Back in “the Fun Shop”Two magicians made a Halloween store Shreveport’s secret Gay Pride headquarters. Jun 01 26June 01, 2026Article at 64 Parishes
Enemies of the PeopleFrom 1956 to 1965, the residents of the boom state of Florida were held hostage to a McCarthy-esque investigation with the power to declare anyone who opposed segregation—including Black… Oct 06 25October 06, 2025Article at southerncultures.org
Anti-queer fascism is coming around againQueer joy dazzles until Brownshirts storm the stage — honey, it was all in "Cabaret" Oct 04 25October 04, 2025Article at salon.com
New evidence confirms ringleader of 1951 Florida Klan killing | ColumnHarry T. Moore and his wife were blown up in their home. Jul 19 25July 19, 2025Article at tampabay.com
Guest Commentary: Queer Recovery and Loss, in Gleaming Bronze'Tinderbox' author Robert W. Fieseler on moments of loss and recovery for the queer community — and a stolen bronze monument. The memorial plaque honoring the victims of the Up Stairs Lounge arson attack will be rededicated on June 22. Jun 13 25June 13, 2025Article at Nola.com
King of OlympusSkip was the man to beat AIDS. Lesbian activist Charlene Schneider pinned her hopes on him—and in 1986, no less. It was a psychological survival game, a willful delusion of her mind for desperate times. The guy checked all the character boxes to… Mar 03 25March 03, 2025Article at 64 Parishes
Gay GeographerWhen leather-clad singer Rob Halford of the heavy metal band Judas Priest toured the United States in 1978, he picked up a piece of subversive literature in San Francisco to steer him safely as he sought companionship on the road. The slim, tiny… Mar 22 24March 22, 2024Article at NEH Humanities magazine
Guest column: The Up Stairs Lounge fire is part of civil rights historyEvery social movement in American history has a body count. From Wounded Knee to Emmett Till to the children of Uvalde, death inevitably forces us to reckon with violations of our basic liberties. For Native Americans, for the Civil Rights Movement,… Jun 22 23June 22, 2023Article at Nola.com
Honoring the legacy of New Orleans’ 1973 UpStairs Lounge fireOn June 23 of last year, I held the microphone as a gay man in the New Orleans City Council Chamber and related a lost piece of queer history to the seven council members. I told this story to disabuse all New Orleanians of the notion that silence… Jun 22 23June 22, 2023Article at The Washington Blade
Guest Commentary: ‘United We Stand' — Why the legacy of New Orleans’ 1973 Up Stairs Lounge fire still resonates 50 years laterOn June 23 of last year, I held the microphone as a gay man in the New Orleans City Council Chamber and related a lost piece of queer history to the seven councilmembers. I told this story to disabuse all New Orleanians of the notion that silence and… Jun 01 23June 01, 2023Article at Nola.com
A Bar Called Charlene’sOn June 12, 1983, four female patrons of a New Orleans lesbian bar called Charlene’s stepped outside for some air. It was Lesbian and Gay Pride Month, and the bar’s owner and namesake, Charlene Schneider, had sponsored a well-attended celebration… Jun 01 23June 01, 2023Article at 64 Parishes
The Fiery Life of Stewart ButlerAdapted from the forward to Political Animal: The Life and Times of Stewart Butler by Frank Perez, out Oct. 17 from the University of Mississippi Press. In July 1987, Pope John Paul II touched down in New Orleans on an official papal visit, bringing… Jun 25 22June 25, 2022Article at Slate
‘Still Beloved’It is late morning as I cross the lawns of Calvary Hill Cemetery in Dallas. Looking for the grave of a twenty-four-year-old man who burned to death in a working-class gay bar nearly half a century ago, I pass an inscription chiseled in stone. It… May 31 22May 31, 2022Article at Commonweal
The Original Top Gun Was My Sweaty, Sexy Gay SalvationLife Iceman and Maverick jetted lifesaving homoeroticism past a generation of conservative parents. This piece is part of Outward, Slate’s home for coverage of LGBTQ life, thought, and culture. Read more here. When trailers for Top Gun: Maverick… May 27 22May 27, 2022Article at Slate
Gay Carnivalay Carnival traditions began in mid-twentieth-century New Orleans as a gender-bending parody of elite Mardi Gras traditions, particularly the humorless coronation balls of aristocratic, segregated clubs like Rex and the Mistick Krewe of Comus. After… Apr 11 22April 11, 2022Article at 64 Parishes
The Formation of Reggie AdamsOn the Sunday of August 15, 1971, in Grand Coteau, a rural hamlet of less than two thousand people in the Cajun Prairie, five college-aged white men gathered in a chapel within eyeshot of a newly integrated church. One by one, they stepped forward… Dec 01 21December 01, 2021Article at 64 Parishes
A New Orleans Gay Bar Inferno Killed 32. Roy Reed Was First to Report the Truth.he late journalist and New Orleans resident Roy Reed, who passed away in 2017, is perhaps best known for his enterprising Civil Rights-era coverage in The New York Times, including a March 1965 attack of state troopers on unarmed marchers in Selma,… Jul 05 21July 05, 2021Article at The Daily Beast
The Up Stairs Lounge FireEditor’s Note: Warning, this entry contains graphic imagery. The Up Stairs Lounge fire was a criminal arson at a second-story gay bar named the Up Stairs Lounge, in New Orleans’s French Quarter. The conflagration, which began with lighter fluid in a… Jun 15 21June 15, 2021Article at 64 Parishes
LGBTQ+ Rights Movement in LouisianaResidents who would now identify as “queer” have existed in Louisiana since before its founding, but the political movement for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) rights emerged slowly throughout the late twentieth century, as… Apr 09 21April 09, 2021Article at 64 Parishes
