Humorously referring to the absurdly lavish lifestyles of the rich and famous, Southern Decadence was first organized as a gathering of friends, it accompanied by the expectation for all guests to arrive in costumes mimicking Southern celebrities and historical figures in order to express the party’s aforementioned theme and reference the novel Rebels, Rubyfruit, and Rhinestones: Queering Space in the Stonewall South by James T. Sears. A year later, the original curators expanded upon the idea, marching in a parade that began here where Matassa’s Bar used to stand and ended at the party’s original location. Southern Decadence has since expanded into a six-day festival celebrated annually over the course of the Labor Day weekend and now includes an official committee of Grand Marshals who declare a yearly theme, color, and song; scheduled nights of entertainment hosted by local New Orleans pubs; and the walking parade, now beginning at the Golden Lantern bar and made up of thousands of participants.

A view of the Southern Decadence festival

A brass band playing at Southern Decadence

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Now home to a grocery store and deli eatery of the same name, Matassa’s Bar was the former establishment operated by a member of the same Matassa family. It also dually functioned as a recording studio for local musicians. This was the location of the second Southern Decadence festival, now a world-famous celebration put on by the LGBT community in New Orleans. The marketplace is located two blocks off North Rampart Street within the French Quarter.

Matassa's Bar and New Orleans' Southern Decadence Festival

This walking tour delves into the queer history of New Orleans. This tour will take you through many New Orleans LGBTQ historical landmarks, from social spaces and bars (some of which still stand today) to the sites of important events that helped to shape and organize the New Orleans queer community. Total walking time is about 30 minutes.

New Orleans LGBTQ History Walking Tour

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Wonder Bar was a female impersonation club opened by Emile Morlet in 1933, just after the end of Prohibition. In 1936, due to continuous police harassment and raids, Morlet moved the bar to the West End of New Orleans, on the shores of Lake Pontchartrain, where it was renamed Wonder Club. In the 1940s, Wonder Club was renamed once again and became Club My-O-My, hosting both regular performers and touring drag artists. It was rebuilt after a fire in 1948 and continued to be a popular tourist spot for several decades, but Club My-O-My closed permanently after another fire in 1972.

In the early 20th century, this address was the location of Wonder Bar, a New Orleans female impersonation club. Although Wonder Bar soon moved across town and changed its name several times, it remained a popular drag club for several decades, attracting both locals and tourists to its extravagant shows.

Wonder Bar (1933-1972)

This location was the site of the New Orleans International Trade Mart, which was founded in 1947 by Clay Shaw, a gay New Orleans businessman who was also the only person ever tried in connection the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. After living for several years in New York City and then serving in the army, Shaw returned to his home state of Louisiana, where he founded the Trade Mart and purchased and preserved many French Quarter properties. In 1963, JFK was shot by New Orleans native Lee Harvey Oswald, and New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison became convinced that the assassination was “a homosexual thrill killing”. On March 1, 1967, Garrison had Shaw arrested for conspiring to murder JFK. Two years later, on March 1, 1969, Shaw was tried, and after only an hour of deliberation, the jury found him not guilty. His reputation ruined and his large amounts of his savings spent on his defense, Shaw filed a civil suit against Garrison, but Shaw died of cancer in 1974 before the suit could be brought to a conclusion.

This street corner was once the location of the New Orleans International Trade Mart, which first opened its doors in 1947. The founder of the Trade Mart was a local gay businessman named Clay Shaw, who became the only person ever to be tried in connection with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. 

International Trade Mart (1948-1968)

The Upstairs Lounge served a variety of purposes-a sanctuary for homosexual couples wishing to enjoy a few drinks together, a gathering place for friends, and a meeting place for community groups and members of the&nbsp;Metropolitan Community Church since the early 1970s.&nbsp;First established in 1968 in&nbsp;Los Angeles, MCC became the&nbsp;first established Christian church to offer services and full membership for homosexuals in the United States. One July 27, 1973, the LA headquarters of the church was destroyed by fire.&nbsp; The 1973 attack drew attention among some of the city's more liberal leaders, but national news outlets only covered the story for one or two days and the attacker was never identified. To date, much of what is known about the attack comes from oral histories of survivors and the reports of alternative papers like the&nbsp;Vieux-Carre Courier. A survey of local press reveal that even in New Orleans, local papers included quotes that demonized the victims as deviants. Henry Morris led the investigation for the New Orleans&nbsp;police department. The detective offered&nbsp;several quotes to the local paper that&nbsp;indicated an assumption that the victims were deviants. Each of the city's leading churches refused requests to hold a memorial service for the deceased until St. Marks United Methodist offered their sanctuary. Hundreds attended the service which, along with other memorials and other gatherings, offered the families of the fallen an opportunity to mourn their loss with dignity. Despite requests that reporters and others&nbsp;allow the mourners privacy-an important consideration&nbsp;given the harassment and arrest of members of the gay community-funeral attendees were informed that reporters in cameras awaited them outside. After discussing the possibility of leaving by a side door, each attendee decided to hold hands and walk out of the service&nbsp;together in unison.&nbsp;

The deadliest fire in New Orleans history occurred at this location in 1973 when an arsonist set a fire with the intention of killing attendees of a social sponsored by the Metropolitan Community Church-an organization that served members of New Orleans gay community. The attack occurred at the UpStairs Lounge, a bar that doubled as a meeting place and sanctuary for the church and other organizations. The arsonist designed their attack to create an updraft of flame that prevented escape, trapping those who could not fit through a window in an inferno that claimed the lives of pastor Bill Larson and thirty others. The attack occurred on the final day of Pride Week and the 4th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising in New York. 

UpStairs Lounge Fire, June 24, 1973

This restaurant of local and regional cuisine was the first home to the oldest celebration of New Orleans’s queer population, the Fat Monday Luncheon. It was 1949, and founder Bob Demmons had been hosting friends for the city’s Mardi Gras festivities when he orchestrated the original celebration, crowning a Queen during their lunch and organizing a small procession through the French Quarter, complete with a horse-drawn carriage and the throwing of gladiolas by the newly pronounced royal. Now held at Arnaud’s on 813 Bienville Street, the 200-person event–exclusive to the first bidders for restaurant seating–happens annually and involves the initiation of two separate Queens, various comedic awards, and a communal second-line made up of musicians, the luncheon’s participants, and the other diners in the area.

Across the street from the Louisiana Supreme Court, Brennan’s restaurant has been a New Orleans staple since 1946. Pleasantly pink with the iron-framed balconies and the exterior window shutters so distinct to the city’s architecture, the dining establishment heralds itself for providing innovative Creole cuisine and charming meal service and ambiance. The restaurant also has an important place in New Orleans queer history, having hosted the original Fat Monday Luncheon, America's longest-running event to be continually hosted for and by members of the gay community.

Brennan’s and Fat Monday Luncheon

Renowned author and playwright Tennessee Williams moved to New Orleans in 1939, shortly after graduating college at the age of 28. Williams became part of New Orleans’s gay elite, frequenting establishments such as Cafe Lafitte, and the city of New Orleans came to inspire much of his writing. Over the course of his time in New Orleans, Williams lived in several different properties in the French Quarter, but it was in this apartment on St. Peter Street that, inspired by the sounds of the Royal St streetcar that he could overhear from inside, he wrote his famous play A Streetcar Named Desire, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize.

This address was one of several places in New Orleans where renowned American playwright Tennessee Williams once lived. Although he only lived here a short time, it was in this apartment that Williams began to write his famous play A Streetcar Named Desire. The actual apartment that Williams lived in is no longer here, but the back staircase he used to access his living quarters still remains.

Tennessee Williams's Apartment

This alleyway was the site of the 1958 murder of a gay Mexican tour guide named Fernando Rios. On the evening of September 29, 1958, three fraternity brothers from Tulane University decided to go out to the French Quarter to “roll a queer”, or find a gay man to beat up. John Farrell, one of the students, went into the gay bar Cafe Lafitte in Exile, where he met Fernando Rios. When Rios invited Farrell home with him, the two left the bar together, and when they were unable to get a taxi, Farrell led Rios into this alley, where Farrell’s other two friends were waiting. The students viciously beat Rios, stole his wallet, and left him in the alleyway, bleeding and unconscious. The 26-year-old Rios was discovered in the alleyway the next morning and taken to the hospital, where he died from his wounds. The three students were indicted for the murder but were soon acquitted, due to both the homophobia surrounding the case and the students’ wealthy, respected status. While the ‘not guilty’ verdict was celebrated by the press and by broader New Orleans society, this brutally homophobic hate crime and the failure of the equally homophobiclaw enforcement and court systems to serve justice sparked anger among gay and lesbian residents of the city. This murder, and the outrage it engendered, marked one of several key events that eventually led to the formation of a more coherent and organized LGBT community in New Orleans.

In 1958, a gay man named Fernando Rios was murdered in this alleyway. Although the three college students responsible for his murder were identified, they were all acquitted due to the homophobia surrounding the trial. This event stands out as an example of the past failure, and even refusal, of the New Orleans justice system to protect its LGBTQ citizens, which lead to protest and activism in the following decades.

Pere Antoine Alley-The Murder of Fernando Rios, 1958

Established in 1933 by Roger “Tom” Caplinger, Cafe Lafitte in Exile claims to be the oldest continuously operating gay bar in the United States. When it first opened, it was called Cafe Lafitte and was housed just down the block at 941 Bourbon St, in the historic Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop building. In 1953, the owners lost their lease to a new owner who did not want the existing gay clientele at the bar, so they were forced to move the bar to its current location at 901 Bourbon St, renaming it Cafe Lafitte in Exile to commemorate this forced move. The bar, which is open 24/7, was a fixture of the New Orleans gay scene, once hosting regulars such as Tennessee Williams and Truman Capote.

This is the site of Cafe Lafitte in Exile, a very popular New Orleans gay bar and perhaps the oldest continuously operating gay bar in the United States. It is open 24 hours a day and has occupied this spot on Bourbon Street since 1953, after moving from 941 Bourbon St, where it originally opened in 1933.

Cafe Lafitte in Exile

After having fought for the repeal of anti-discriminatory legislation protecting the civil rights of Miami’s queer residents, Anita Bryant, a national pageant winner and moderate singing sensation, was set to make her first public appearance in New Orleans at the Summer Pops festival. When said news arrived to the city, the Gertrude Stein Society, a gay organization founded by Alan Robinson in order to correct the disjointed and classist nature of the queer community in New Orleans, met with other queer organizations to formulate a response. By the time of the concert on June 18, 1977, twenty-four organizations, including the Metropolitan Community Church, gay Mardi Gras Krewes, and feminist groups combined forces to create the Human Rights for Everyone (HERE) initiative, which then led around three thousand protestors from Jackson Square to this location, the Municipal Auditorium, interrupting Bryant’s performance with peaceful demonstration.

Residing within the Louis Armstrong Park, the Municipal Auditorium is a large stone structure that can be found towards the center of the public grounds. The building is designed with an assortment of arch-shaped windows, multi-tiered stories, rectangular stone pillars, and engravings declaring its association to several facets of the humanities such as “music,” “poetry,” and “art.” The auditorium, which is now closed, was home in 1977 to a protest organized by the New Orleans gay community against anti-gay celebrity Anita Bryant.


New Orleans LGBTQ History Walking Tour

Matassa's Bar and New Orleans' Southern Decadence Festival

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Backstory and Context

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