Inferno in the French Quarter: The UpStairs Lounge Fire

On Gay Pride Day in 1973, an arsonist set the entrance to a French Quarter gay bar on fire. In the terrible inferno that followed, thirty-two people lost their lives, including a third of the local congregation of the Metropolitan Community Church, their pastor burning to death halfway out a second-story window as he tried to claw his way to freedom.

A mother who'd gone to the bar with her two gay sons died alongside them. A man who'd helped his friend escape first was found dead near the fire escape. Two children waited outside a movie theater across town for a father and "uncle" who would never pick them up.

During this era of rampant homophobia, several families refused to claim the bodies, while many churches refused to bury the dead. Author Johnny Townsend pored through old records and tracked down survivors of the fire as well as friends and relatives of those killed to compile the first full account of a forgotten moment in gay history.

This second edition on the 50th anniversary of the fire includes additional research and information not available previously.