1 20 123 https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/7bb87d0dca1e4298410214035028c387.pdf b24cc6f64d8167b99237421d87f8547d Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Upstairs Lounge Fire Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource “Thieves, Queers and Fruit Jars: The Community and Media Responses to the Fire at the Upstairs Lounge” by Clayton Delery Description An account of the resource Dr. Clayton Delery, a Louisiana native and professor at The Louisiana School for Math, Science and the Arts, has recently written this essay comparing the response of New Orleans city and religious leaders to the Rault Center fire in November 1972 with the response to the Upstairs Lounge fire. He unabashedly points out the disdain with which homosexual persons were treated at the time. Delery is working on a book on the Upstairs Lounge fire. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Used by permission of Clayton Delery. https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/2055033c93fcd34aae66a539b43d732f.jpg 619a019842aa5abadc8581a7499faeec Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Upstairs Lounge Fire Book An external reference to a published book. URL <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Afraid-Anymore-Metropolitan-Community/dp/0312069545" target="_blank">http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Afraid-Anymore-Metropolitan-Community/dp/0312069545</a> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Don’t Be Afraid Anymore by Troy Perry Description An account of the resource This book by UFMCC founder and long-time moderator Troy Perry includes his recollections of being in New Orleans following the fire. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived St. Martin’s Press: 1990; pp. 76-101 https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/d412319c54c9666a7d0ad711b1af7479.jpg 034590506867364b89822f7865f02689 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Upstairs Lounge Fire Book An external reference to a published book. URL <a href="http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2145976,00.html" target="_blank">http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2145976,00.html</a> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Horror Upstairs by Elizabeth Dias with Jim Downs Description An account of the resource TIME magazine published a major story on the 40th anniversary (July 1, 2013 issue). https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/d8c92138bba0452a42a409ff9266d203.jpg 68f99c7c082462f400c7e5da47ebb749 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Upstairs Lounge Fire Book An external reference to a published book. URL <a href="https://www.facebook.com/upstairsloungefire" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/upstairsloungefire</a> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Upstairs Lounge Fire by Royd Anderson Description An account of the resource Filmmaker Royd Anderson produced a documentary film that examines the tragedy of the Upstairs Lounge Fire (2013). https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/01e2e6b1ba8c3384f7197a394f1b8cf9.jpg 22dae7b2974be3f6654532567c997dc0 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Upstairs Lounge Fire Book An external reference to a published book. URL <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Out-For-Good-Struggle-Movement/dp/0684867435" target="_blank">http://www.amazon.com/Out-For-Good-Struggle-Movement/dp/0684867435</a> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource “New Orleans: Fire Upstairs” in Out for Good: The Struggle to Build a Gay Rights Movement in America by Dudley Clendinen & Adam Nagourney. Description An account of the resource This detailed account of the early years of the political movement for LGBT rights—1969 to 1980—includes a chapter on the beginnings of MCC and how Troy Perry and other MCC leaders responded to the Upstairs Lounge tragedy. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Simon & Schuster, 1999; pp. 174-87 https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/638bd562dd4927b6714db13731023353.jpg a8fc10d8acb5a6d7ea90be8994efbf8c Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Upstairs Lounge Fire Book An external reference to a published book. URL <a href="http://www.amazon.com/LET-THE-FAGGOTS-BURN-UpStairs/dp/1614344531" target="_blank">http://www.amazon.com/LET-THE-FAGGOTS-BURN-UpStairs/dp/1614344531</a> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Let The Faggots Burn: The Upstairs Lounge Fire by Johnny Townsend. Description An account of the resource New Orleans activist and writer Townsend interviews a large number of survivors and other persons associated with the Upstairs Lounge tragedy to produce this anecdotal account of the persons who were involved in and effected by this catastrophe. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Booklocker.com: 2011 https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/28133c5c9ede9c1440b8566ef94f133a.jpg 5b8c10baa383adf37d91d633be761610 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Upstairs Lounge Fire Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Text Any textual data included in the document Probers Scrutinize Swiftness of Blaze The suspicious speed of a fire that killed 29 persons in a Sunday night “beer bust” in a French Quarter bar was under close investigation today. For the 29 trapped in the Upstairs lounge, located on the second floor of a three-story building, the end was like a quick, searing blast from a blow torch. Firemen said the fire lasted 16 minutes. It consumed the interior of the bar but did little serious structural damage to the old stone and brick building. Courtney Craighead, a survivor, said he believes somebody dashed an inflammable liquid on the stairway and lit it. “The first came up the stairs fast,” he said. “There was an immense smoke in the room immediately.” Some leap Fire Supt. William McCrossen said homicide investigators and the state fire marshal would take a careful look at reports that “some people smelled gasoline just before the fire.” However, he cautioned, such reports were unconfirmed. Craighead, a deacon of the Metropolitan Community church, said he got out by a rear exit, following a bartender who led about 20 men to safety. Most others in the bar were trapped. Those who lived had to leap for their lives. “There’s nothing like seeing human fireballs break through a window and jump—and never a word from them, not a scream, not a groan, nothing,” said a shaken young man who lives in a second-floor apartment directly across the narrow street. The young man, who declined to identify himself, said he was looking out his window because of the insistent honking of a white auto which had paused in the street by the Upstairs stairway entrance. He said two men dashed down the stairs and got into the car. Moments later, he said, fire erupted in the lounge and he watched horrified as several men, hair and clothing already aflame, smashed window glass with their shoes and scrambled out onto the fire escape landing. From there they had to jump; the old fire escape on that side of the building had no ladder to the street. “It was the quickest fire I ever heard of,” said Louis Uhlich, a retired soldier who lived was in a bar next door to the stairway of the Upstairs when it started. “ I was on my first beer when this woman ran in and yelled, “Come see, come see!” Uhlich added. “I ran out and two or three of the steps were on fire.” “I popped back into the bar and told the barmaid, call the fire department. By the time I got back outside it sounded like firecrackers going off in there. That stairway was gone.” Gay group to mourn fire victims Gay Liberation Movement leaders are planning a day of mourning Sunday for “our dead brothers and sisters” who died in a fire at a crowded French Quarter bar. Morris Kight, Gay Liberation Movement founder, and the Rev. Troy Perry, pastor of the Metropolitan Community Church for homosexuals, announced plans Monday for the day of mourning. Police said 29 persons died in a second-floor fire at the Up Stairs Lounge Sunday night. Officers said the bar was a known gathering place for homosexuals. Kight said his office in Los Angeles had suspended other operations and was organizing gay leaders across the country to make the catastrophe here. William Larson, interim pastor of a local gay church, has been identified by witnesses as one of the victims of the blaze. One survivor, Linn Quinton, said he last saw the pastor caught in the burglar bars across the front window, screaming, “Oh, God, no!” to the skies as he burned to death. Other members of his church remember him as a dedicated pastor, who brought new members to the newly founded Metropolitan Community Church, located in a converted old home here. “We’ve been a small, struggling congregation since we were founded here in May 1971,” said one church deacon.” “Since Brother Larson took over as interim pastor, we’ve been a thriving, promising congregation,” he said. “He believed in freedom and love,” said the deacon. “He wanted the right of individuals to make their own choice—without harm to anyone.” When the fire struck, Larson was sitting at a table with a party of eight friends, two of whom died in the fire. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Oregonian Covers for Second Day Description An account of the resource The Oregonian picks up wire stories about the fire on the following day also. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Oregonian, June 26, 1973. https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/5910dcd8aa44723cae50faf1ae754128.jpg 31381fabf631c11c159d1f32df7c4b4c Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Upstairs Lounge Fire Book An external reference to a published book. Local URL The URL of the local directory containing all assets of the website <a href="http://upstairsmusical.com/" target="_blank">http://upstairsmusical.com/</a> URL <a href="http://upstairsmusical.com/" target="_blank">http://upstairsmusical.com</a> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Upstairs the Musical by Wayne Self Description An account of the resource Playwright/composer Wayne Self wrote and produced this original musical drama portraying events around the Upstairs Lounge Fire to mark its 40th anniversary. https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/05149e91fd558d0e1bb07878f11916d5.pdf 21e005c8509e08fa5f27084cde4bda62 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Upstairs Lounge Fire Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1997 Report to the President for the White House Conference on Hate Crimes Description An account of the resource The Metropolitan Community Churches (MCC) presents this report to the Clinton Administration’s White House Conference on Hate Crimes in November, 1997. The report includes a partial catalog of hate crimes against ministers and congregations in the MCC from 1973 to 1996. Of the 26 incidents reported, more than one-half involve fires. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Wikisource: Historical Documents https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/61983c6a886da5e4a73c5a21f0ef225c.jpg f86852b3fbdb742010845dbedaf528f7 https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/bf2e2811e459038f19edcec858c24666.jpg 99045e5709a78a61cbbb748c7d3fd825 https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/17087351998687b52f3cc3d5329d264a.jpg 0f975806aff7e567ee4e381aeb7209d1 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Upstairs Lounge Fire Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Text Any textual data included in the document ‘A part of our souls was ignited…’ by Martin St. John In a rare show of national gay togetherness, memorial services were conducted throughout the United States the weekend after the holocaust at the Up Stairs bar in New Orleans. Ironically, the closest thing to a national day of observance heretofore was the celebration in many cities of Gay Pride Day the last Sunday in June, the day the New Orleans tragedy occurred. Gay historian Jim Kepner, speaking at the Los Angeles service, expressed what seem to be a common feeling among mourners everywhere when he said, “Inescapably, for each of us, a part of our souls was ignited, and a part charred, in the Up Stairs bar last Sunday.” He then went on to rebuke the millions of Gays who ignored the services, “to whom this awful massacre seems no more personal than any news report of anonymous peasants dead in China of flood or famine.” Most of the services were conducted by the local congregations of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan community churches, whose New Orleans congregation was decimated by the fire. The best attended services were conducted on Sunday, July 1 – which gay leaders had sought to designate as a National Day of Mourning – in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, San Diego, Calif., and in New Orleans. Some 500 persons crowded into San Francisco MCC. Over 400 attended Los Angeles MCC services. 250 mourners turned out in New Orleans. Some 125 were at an ecumenical service in New York, and 120 attended San Diego MCC services. In San Francisco, gay political activist Jim Foster – a director of three organizations – was guest speaker, he said that this sense of outrage was not directed so much at the people responsible for the fire as it was “toward the climate of ignorance, hate, and fear that exits in this country that allows this kind of thing to happen.” A living memorial service,” he asserted, “is not as important as a living memorial – a determination that we must go out of this church tonight and work to end arbitrary discrimination, discriminatory law enforcement, and to establish more viable social service opportunities for our less fortunate brothers and sisters.” Foster urged all “to determine that the sacrifice in New Orleans is met with our own sacrifice in terms of time, effort, and money.” The Rev. James Sandmire, who conducted the service, said, “Many people are oppressed, but we are the only group that is oppressed because we want to love.” He said that for 200 years homosexuals have been called “sinful” and “sick” and this has caused people to “look upon us a lonely, alienated, emotionally immature, and mentally unbalanced… those who died in the New Orleans fire were simply eating and drinking together in a spirit of fellowship. They were people relating to one another,” The entire congregation then joined hands over their heads for the popular MCC hymn, “ I am not Afraid Anymore.” At the service were San Francisco Sheriff Richard Hongisto and John Molinari, a member of the Board of Supervisors. Hongisto later expressed his concern to the ADVOCATE that all of the fires at gay places in the past year be properly evaluated. “I believe that there should be a close evaluation of the circumstance surrounding all of the fires to determine who is responsible and whether or not they are related.” The crowd in San Francisco was considerably swelled by other Northern California MCC members and clergy. In Los Angeles, over 400 jammed into the parking lot at the HELP CENTER for a memorial service. The service started with a prayer by the Rev. June Norris, associate pastor of Los Angeles MCC. Jerry Small, vice president of Beth Chayim Chasashim, a Metropolitan Community Temple, then read the traditional Jewish Prayer of Mourning, in the original Aramaic. This was followed by a choral offering from the choir, “Peace, Be Still,” Deacon Bill Thorne of Los Angeles MCC read a passage from the New Testament, and Morris Kight, president of the board of the Los Angeles Gay Community Services Center, addressed the group on a “A Sense of Community Through Love.” The Rev. Lee Carlton, pastor-elect of Los Angeles MCC, gave a condolence address, followed by speakers from throughout the community. These included the Most Rev. Mikhail Francis Itkin, C.L.C.; Rick Reyes, Greater Liberated Chicanos; James Kepner, president of ONE, Inc.; Jeanne Cordova, staff coordinator, the Lesbian Tide; Maxine Feldman, gay feminist singer; Mina Robinson, director emeritus, GCSC; and r, Evelyn Hooker, clinical psychologist. The Rev. Troy Perry, just returned from New Orleans who had earlier broken into tears at the sight of the familiar faces at the service, delivered the memorial address. Filmmaker Pat Rocco then sang what is believed to be the last song shared by the group at the Up Stairs before the fire – “United We Stand,” which was their customary closing song. A weeping Kight and Mr. Perry then joined in lighting 30 votive candles – one for each person killed in New Orleans, The congregation then sang “We Shall Overcome” before communion. Father Itkin, bishop-abbot of the Evangelical Catholic Communion; Community of the Love of Christ, called for the creation of a society where such a disaster as happened in New Orleans would not be repeated. “Our brothers and our sisters whose tragic death we mourn tonight. must not be allowed to have died in vain. To simply mourn them this night, and then forget the struggle is not only to betray their memory, but also to betray ourselves and the faith we claim to profess …” he asserted. “In closing,“ Itkin said. “I’d like to again quote from Joe hill, a union organizer martyred by the State of Utah. In his will, the closing words are: “Don’t mourn – organize!” Reyes issued a call for compassion and understanding, for love, and brotherhood. ‘New, Terrible Witchburning:’ Kepner, after blasting what he called the apathy of most Gays towards the New Orleans tragedy, went on to say this: “We – each of us—knew those who became faggots for a new and terrible witch burning. We knew those who met their deaths piled promiscuously in such a hopeless mass of flesh that individual identification was near impossible, knew them through the universality of the gay experience,” he said. “Inescapably,” Kepner asserted, “for each of us, a part of our souls was ignited, and a part charred, in the Upstairs bar last Sunday, as those 29 bodies were so mangle together to become one flesh, one angry flame of revolutionary love, which no fire department will ever extinguish, nor any newspaper blackout ever hide from public view, though it may take us a year – as with Watergate – to bring it to full public attention.” “We still only half-learned that liberation is more than the right to have drag balls and consensual adult sex. We are only barely learning – and in that, Up Stairs bar was far ahead of other New Orleans bars – that gay love is a wider, deeper commitment than the mere search for sex thrills and partners. And we must find ways to live as those 29 died - forged so closely together in the flames of our shared oppression and our love that no man can put us asunder.” “If their death does for nothing, then it will have been our souls that were charred beyond recovery in that barroom inferno…” Kepner concluded Cordova called for the New Orleans dead to be remembered along with other gay martyrs, each year on the anniversary of the fire – Gay Pride Day. Maxine Peldman sang “Angry Atthis,” her gay folk song, which declared; “ I hate not being able to hold my lover’s hand, except under some dimly lit table, afraid of being who I am.” ‘Our Worst Fears:’ Robinson followed, reading a poem” New Orleans 1973,” by her companion, Sharon Raphael, which declared, “Our worst fears can come true, that we can die in any circumstance, at any moment, as prisoners of the dark, and as seekers after liberation. Let us not forget what we might best remember: That we, too, are the survivors of New Orleans: of our worst fears and greatest dreams.” She also read a poem by Lenore Kandel, “First, They Slaughtered the Angels.” Hooker read, “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night.” A poem in villanelle form by the late Dylan Thomas, whose lines of repetition are: “Do not go gentle into that good night,” and “Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” In New Orleans 250 persons – including person who had escaped from the fire or been slightly injured in it – turned out for the memorial service held July 1 at St. Mark’s United Methodist Church. The Rev. Paul Breton, Northeast District coordinator for the MCC Fellowship, started the service with a prayer, followed by a reading of “a whole list of telegrams from all over the country and London, England,” by Lucien Baril, worship coordinator for the New Orleans MCC. Morty Manford, special delegate to New Orleans from the New York Gay Activists, expressed condolences on behalf of the national gay community. Mr. Perry preached the eulogy, the central theme of which was developed around “United We Stand,” which the congregation sang after the eulogy. After the eulogy, Breton led a silent prayer. Manford, following the prayer, told the mourners that “the church calls us sinners, psychiatrists say were sick, the police call us criminal, the capitalist call us subversive, and the communists say we are decadent.” During the final hymn, Mr. Perry interrupted the organist to announce that cameras from local television stations and the New Orleans Times-Picayune were waiting outside, and a side exit was available. “Nobody went out the side door,” Mr. Breton noted. In New York, the Church of the Beloved Disciple held a memorial service, conducted by the Right Rev.. Robert M. Clement, its pastor, as part of its regular Sunday service. The parish donated $25 from its own funds, Father Clement said, upon hearing the news of the fire. The evening service of New York Metropolitan Community church was given over to an ecumenical service. The Rev. Roy Birchard, MCC pastor; the Rev. Howard Wells, assistant MCC Pastor; the Rev. Robert Carter of Dignity; and Fr. Clement conducted the memorial service. A member of the Gay Synagogue in New York delivered a prayer at the service, Fr. Clement said. Brother Kristian Caron delivered a message of condolence from the Church of the Holy Apostles, an Episcopal church which works closely with the gay community. Susan Day, a local activist, delivered another message of condolence, calling for the memory of the New Orleans victims to be kept alive, and Jay Friend, am member of Metropolitan Gay community council, delivered an appeal for blood and money for the victims. Over $300 was raised for the fire fund, Fr. Clement said. ‘Freedom:’ In San Diego, the service was conducted by the Rev. John Hose, vice moderator of the MCC fellowship, as part of the regular Sunday evening service of the MCC there. The theme of the service was “Freedom.” Mr. Hose said $40 was taken up in a “love offering” for the New Orleans’ victims. In Long Beach, Calif., some 110 persons attended a memorial service July 1, according to the pastor, the Rev. Robert Cunningham. A member of the church, Hugh Cooley, was among those who died in the fire, Mr. Cunningham said. Across the nation in Miami, three MCC memorial services were conducted – one just after the fire on June 25, and two on July 1, Sixty attended the first service conducted by the Rev. Frank. D. Crouch, Jr. Sixty-five were present at a Sunday morning service July 1, conducted by the Rev. Herb Hunt, an MCC exhorter, and 45 attended an evening service July 1. Media Response: Mr. Crouch reported that the media in Miami had been very active in its support of the memorial efforts. “We had the story all day Sunday on two of our television stations, both of our papers, and three of our radio stations.” “As a result,” he said, “three heterosexual churches, not connected with MCC, “have donated blood and sent 25 pints each to the victims.” He said the services were very simple, with a flower-decked altar, and over $916 was collected for the memorial fund. In Washington D.C., 100 turned out for the memorial services mid-afternoon on July 1. The service was conducted by “Brother John”, the pastor of the Washington MCC, who was joined by the Rev. William Moreman, the pastor of the First Congregational Church, where MCC holds its services, and the Rev. Walter, pastor of Concordia United Church of Christ. The Rev. Rick Weatherly, assistant MCC pastor, said a cross-section of the gay community had attended the service. “We managed to get bar owners, drag groups, bike club members, and all sorts of people there,” he said. The service’s offering resulted in $207 for the memorial fund. Mr. Weatherly said. In Boston, the Rev. Larry Bernier, pastor of Boston MCC, was joined by the Rev. Don McGraw, the Rev. Nancy Wilson, and the Rev. Penny Perrault, all of Boston MCC. Ms. Perrault reported that the memorial service started “with a mourning theme, with a death theme, and then finished up with a resurrection theme.” Fifty-Five persons turned out for a June 30 service, she said, and the Sunday regular service July 1, was also conducted as a memorial service. In Salt Lake City, the Rev. Richard Groh, pastor of the MCC, and Virgil Scott, chairman of the board of deacons, conducted the memorial service July 1. God’s plan: Mr. Groh said that the service centered around “expressing our loss, but our faith in God that the church would rise again, that there are no mistakes or accidents in God’s master plan.” “We believe this,” he said. “We believe that if this has happened, if God has allowed it to happen, then he’s going to bless us in some way. We did take a memorial offering that amounted to $214.” “Approximately 40 people” turned out or the service, he said. At the Denver Metropolitan Community Church – no longer a member of the Universal Fellowship – the Rev. Ron Carnes and the Rev. Robert Darst conducted a memorial service during the regular Sunday evening worship service July 1. Some 30 persons attended this service. The Denver church reported that its deacons were collecting a memorial offering for the New Orleans victims. In Milwaukee, where an MCC mission has been discontinued, about 65 persons attended a July 1 service at the Church for All People, conducted by the Rev. Bill Parish, pastor of the church, and the Rev. Wilbur _ _ain, a Lutheran minister and a leader of the Council on Religion and the Homosexual in Milwaukee. In Sacramento, the Rev. Bob Wolfe, conducted an MCC memorial service June 27, attended by 40 people, according to the Rev. Freda Smith, assistant pastor of the Sacramento MCC. She said the theme of the service was “that we don’t understand everything,” but “we are so grateful that the people (who died) were with us for awhile, and we praised God for the fact that we’d had them and they were part of us all growing together. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Account of Memorials in Many Cities Description An account of the resource The August 1st edition of The Advocate includes a long article describing the memorial services held in MCC congregations and gay communities in cities all around the U.S. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Advocate, August 1, 1973. https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/0dcb2620b05116502e32925295ded397.JPG 298ccae6a35a5e406b757a2dfaa2625c https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/313e8742362dddc0fdc827e9a162f3ad.JPG b35fa461f1c703419f155b2e9762f005 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Upstairs Lounge Fire Person An individual. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Adam Roland Fontenot Description An account of the resource Adam Roland Fontenot, 32, linguist and partner of Douglas “Buddy" Rasmussen, Upstairs bartender who led several patrons to safety. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Johnny Townsend collection https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/c858e2201a2aba177fcae5d830d541d3.jpg 991cb9323d2e6adc5bcf7958b4a95532 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Upstairs Lounge Fire Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Text Any textual data included in the document <h4>New Congregation Will Be Organized.</h4> Organization of a new congregation, to be known as the Metropolitan Community Church, said to cater to the spiritual needs of those now neglected, was announced Friday by the Rev. David Solomon. The organizational meeting will be held Sunday at 2 p.m. in the auditorium of the First Unitarian Church, 1800 Jefferson Ave. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Announcement of Organizing Meeting Description An account of the resource Solomon arranges a newspaper announcement of the organizational meeting for the MCC Mission. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Times-Picayune, April 17, 1971 https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/2f29a8a8fde3ca4128ad4bba2091b2d7.jpg 8e377674b245b42a1380ac388d352a49 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Upstairs Lounge Fire Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Text Any textual data included in the document Lovers of the old-time mellerdrammers will rejoice that the Upstairs at 604 Iberville is planning a revival of this style of attraction. The first production EGAD, WHAT A CAD will be shown at 8 p.m. Saturday at an extension of the bar known at the “Second Landing” at the Upstairs. Bettye McAnner is the director… Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Announcing Nellydrama Description An account of the resource Newspaper announcement of melodramatic production at the Upstairs Theater. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Times-Picayune, May 15, 1971. https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/2a7a4558d6348dcd1f227837cd5a5e8e.jpg 9fee3e55f3584babbb7fbc475ede7da4 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Upstairs Lounge Fire Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Text Any textual data included in the document Hurt by Label Editor, The Times-Picayune I want to make a few comments about the fire at the Upstairs Bar, and the saddest part of all is that I must ask you to withhold my name because of a fear of losing my job. The people of New Orleans have no idea of the pain and suffering gays are now going through. Many lost dear and close friends in that horrible fire. These gay people are now all asking the same questions. Why are gay lives looked on so cheaply? Where are all the expressions of sorrow for the victims and their families from our public officials and religious leaders? Why did church after church turn down request from the gay community to hold memorial services? Why do police refer to patrons of the bar as “queers and thieves”? And most important of all, why did the news media find it necessary to refer to the bar time and time again as a homosexual bar? I am sure that not all of the people who were killed were gay, but even if they were it is grossly unfair to put labels on them. The relatives of those who died must live with this the rest of their lives and those who were injured are labeled for life which means possible loss of employment, etc…. I have heard of only one group in the straight community that publicly offered sympathy to the victims and gave public support to the national day of mourning, this group being the LSUNO Young Democrats. It must have taken a lot of courage for this group to make a public stand such as it did. Thank God for our young people, they might be this city’s last hope. M.F. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Anonymous Letter Decries Treatment of Gays Description An account of the resource A letter to the editor by a closeted gay person raises questions about the discounting of gay people in the aftermath of the fire. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Times-Picayune, July 4, 1973 https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/eac9fd8fa69e839abe091e443992a247.jpg 0e52ce13ca5043c825853d5d7644a5be Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Upstairs Lounge Fire Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Text Any textual data included in the document False Wall Responsible for Many of Fire Deaths New Orleans (UPI) Coroner Carl Rabin said today a false wall that hid windows from view in a French Quarter bar “certainly” was responsible for many of the 29 deaths in a flash fire that scorched the small lounge. The bar—the Upstairs Lounge—had burglar bars on at least one window and its fire escape did not reach the ground, according to state records. But fire fighters, who examined the lounge yesterday, said it was in compliance with the state fire code. Bodies of the 29 persons killed in the blaze Sunday were found on the opposite side of the room from the windows that may have had bars. The bodies were found on the side where a false-plywood wall hid windows that could have been used as an escape if they had been discovered sooner. The 21 persons who did escape kicked through the plywood and went through the windows. Fifteen of them were injured in the plunge to the ground, and the others stood on ledges or fire escapes until they were rescued by firemen. Authorities will were investigating the possibility of arson. Ten of the victims were members of the New Orleans chapter of the Metropolitan Community Church, a homosexual church with 47 chapters in the United States and London. A service for the 10 was held last night in St. George’s Episcopal Church. The Rev. Troy Perry of Los Angeles, founder of the churches, said in a sermon the fire was deliberately started. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Another Media Perspective in Seattle Description An account of the resource Brief story in the Seattle Times addresses questions of why this tragedy occurred as well as memorial service led by Troy Perry at St. George’s Episcopal Church. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Seattle Times, June 26, 1973. https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/4086a644d75302b5eb999b41a1ab9255.jpg c417ba93f415b33185a4e5c59d6722a7 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Upstairs Lounge Fire Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Text Any textual data included in the document <h4>‘Chaplain’ Call for Panel to Talk with Homosexuals.</h4> Condition is Disease of Sin—Harrington. The creation of a city panel composed of people “representing God’s views on homosexuals” was urged here Thursday by the Rev. Bob Harrington. Self-styled “the Chaplain of Bourbon Street,” the Baptist made this suggestion in a press conference at his headquarters in the French Quarter where he has worked for about 10 years. This panel, he said, would be empowered to negotiate with the homosexual community which has recently marched on City Hall and demanded “liberation” and an end to alleged police harassment. God’s view, the preacher explained, is the homosexuality is “an abomination, and He has put a great curse upon it, greater than that on ‘natural’ sins.” CALLS FOR DEBATE The Rev. Harrington also challenged the Rev. David Solomon, a Holiness Pentecostal minister, who has said there are plans to organize a church in New Orleans for the homosexual community, to a debate on what Bible authority he could use for such a move. “If these people think they are right,” he commented, “why do they have to ostracize themselves, why not participate in already existing churches and ‘upgrade’ us?” The Metropolitan Crime Commission, the chaplain said, “has been overinterested in the underworld, when the deterioration of the community is effected much more by homosexuality.” The Rev. Harrington commended the police department for carrying out laws against unnatural acts and protecting “the natural man against the unnatural.” SAID DEGENERATING The tourist trade, the minister said, “will degenerate more when they (homosexuals) are there, then when hippies are around. Homosexuality is an internal thing.” But homosexuality is not confined to the French Quarter,” the chaplain commented” and affects everyone from bank presidents to bums, mostly people who have too much time on their hands.” Homosexuality is not hereditary or a genetic problem, but “a sinful problem,” the Rev. Harrington said, “though they try to blame it on their mothers or society. They chose this way of life so they can change to get rid of it.” People of the city can help the increasing development of this problem, the preacher said, “by warning people of the dangers of homosexuality, like the American Cancer Society warns of the disease’s signals.” Homosexuality has grown more than any other problem (or sin) he has seen, Rev. Harrington said, although he added that it’s usually accompanied by a drug or alcohol problem. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Baptist Minister Challenges Solomon Description An account of the resource Newspaper prints a longer article quoting anti-gay Baptist preacher Bob Harrington. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Times-Picayune, January 29, 1971 https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/002427dc8e72919447938afa4cdb3d83.JPG f40eb45a8124e38b3b5409d9f6d1975b Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Upstairs Lounge Fire Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Bar Destroyed Description An account of the resource Charred remains of the main room of the bar, facing Chartres Street. Most of the victims were found at these barred windows. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived AP wirephoto https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/cdfc1955a757824001b9aa9dd8f030a6.jpg 263cab2530210d39247015ecc82426d0 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Upstairs Lounge Fire Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Bar Floor Plan Description An account of the resource Floor Plan of bar drawn after the fire, showing the three rooms and escape route along with location of fatalities. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Upstairs Lounge Fire by A. Elwood Willey in The National Fire Protection Association Journal (1974). https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/e4532f1fbf6c0b644ecdf8fc31954f67.JPG 0a8efc79bb17e87897e79e65fd582584 https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/773b398fa0056986047dec9b8ac96339.JPG 7149ac7c3b478b325220c38130fb799a Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Upstairs Lounge Fire Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Bartender Buddy Rasmussen Description An account of the resource Bartender Buddy Rasmussen and the interior bar area of the Upstairs Lounge, Mardi Gras 1973. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Johnny Townsend collection https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/53d66b112dc3279b50c30a7e3f5997d8.jpg 8b94b649667ae7a52d80a863417e2052 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Upstairs Lounge Fire Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Text Any textual data included in the document 29 Die in New Orleans Fire Deacon in Tavern Blames Arsonist by Joseph P. Manguno New Orleans (UPI) A church deacon who attended a Sunday beer bust inside a “gay bar” on the fringe of the French Quarter said yesterday he believes an arsonist started a flash fire that killed 29 persons inside the tavern in just 16 minutes. Police searched for clues to prove it. Investigators questioned the 15 persons injured by the blaze about reports that a fight preceded the fire, and that some of the survivors smelled gasoline when the fire flashed. Fire officials said burglar bars on the windows prevented victims from escaping. The French Quarter had not had such a serious fire since blazes in 1788 and 1794 practically destroyed the famed district. “Someone threw something in there,” said Courtney Craighead, a deacon of the Metropolitan Community Church of New Orleans. He said there was no explosion but he believes an arsonist poured gasoline in a stairwell and set it afire. “The fire came up the stairs fast. There was an immense smoke in the room immediately,” said Craighead who fled to safety out a rear exit. “The Detective Bureau is investigating witnesses, looking into the possibility of arson,” said Frank Hayward, a police department spokesman. Of the 29 victims, only one was a woman. The others died—body stacked upon body—in a tavern called “The Upstairs,” a second floor spot which had some windows covered with boards and bars. “It was a gay bar—you know, homosexual, very gay,” said Antoinette Evelyn Harris, owner of a tavern next door. “Every Sunday they have this beer bust with all the beer you can drink for a dollar.” Witnesses said two men were thrown out of the bar shortly before the fire started—one for fighting, the other for being a nuisance. “There were a couple of guys quarreling at the top of the stairs,” said William White, 18, of Pineville, La., who was headed to the party with a friend. “I don’t like no kind of fights, so we left. We weren’t more than a block away when I looked back. The whole place was lit up by fire.” The tavern is divided into three sections—a piano bar, a dance room and a place where plays and other activities are presented. The fire broke out in the piano bar. In the front, the building’s windows were covered by burglar bars and a large wooden panel. Both prevented victims from escaping and fire officials said the boarded windows probably violated the city’s fire code. “We are checking several reports that some people smelled something like gasoline,” said William J. McCrossen, New Orleans fire superintendent. Of the 15 persons injured when they jumped to the street to escape the inferno, six remained in serious condition at Charity Hospital. The tavern itself was a charred ruin. “They were just piled up—people in a mass. One falls, the another falls…it’s just a mass of death,” said Dr. Carl H. Rabin, Orleans Parish coroner, describing the scene. The blaze was reported at 7:56 p.m. Sunday and brought under control by firemen 16 minutes later. All but a few of the 29 victims were clustered at the base of boarded up windows on one side of the bar. A bathroom and the only exit were located on the other side of the room. Some of the dead were found piled there. Officials at the Coroner’s Office said identifying the victims would be difficult because they were burned so badly. Officials said it was the worst fire disaster in New Orleans’ modern history. It was the latest in the series of disastrous blazes in the city—the last of which was at the Rault Center , a downtown high-rise complex. Six persons were killed there, including three who jumped to their deaths. Several persons jumped to safety in Sunday’s fire. “They didn’t move when they hit,” a witness said. “One guy weight about 200 pounds and he was still on fire when he hit the street.” Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Boston Story Highlights Homosexual Angle Description An account of the resource The coverage in the Boston Herald-American illustrates the sensationalizing aspects of media coverage of gays at this time. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Boston Herald-American, June 26, 1973.