![1973 gay bar new orleans 1973 gay bar new orleans](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c190535c3c16ae49811d3e4/1625618783146-WWRDA650HHLA0W4PY2QR/Robert+W.+Fieseler.jpg)
And we do so with an aplomb and rectitude that people should marvel at. No other American has to listen to politicians and religious figures, and plain people on the street, spew the nastiness and invective, the mind numbing mush and illogical crap that we gay men have to listen to. And short of just jailing us or slaughtering us we will never relent in our quest to be treated with decency and respect, and as Jesus taught, “treat others as you wish to be treated.” Other than that, you are a heathen. I don’t want to hear from the president that he’s “evolving” on the “issue.” For there is no “issue” and there is nothing to be “debated.” Gay men exist, and we are not going anywhere. It is unholy, unChristian and unAmerican and inhuman, as bad as burning men to death – and this must cease. This alleged “debate” about “gay rights” is not a debate – it is a calculated mean spirited nasty attack hellbent on destroying the spirit of American citizens, and which treats us as trash. I have had it up to here listening to the demented demands for compliance with these people’s measures against me, as if they had any right or morality to tell me whom to be, and worse, to tell me whom I am. No one calls these horrible people out on their excess of hate, except of course, us “whiny fags” who are just not going to put up with this nonsense anymore. Yes, an American calling for the forced expulsion of other American citizens, in a Medieval pogrom of horrific proportions, and it’s his “right,” it’s said, and people get upset when I defend my people. So many people still so dead set against the reality of gay people, and especially gay men, that they will just lie and make things up, like “gay men die at the age of 41” as Peter Sprigg of “export the homosexuals” says. And the Catholic Francis Cardinal George of Chicago hellbent on some bizarre “ex-gay” insistence that we join his religion against every principle of the First Amendment’s right to Freedom of, for and from Religion. People like Bryan Fischer of “American Family Association” which can’t find a gay guy in a family to save his life. And people like Tony Perkins and Maggie Gallagher hellbent on destroying our lives so they think they can solve the “problem” which exists in their own minds. People like Democrat Ruben Diaz who held a rally where “gays are worthy of death” was uttered to the cheers of several thousands.
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Sadder still, that there are still people so hateful, so fearful, so driven by scorn, that there are still people calling us “intrinsically evil,” “sick,” “dysfunctional,” “child molesters,” demented,” “depraved,” “disgusting,” and worse, far far worse. Despicable even, that gay men are considered such trash that no one gives a damn, then or today. Sad, isn’t it – 32 men burned to death in horror. And very few people in this nation, gay or straight, will talk about it, for it is the “unknown massacre.” Yet, it is also the largest unsolved massacre of Americans in our nation’s history. No one in the federal government will call for a renewed effort to solve the crime, either. No politician in New Orleans or at the state level in Louisiana will say a word, and back then, it was dismissed as “just a bunch of queers, no big deal.” Nor will either one of our senators issue a statement in remembrance or call for an renewed investigation. Not even covered up with a blanket or his eyes closed, so strong was, and in some quarters still is, the hate against us. The cops left the burned body of one man hanging out of the window for far longer than decency for the dead would allow for another other sort of person. Only one preacher in the entire city would even say a word to the bereaved he was chastised by his superiors for having done so. Several of the families wouldn’t even claim their own sons from the morgue. The smell of gasoline was reported to have been very strong.
![1973 gay bar new orleans 1973 gay bar new orleans](https://gaycondo.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/upstairs-lounge.jpg)
And that’s just the way it was reported, the one or two articles which appeared in the local press at the time said, “queers.” The police investigation was all of a question or two, and no one saw a thing, they said, and then the police got back to their corrupt ways and raided a few more gay bars. And pretty much unremembered, for it was just a bunch of “queers” and no one gave a damn. A bar which doubled as our church, for we were not welcome in any other. 32 Gay Men Burned To Death New Orleans, ģ2 Gay Men were Burned To Death New Orleans, - who will say something? Who will speak up? Who will say enough? What public figure will call for mollycoddling gay folks instead of harassing, hounding and haranguing us all our days? Who?Īnd let us now remember that 32 gay men were burned to death in a firebombing at the Upstairs Lounge in New Orleans on June 24 th, 1973.