In 1987, New Orleans entertainer Marcy Marcell’s career was in a slump. Her career had begun nineteen years earlier and by the mid-1980s, Marcell had established herself as a drag performer, having performed in gay bars throughout the French Quarter since the early 1970s. Although she grew up in New Orleans, her first job as a performer was at an underground club in Chicago … [Read more...] about A Brief History of the Gay Appreciation Awards
Moments in Queer New Orleans History
Meet Your 2024 Southern Decadence Grand Marshals & Press Release Party Information
Vanessa Carr Kennedy Vanessa Carr Kennedy is a New Orleans native, and a proud graduate of Xavier University. Kennedy, a former board member of PFLAG of New Orleans, is on the planning committee for Family Day at Longue Vue House and Gardens. Her titles include Miss New Orleans Pride 2016 and Miss Louisiana Leatherette 2016. In 2023, she was named “Advocate of the Year” at … [Read more...] about Meet Your 2024 Southern Decadence Grand Marshals & Press Release Party Information
John Rawls and the Sodomy Statute
In 1994, New Orleans attorney John Rawls took an ad out in Impact (a New Orleans-based LGBT+ newspaper) announcing he was planning a civil lawsuit to challenge the state’s “Crimes Against Nature” law and asking, “We would like to hear from the following groups of people as possible plaintiffs: people who have the courage to reveal their sexual orientation and fight openly in … [Read more...] about John Rawls and the Sodomy Statute
Southern Decadence Grand Marshals and their Announcement Party
On Saturday, April 20, outgoing SDGMs Jimmy Gale, Monica Synclaire-Kennedy, and Nicole Dubois will name their successors. In recent years, the annual announcement party has become a highly anticipated event in the New Orleans queer calendar, but that wasn’t always the case. In the beginning, there were no Grand Marshal announcement parties. In fact, when Southern Decadence … [Read more...] about Southern Decadence Grand Marshals and their Announcement Party
Tom Caplinger and How Lafitte’s Went into Exile
In 1933, shortly after the repeal of the Volstead Act, Tom Caplinger, Harold Barthel, and Mary Collins leased the building at 941 Bourbon Street (at the corner of St. Philip Street) and opened a bar called Café Lafitte. At the time, it was just one of two bars on Bourbon Street, the other being the Old Absinthe House. Contrary to popular belief, the iconic building at 941 … [Read more...] about Tom Caplinger and How Lafitte’s Went into Exile
Lou Bernard, Olympus, and Gay Carnival
As we find ourselves in the thick of Carnival season once again, Ambush is proud to remember a pioneer in the history of gay Carnival, Lou “Lucille” Bernard. Bernard passed away on January 8. Bernard and his partner Nick Donovan were members of the groundbreaking krewe, Ganymede (1968—1974). Donovan served as Captain of the Krewe’s third ball, Creepy Crawlers (1970), at … [Read more...] about Lou Bernard, Olympus, and Gay Carnival
Bulbancha was Queer
In 1720, just two years after French colonizers renamed Bulbancha “New Orleans”, a French military officer named Ladun complained to Governor Bienville about indigenous queerness. Bienville, who founded New Orleans and lived into his 80s without ever marrying, told the young man to relax, that queerness was quite common in these parts among the Natives. Ladun recorded … [Read more...] about Bulbancha was Queer
A Brief History of Black Drag in New Orleans: The Dew Drop Inn, The Caledonia, and Stormé DeLarverie
A lost treasure of New Orleans’ rich cultural history is being resurrected. From the late 1930s to the early 1970s, the Dew Drop Inn in Central City was an iconic venue for African American musicians both locally and nationally. For black artists traveling through the segregated South, it was a must stop on the Chitlin Circuit. Now, fifty years after it closed, the Dew Drop Inn … [Read more...] about A Brief History of Black Drag in New Orleans: The Dew Drop Inn, The Caledonia, and Stormé DeLarverie
LGBT+ History: A Local Timeline
The following timeline starts with the founding of New Orleans in 1718, but it’s important to note that queerness was common and revered in Bulbancha (what New Orleans was called before it was colonized). Colonial visitors in the Gulf South observed that Indigenous Nations recognized and respected the existence of more than two genders. The acceptance of LGBT+ people has a deep … [Read more...] about LGBT+ History: A Local Timeline
A Brief History of New Orleans Bar Rags
Gay journalism traces its roots to the 1960s and originally manifested itself in the form of bar bulletins and organizational newsletters. In those pre-internet, pre-Stonewall, highly homophobic years, the notion of a gay media was an alien concept because gay communities, if we can even call them that (perhaps gay subcultures is a better description) were essentially … [Read more...] about A Brief History of New Orleans Bar Rags
