UpStairs Lounge arson attack 24/06/1973
The UpStairs Lounge arson attack, also known as the UpStairs Lounge fire, occurred on 24 June 1973 at a gay bar known as the UpStairs Lounge, located on the second floor of a three-storey building at 604 Iberville Street in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. The incident resulted in the deaths of 32 individuals, with a further 15 people sustaining injuries due to fire or smoke inhalation. The official cause of the fire remains recorded as being of undetermined origin. A primary suspect was identified as Roger Dale Nunez, a man with a documented history of psychiatric impairment who had been ejected from the premises earlier that day; however, no charges were brought against him, and he later died by suicide in November 1974.
Until the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting, in which 49 people were killed, the UpStairs Lounge arson attack was regarded as the deadliest attack on a gay nightclub in the history of the United States.
Podcast 129: 50 Years of Remembering the Up Stairs Lounge Fire
Catherine Cooper speaks with Bobby Fieseler about writing “Tinderbox” and the importance of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire in LGBT activism as we come up to the 50th anniversary of the fire.
About the UpStairs Lounge Fire
In 1973, the deadliest fire in New Orleans’ history occurred in a small gay bar at 604 Iberville Street in the French Quarter. The UpStairs Lounge was a refuge of love and acceptance in the New Orleans community until, in a matter of 19 minutes, it became a symbol of tragedy and rejection. Thirty-two people perished in the fire, and the New Orleans LGBT+ community was changed forever.
The UpStairs Lounge
In 1973, the deadliest fire in New Orleans’ history occurred in a small gay bar at 604 Iberville Street in the French Quarter. The UpStairs Lounge was a refuge of love and acceptance in the New Orleans community until, in a matter of 19 minutes, it became a site of tragedy and rejection. Thirty-two people perished in the fire, and the New Orleans LGBT+ community was changed forever.
Arson Attack on the UpStairs Lounge
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. It was a friendly, neighborhood bar that afforded gay men a safe space to gather and enjoy each other’s company. 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.
This article is more than 2 years old Family of veteran killed in 1973 New Orleans fire trying to recover remains
Ferris LeBlanc died in an arson attack on the LGBTQ+ bar UpStairs Lounge and was buried by the city in a field behind a cemetery
50 years after deadly Up Stairs Lounge fire: New Orleans LGBTQ+ community still seeks answers
Context: The intentionally set fire at a French Quarter gay bar killed 32 people and injured 15, and was the deadliest attack on U.S. soil against the LGBTQ+ community until the Orlando Pulse nightclub mass shooting in 2016.
The Upstairs Lounge Fire: The Little Known Story of the Largest Killing of Gays in US History
On June 24, 1973, a flash fire tore through a gay bar in New Orleans’ French Quarter. In less than 20 minutes, 32 people were killed, dozens more critically injured and the ones who managed to escape watched helplessly as friends and lovers burned to death before their eyes. It is believed to be the largest killing of gay people in U.S. history. Yet politicians and religious leaders were relatively silent. The powerful Catholic Archbishop of New Orleans at the time, Phillip Hannan, did not offer his support or sympathy to victims. And while all signs pointed to arson, the police investigation ran cold. No one has ever been prosecuted.
New Evidence Shows That During the 1973 UpStairs Lounge Arson, Gays Had to Take Rescue Efforts Into Their Own Hands
In a funeral home on the edge of the French Quarter, 12-year-old Patrick Schoen refused to accept his cousin’s dare to look inside the body bags that were lined up in the carriageway of the family business. His cousin was an embalmer, and the funeral home had received dozens of anonymous bodies of men who had died in an arson attack on a gay bar, the UpStairs Lounge, in New Orleans on June 24, 1973. Before the Orlando mass shooting in 2016, it had been the largest massacre of gay people in U.S. history, leaving 32 dead and 15 injured.
Arson At The UpStairs Lounge
In 1973, Clayton Delery-Edwards was living just outside New Orleans in Metairie, going to high school and- as he puts it – wrestling with “the G question.”
“You know by that point I figured out what it was, and I still wasn’t sure how it was done, but I knew what it was.”
