother would not deal with his remains, said Robert L.
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His charred body was left slumped against the window bars in full view of passers-by for hours. When firefighters extinguished the blaze, they found a pile of charred bodies, some embracing and others pressed against the windows.Ĭongregants from the New Orleans chapter of the Metropolitan Community Church, an L.G.B.T.-affirming group, were meeting there after services.
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One group of patrons fled out a back exit, but another was trapped across the room, caught between the flames and floor-to-ceiling windows fitted with metal bars.