“Thieves, Queers and Fruit Jars: The Community and Media Responses to the Fire at the Upstairs Lounge” by Clayton Delery

“Thieves, Queers and Fruit Jars: The Community and Media Responses to the Fire at the Upstairs Lounge” by Clayton Delery

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.

Used by permission of Clayton Delery.