page_title: UpStairs Lounge arson attack
section_title: Legacy
hierarchical_section_title: UpStairs Lounge arson attack / Legacy
caption_attribution_description: English: New Orleans. Memorial procession on 45th anniversary of Upstairs Lounge firebombing. Photo by Infrogmation of New Orleans, 24 June 2018. Free reuse with author attribution in accordance with any of the licenses listed by the author/photographer. Reuse without photo attribution is a violation of copyright.
context_page_description: The UpStairs Lounge arson attack occurred on June 24, 1973 at a gay bar called the UpStairs Lounge located on the second floor of the three-story building at 141 Chartres Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the United States. Thirty-two people died as a result of fire or smoke inhalation. The official cause is still listed as "undetermined origin". The most likely suspect, a gay man named Roger Nunez who had been ejected from the bar earlier in the day, was never charged and took his own life in November 1974. No evidence has ever been found that the arson was motivated by hatred or overt homophobia. Until the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting, in which 49 people were murdered, the UpStairs Lounge arson attack was the deadliest known attack on a gay club in U.S. history. The incident is also the subject of the 2015 full length documentary, UPSTAIRS INFERNO, and the 2017 musical The View UpStairs.
context_section_description: In 1998 the reconstituted MCC congregation in New Orleans (Big Easy Metropolitan Community Church, since renamed again to MCC of New Orleans) held a 25th anniversary service to commemorate the arson and its 32 deaths. This event is significant because, unlike the one it memorialized, the 300 members of the congregation refused to hide their faces and instead insisted on entering and leaving the event through the church's front doors.
  In 2008 The North American Convocation of Pro-LGBT Christians planned to hold its "Many Stories, One Voice" event in New Orleans to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the conference (and the 35th anniversary of the tragedy), but eventually canceled the conference for the year due to Hurricane Gustav.
  In 2008 local artist Skylar Fein constructed an art installation titled Remember the Upstairs Lounge. The New Orleans Museum of Art has since acquired Fein's art exhibit, which includes a reproduction of the bar.
  A TAPS group in episode 15, Season 8 of Ghost Hunters visited the lounge to encounter alleged ghosts of the fire's casualties. The episode identified the event as the "Jimani Lounge Massacre."
  In 2013, noting the 40th anniversary of the fire, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of New Orleans, Gregory Michael Aymond, issued a statement of regret that his predecessor, Archbishop Philip Hannan, and the local church leadership ignored the arson attack. Aymond wrote to Time magazine that "In retrospect, if we did not release a statement we should have to be in solidarity with the victims and their families ... The church does not condone violence and hatred. If we did not extend our care and condolences, I deeply apologize."
  In 2013, Royd Anderson wrote, directed, and produced a documentary about the tragedy titled The UpStairs Lounge Fire.
  Elizabeth Dias and Jim Downs published an article, The Horror Upstairs, in Time Magazine, July 1, 2013
  Also in 2013, Wayne Self (a playwright and composer from Natchitoches, Louisiana), first presented a musical called Upstairs about the tragedy.
  In 2014, McFarland & Company released Clayton Delery-Edwards' account of the arson, The Up Stairs Lounge Arson: Thirty-two Deaths in a New Orleans Gay Bar, June 24, 1973. The book was selected as one of the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities 2015 Books of the Year.
  In 2014, Melange Dance Company of New Orleans performed a tribute show as part of the New Orleans Fringe Festival. 'The UpStairs Lounge' show aimed to uplift with a combination of dance and film that celebrate the Lounge, its patrons, and the strides taken towards Human Rights since the incident.
  In 2015, Melange Dance Company of New Orleans presented an extended performance of 'The UpStairs Lounge' show originally performed as part of the 2014 New Orleans Fringe Festival.
  On June 24, 2015, the 42nd Anniversary of the Up Stairs Lounge arson, UPSTAIRS INFERNO, a feature length documentary about the tragedy written, directed and produced by Robert L. Camina, had its World Premiere in New Orleans at the historic Prytania Theatre.  The film's narration was provided by New Orleans’ own New York Times best selling author, Christopher Rice (son of novelist, Anne Rice).  In February 2017, UPSTAIRS INFERNO was invited to screen at the Library of Congress.  Starting with the World Premiere, public screenings of UPSTAIRS INFERNO have been included in New Orleans' Up Stairs Lounge Arson Anniversary Commemorations repeatedly (2015, 2016 & 2018)
  In 2017, an Off-Broadway musical called The View Upstairs about The UpStairs Lounge opened at The Lynn Redgrave Theater in New York City.
caption: The 45th Anniversary Memorial Procession in New Orleans
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