Tinderbox

  33.Interview with Golding; Delery-Edwards, The Up Stairs Lounge Arson, 148.

  34.National New Orleans Memorial Fund to Lucien Baril, January 18, 1974, National New Orleans Memorial Fund Collection.

  35.Ralph Spencer Forest, Statement to Louisiana Office of State Fire Marshal, November 19, 1974, 1, Skylar Fein Upstairs Lounge Fire Collection, Historic New Orleans Collection; “Official Report,” State Fire Marshal, 50–51, 30; Elaine Wharton (Bassett) Nunez, Statement to Louisiana Office of State Fire Marshal, December 9, 1974, 1–2, Louisiana State Archives; Patrik Vuilleumier, “Hysterical Conversion and Brain Function,” Progress in Brain Research 150 (2005): 309–29.

  36.Forest, Statement to State Fire Marshal, 2–5.

  37.“The Post Office,” Causeway, December 1973, 2 (read at Rebels, Rubyfruit and Rhinestones Research Files, Sears Papers); Townsend, Let the Faggots Burn, 321; Forest, Statement to State Fire Marshal, 11, 6.

  38.Delery-Edwards, The Up Stairs Lounge Arson, 130; Forest, Statement to State Fire Marshal, 6.

  39.Forest, Statement to State Fire Marshal, 10; “Official Report,” State Fire Marshal, 51.

  40.Ibid.; Mary Stephen Ledet, Statement to Louisiana Office of State Fire Marshal, November 20, 1974, 3–4, Skylar Fein Upstairs Lounge Fire Collection, Historic New Orleans Collection.

  41.Delery-Edwards, The Up Stairs Lounge Arson, 136; “Official Report,” State Fire Marshal, 51.

  42.Ibid.; Forest, Statement to State Fire Marshal, 10.

  43.Forest, Statement to State Fire Marshal, 1–3; “Official Report,” State Fire Marshal, 51.

  44.Forest, Statement to State Fire Marshal, 2, 5, 8.

  45.BonneCarrere to Shea, April 11, 1974.

  46.Forest, Statement to State Fire Marshal, 2–4, 12; (Bassett) Nunez, Statement to State Fire Marshal, 1.

  47.(Bassett) Nunez, Statement to State Fire Marshal, 1.

  48.Ibid.; Forest, Statement to State Fire Marshal, 12.

  49.(Bassett) Nunez, Statement to State Fire Marshal, 1.

  50.Ibid.; Delery-Edwards, The Up Stairs Lounge Arson, 130.

  51.“Invoice for National New Orleans Memorial Fund,” June 22, 1974, National New Orleans Memorial Fund Collection, ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives; “Narrative of Support,” June 22, 1974, National New Orleans Memorial Fund Collection; “Survivor Discovers Her True Friends,” The Advocate, July 31, 1974, 8.

  52.Interview with Troy Perry, December 2, 2014; David Bird, “Clay Shaw Is Dead at Sixty; Freed in Kennedy ‘Plot,’ ” The New York Times, August 16, 1974, 32; “Clay Shaw Final Rites to Be Today,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, August 16, 1974, 1; “Clay L. Shaw of JFK Case Is Dead at Sixty,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 16, 1974, 4.

  53.“Clay Shaw Final Rites,” 1; Perry interview.

  54.(Bassett) Nunez, Statement to State Fire Marshal, 1–2; Rodger Dale Nunez, Coroner’s Office Day Record, November 16, 1974, in supplemental materials to “Official Report,” Louisiana Office of State Fire Marshal, July 22, 1975, Louisiana State Archives, Baton Rouge; “Court Records,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, September 12, 1974, sect. 4, p. 3.

  55.“Case Report,” New Orleans Police Department, November 15, 1974, 1–2 (read at Rebels, Rubyfruit and Rhinestones Research Files, Sears Papers); Nunez, Coroner’s Office Day Record; Forest, Statement to State Fire Marshal, 12, 10; (Bassett) Nunez, Statement to State Fire Marshal, 1.

  56.Rodger Dale Nunez, Autopsy, Orleans Parish Coroner’s Office, November 15, 1974, in supplemental materials to “Official Report,” State Fire Marshal; Forest, Statement to State Fire Marshal, 6.

  57.Forest, Statement to State Fire Marshal, 6.

  58.Ibid., 6–7.

  59.“Rodger Dale Nunez,” obituary, Kaplan Herald, November 20, 1974, 8; “OUR SINCERE AND HEARTFELT THANKS,” Abbeville Meridional, December 5, 1974, 21; Nunez, Coroner’s Office Day Record; Rodger D. Nunez, memorial 95376662, findagrave.com.

  60.“Official Report,” State Fire Marshal, 51.

  61.Townsend, Let the Faggots Burn, 219; Forest, Statement to State Fire Marshal, 1; Delery-Edwards, The Up Stairs Lounge Arson, 136; interview with Stewart Butler, August 4, 2015.

  62.Interview with Roy Reed, September 24, 2014.

  63.Townsend, Let the Faggots Burn, 219, 213; “Official Report,” State Fire Marshal, 51; Forest, Statement to State Fire Marshal, 1, 3-4; BonneCarrere to Shea, April 11, 1974; “General Case Report,” NOPD, 55.

  14: Rally Forth

  1.Interview with Roberts Batson, May 18, 2016.

  2.“Gay Rights Protections in the U.S. and Canada,” National Gay Task Force, 1976, Rebels, Rubyfruit and Rhinestones Research Files, James T. Sears Papers, Duke University Libraries, Durham, N.C.; George Painter, “Massachusetts,” Gay and Lesbian Archives of the Pacific Northwest, 2002, www.glapn.org/sodomylaws/sensibilities/massachusetts.htm; George Painter, “Ohio,” Gay and Lesbian Archives of the Pacific Northwest, 2002, www.glapn.org/sodomylaws/sensibilities/ohio.htm; George Painter, “Arkansas,” Gay and Lesbian Archives of the Pacific Northwest, 2002, www.glapn.org/sodomylaws/sensibilities/arkansas.htm; George Painter, “North Dakota,” Gay and Lesbian Archives of the Pacific Northwest, 2002, www.glapn.org/sodomylaws/sensibilities/north_dakota.htm.

  3.“I Am a Homosexual,” Time, September 8, 1975, 32–36; “Gay Activist Leonard Matlovich, Forty-Four, Is Buried with Full Military Honors,” Chicago Tribune, July 3, 1988 (http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1988-07-03/news/8801120440_1_homosexuals-in-concentration-camps-congressional-cemetery-gay-rights-activists).

  4.Neil Swan, “Gay Pride Rally Without Incident,” Atlanta Constitution, June 27, 1976, 7B; Patrick Buchanan, “A Somber View of Gay Pride Week,” Chicago Tribune, July 1, 1976, 20 (http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1976/07/01/page/20/article/buchanan); Frank Perez and Jeffrey Palmquist, In Exile: The History and Lore Surrounding New Orleans Gay Culture and Its Oldest Gay Bar (Hurlford, Scotland: LL-Publications, 2012), 192.

  5.Merikaye Presley, “Bob Hope Will Host Grand Opening Gala at Superdome,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, August 1, 1975, 1; Paul Atkinson, “Superdome to Open Doors in 1975,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, January 12, 1975, 160; Nancy Weldon, “Best of Hope, Lamour—and Savalas,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, August 30, 1975, 6; “Dome Close Up View Today,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, August 3, 1975, 1.

  6.Henry Kubicki, “Henry Kubicki Account” (unpublished manuscript, November 14, 2013), LGBT Religious Archives Network (http://exhibits.lgbtran.org/exhibits/show/upstairs-lounge-fire), Berkeley, Calif.

  7.Valerie Haynes, “Memorial Rites Honor Lounge Blaze Victims,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, June 23, 1975; interviews with Richard Everett, August 10 and August 25, 2015; Kubicki, “Henry Kubicki Account.”

  8.Interviews with Richard Everett, January 20, 2017, and July 27, 2015.

  9.Kenneth Weiss, “Blaze Report Is Near,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, June 25, 1975, 18; correspondence file between Deputy State Fire Marshal Edward Hyde and Orleans Parish District Attorney Harry Connick, 1975, Louisiana State Archives, Baton Rouge; interview with Trevor Santos, November 19, 2015.

  10.Clayton Delery-Edwards, The Up Stairs Lounge Arson: Thirty-Two Deaths in a New Orleans Gay Bar, June 24, 1973 (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2014), 135; correspondence file between Hyde and Connick, 1975; Weiss, “Blaze Report Is Near,” 18.

  11.“Up Stairs Fire,” Vieux Carré Courier, September 11, 1975, 2 (read at Rebels, Rubyfruit and Rhinestones Research Files, Sears Papers); correspondence file between Deputy State Fire Marshal Edward Hyde and Orleans Parish District Attorney Harry Connick, 1975–1980, Louisiana State Archives; Bill Rushton, “Mystery Unravels in New Orleans Bar Fire,” The Advocate, October 22, 1975 (read at Johnny Townsend Collection, ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives at the USC Libraries, Los Angeles).

  12.Rushton, “Mystery Unravels in New Orleans Bar Fire”; National Bureau of Standards to Elwood Willey, December 12, 1973, LGBT Religious Archives Network (http://exhibits.lgbtran.org/exhibits/show/upstairs-lounge-fire);
“Inspection and/or Investigation Report,” Fire Prevention Division of the New Orleans Fire Department, December 4, 1970, and Inspection and/or Investigation Report, Fire Prevention Division of the New Orleans Fire Department, October 15, 1970, both in Johnny Townsend Collection.

  13.Rushton, “Mystery Unravels in New Orleans Bar Fire”; “Inspection and/or Investigation Report,” Fire Prevention Division of the New Orleans Fire Department, June 24–25, 1973, Johnny Townsend Collection; “Supplemental Information,” Fire Prevention Division of the New Orleans Fire Department, c. 1975, Johnny Townsend Collection.

  14.Rushton, “Mystery Unravels in New Orleans Fire.”

  15.Ibid.

  16.Interview with Skip Bailey, August 21, 2015; interview with Marc Schmitz, July 1, 2016; Joseph Rivoire to Marc Schmitz, June 10, 1976 (courtesy of Marc Schmitz).

  17.Johnny Townsend, Let the Faggots Burn: The Up Stairs Lounge Fire (self-published through BookLocker.com, 2011), 178; Francis Dufrene v. Anthony Guarino et al., Court of Appeals of Louisiana, Fourth Circuit, January 12, 1977; Ken Weiss, “VCC Director Criticizes Disaster Area Rhetoric,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, July 18, 1973, 40.

  18.Dufrene v. Guarino; Eric Newhouse, “Bar Not Inspected in Two Years,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, July 1, 1973, 4.

  19.Dufrene v. Guarino.

  20.Townsend, Let the Faggots Burn, 178–79; interview with Tina Matyi, October 29, 2016.

  21.Interview with John Golding Jr., November 6, 2017.

  22.Townsend, Let the Faggots Burn, 179; interview with Duane Mitchell, August 14, 2015.

  23.“Christine Jorgensen,” Gertrude’s Notes (Gertrude Stein Society newsletter), March 1977 (read at Rebels, Rubyfruit and Rhinestones Research Files, Sears Papers); John McQuiston, “Christine Jorgensen, Sixty-Two, Is Dead; Was First to Have a Sex Change,” The New York Times, May 4, 1989; Becky Bruns, “Guys and Dolls … A Play on Roles,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, January 16, 1977, 82; Townsend, Let the Faggots Burn, 320.

  24.Townsend, Let the Faggots Burn, 320–21; interview with Steven Duplantis, March 11, 2016.

  25.Ed Martinez, “Where Are the Gay Activists in New Orleans,” Vieux Carré Star, April 7, 1977, 1 (read at Rebels, Rubyfruit and Rhinestones Research Files).

  26.“Esteve Says There’s No Need for Gay Activists,” Vieux Carré Star, April 14, 1977, 1, 7 (read at Rebels, Rubyfruit and Rhinestones Research Files).

  27.“Gay Rights Protections”; “Bias Against Homosexuals Is Outlawed in Miami,” The New York Times, January 19, 1977, 14; “Battle over Gay Rights,” Newsweek, June 6, 1977, 16–24; “County in Florida Has Sex Problem,” Harlingen [Tex.] Valley Morning Star, March 27, 1970; Paul Houston, “Homosexuals Stage Hollywood Parade,” Los Angeles Times, June 29, 1970, 3; Angus Lind, Lanny Thomas, and Walt Philbin, “Twenty-Nine Dead in Quarter Holocaust,” New Orleans States-Item, June 25, 1973, 1.

  28.Joel Greenberg, “Singer Opens Drive to Repeal Gay Law,” Miami Herald, February 12, 1977; “Battle over Gay Rights,” 16; “Anita Bryant—Call from the Lord,” Oakland Tribune, May 6, 1977.

  29.Perry Deane Young, God’s Bullies: Power Politics and Religious Tyranny (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1982); “Bias Against Homosexuals Is Outlawed in Miami,” 14; Morton Kondracke, “Anita Bryant Is Mad About Gays,” The New Republic, May 7, 1977, 13–14; Jean O’Leary and Bruce Voeller, “Anita Bryant’s Crusade,” The New York Times, June 7, 1977, 35.

  30.Kondracke, “Anita Bryant Is Mad About Gays”; “Anita Bryant Scores White House Talk with Homosexuals,” The New York Times, March 28, 1977, 56; interview with Troy Perry, December 2, 2014; “Gay Panel Talks with Carter Officials,” Newport News Daily Press, March 27, 1977, A2; Lillian Faderman, The Gay Revolution: The Story of the Struggle (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2015).

  31.B. Drummond Ayres, “Miami Votes 2 to 1 to Repeal Law Barring Bias Against Homosexuals,” The New York Times, June 8, 1977, 1; Timothy McNulty, “Anita Wins, Gay Rights Defeated,” Chicago Tribune, June 8, 1977, 1; Nathanial Sheppard, “Law on Homosexuals Repealed in St. Paul,” The New York Times, April 26, 1978, 1; Faderman, The Gay Revolution; “Voting Against Gay Rights,” Time, May 22, 1978 (http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,91947,00.html); “Officers Attack Gay Rights,” Walla Walla Evening Bulletin, August 8, 1978.

  32.Ivan Sharpe, “Angry Gays March Through S.F.,” San Francisco Examiner, June 8, 1977, 1; “The Nation: The Gaycott Turns Ugly,” Time, November 21, 1977 (http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,915719,00.html); Thomas Tobin, “Bankruptcy, Ill Will Plague Bryant,” St. Petersburg Times, April 28, 2002 (www.sptimes.com/2002/04/28/State/Bankruptcy__ill_will_.shtml); Millie Ball, “ ‘I’d Rather My Child Be Dead than Homo,’ ” New Orleans Times-Picayune, June 19, 1977, 3; Jane Fritsch and Derrick Blakley, “Eight Arrested as 3,000 Protest Anita Bryant’s Shriner Show Here,” Chicago Tribune, June 15, 1977, 2; “3,000 in Houston Protest Anita Bryant Appearance,” The New York Times, June 17, 1977, 12; Alan Citron, “Anti-Anita Forces Hold Silent Protest,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, July 18, 1977, 1; Robert McQueen, “First-Hand from Houston: Bearing Witness to Our Humanity,” The Advocate, July 27, 1977, 10–11; “2500 Marched in New Orleans, as Many as 8000 in Houston,” Vieux Carré Star, June 30, 1977, 1 (read at Rebels, Rubyfruit and Rhinestones Research Files, Sears Papers); interview with Larry Bagneris, August 24, 2015.

  33.“At Ease,” Vieux Carré Courier, June 2, 1977; interview with Roberts Batson, July 11, 2014; George Hager, “Anita Bryant Pops Booking Stirs Protest,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, May 14, 1977, 26; Alan Robinson, personal diaries, Alan Robinson Papers, Louisiana Research Collection, Howard-Tilton Memorial Library, Tulane University, New Orleans; “Anita Bryant,” Vieux Carré Courier, May 19, 1977, 19; Roberts Batson, “Claiming Our Past” (column 19), Impact, May 12, 1995, 18 (read at Rebels, Rubyfruit and Rhinestones Research Files); “Batson Wins Award,” Impact, August 1978, 1 (read at Impact Records, Louisiana Research Collection); “Demonstrate for Human Rights” (rally poster), June 1977, Rebels, Rubyfruit, and Rhinestones Research Files.

  34.Townsend, Let the Faggots Burn, 312; “Rod Wagner” [sic], Gertrude’s Notes, March 1978 (read at Rebels, Rubyfruit and Rhinestones Research Files); “AFTRA Adopts Bryant Motion,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, May 16, 1977, 14; Batson, “Claiming Our Past” 19; “Blacklist Anita Bryant?,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, May 17, 1977, 12; “Anita Bryant Boycott Is Killed,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, May 26, 1977, 5.

  35.Killgore interview, January 17, 2016; “No Violence, Anita Demonstrators Told,” New Orleans States-Item, June 17, 1977, 4; “Friday Bulletin,” HERE, June 1977, Rebels, Rubyfruit and Rhinestones Research Files; “Miami Come Help Us,” HERE, June 1977, Rebels, Rubyfruit and Rhinestones Research Files; Paul Breton, “United We Stand” (unpublished manuscript, August 1973), National New Orleans Memorial Fund Collection, ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives; “The Lavender Hill Mob Takes on Anita Bryant,” New Orleans Figaro, June 29, 1977, 29 (read at Rebels, Rubyfruit and Rhinestones Research Files).

  36.“The Lavender Hill Mob Takes on Anita Bryant,” 29; Batson interview, July 11, 2014; “2500 Marched at New Orleans,” 1; Killgore interview, January 17, 2016; “Demonstrate for Human Rights”; Roger Nelson to James Sears, c. 2001, Rebels, Rubyfruit and Rhinestones Research Files.

  37.“The Lavender Hill Mob Takes on Anita Bryant,” 29; Killgore interview, January 17, 2016; Alan Citron, “ ‘Out of Closets, into Streets’ Is Gay Protest Rally Cry,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, June 19, 1977, 3; Ralph Blumenthal, “March Is Staged by Homosexuals,” The New York Times, June 26, 1972, 21; interview with Stewart Butler, July 20, 2014.

  38.Frank Perez, “The Lavender Line: Jerry Menefee, St. Ann, and Bourbon,” Ambush, July 19, 2016 (www.ambushmag.com/is1516/images/1516main6-10.pdf); Citron, “ ‘Out of the Closets, into Streets’ Is Gay Protest Rally Cry,” 3; “The Lavender Hill Mob Takes on Anita Bryant,” 29.

  39.Killgore interview, January 17, 2016; Lovell Beaulieu, “No
Incidents at Anita Protest,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, June 19, 1977, 3; Batson interview, July 11, 2014.

  40.Citron, “ ‘Out of Closets, into Streets’ Is Gay Protest Rally Cry,” 3; Chris Segura, “Cleric Says Oppression Problem for Homosexuals,” The Times-Picayune, July 2, 1973, 14.

  41.Delery-Edwards, The Up Stairs Lounge Arson, 141; Batson interview, July 11, 2014; “Anita May Lose OJ Job,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, June 19, 1977, 1; Vecsey, “Secular Bookings Off, Anita Bryant Sings at Revivals,” 18.

  42.Batson interview, July 11, 2014; “Batson Wins Award,” 1; Roberts Batson, “Gay Politics,” Impact, June 23, 1995, 30 (read at Rebels, Rubyfruit and Rhinestones Research Files).

  15: Last Resort

  1.“Anita Bryant Performance Causes Stir in New Orleans,” Fort Myers News-Press, May 25, 1977, 47; “Rod Wagner” [sic], Gertrude’s Notes, March 1978 (read at Rebels, Rubyfruit and Rhinestones Research Files, James T. Sears Papers, Duke University Libraries, Durham, N.C.); “Whatever Happened to … ,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, March 18, 1979, 195; Kim Chatelain, “Thirteen Candidates Vie for Alliance Support,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, August 15, 1979, 4; Paul Atkinson, “Glaudi, Wagener Clash at Political Forum,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, September 8, 1979, 4; “Most Incumbents Rise,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, October 28, 1979, 12.

  2.Dudley Clendinen, “ ‘Christian New Right’s’ Rush to Power,” The New York Times, August 18, 1980, 31; Joe Darby, “Vampire Story Serious Novel,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, August 1, 1976, 170.

  3.Arthur Roane, “Reversal Sought on Jazz Ruling,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, August 22, 1979, 19; Kelly Tucker, “A Memorial to Satchmo,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, April 11, 1980, special Jazz Fest section, p. 9; Ed Anderson, “Giarrusso Replacement, Taxes on Morial’s Mind,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, November 14, 1977, 1.