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 history locally. That, of course, changed with the arrival of Christianity.
New Orleans has a long and rich, and sometimes sad and ugly, queer history. What follows are some highlights.
1724 First written reference to homosexuality in New Orleans
1805 Sodomy outlawed in Louisiana
1848 Walt Whitman lives in New Orleans
1876 Tony Jackson born
1907 Rev. Carl Schlegel defrocked for advocating for gay rights
1920 Storme’ DeLarverie born
1922 William Spratling moves to New Orleans
1930 George Dureau born
1933 Café Lafitte opens
1939 James Booker born
1940 Frances Benjamin Johnston moves to New Orleans
1946 Tennessee Williams writes A Streetcar Named Desire
1947 The Caldonia opens
1947 Truman Capote writes Other Voices, Other Rooms while living on Royal Street
1949 Dixie’s Bar of Music relocates to Bourbon Street
1949 Bob Demmons hosts first Fat Monday Luncheon
1950s Patsy Vidalia hosts annual Gay Halloween Ball at the Dew Drop Inn
1953 Steamboat Club founded
1955 NOPD Superintendent declares homosexuals NOLA’s “Number 1 vice problem”
1958 Krewe of Yuga founded; birth of Gay Carnival
1958 Fernando Rios murdered in Pirate’s Alley
1958 Mayor Morrison creates “Committee on the Problem of Sex Deviates”
1958 Tony Bacino’s raided six times
1960 New Orleans chapter of Daughters of Bilitis founded (year is approximate)
1961 Krewe of Petronius founded
1962 Tee Corrinne attends Newcomb College Institute
1963 John Rechy’s City of Night published
1965 Krewe of Amon Ra founded
1967 Claw Shaw charged in the JFK assassination
1968 Krewe of Armeinius founded
1970 Gay Liberation Front local chapter founded
1970 Krewe of Apollo founded
1971 GLF holds a “Gay-In” at City Park
1971 Barbara Scott runs for State House of Representatives
1971 New Orleans Metropolitan Community Church founded
1972 First Southern Decadence party
1972 Tulane University Gay Student Union founded
1973 Up Stairs Lounge arson
1973 Gay People’s Coalition founded
1974 Gay Services Center founded
1975 Gertrude Stein Society founded
1977 Anita Bryant protest and march
1977 Charlene’s opens
1977 Impact founded
1977 Serial killer murders four gay men
1978 Faubourg Marigny bookstore opens
1978 Pink Triangle Alliance hosts city’s first Gay Pride rally
1979 Gayfest founded
1980 Louisiana Lesbian and Gay Political Action Caucus (LAGPAC) founded
1980 First Gay Pride Parade in New Orleans
1981 First Louisiana State Conference held at the Country Club
1982 Ambush founded
1982 New Orleans chapter of PFLAG founded
1982 New Orleans Gay Men’s Chorus founded
1983 NO/AIDS Task Force founded
1983 Lords of Leather founded
1983 Celebration founded
1985 Lazarus House opens
1987 Krewe of Queenateenas founded
1988 AIDS Memorial Quilt displayed in New Orleans
1989 Forum for Equality founded
1990 ACT UP New Orleans shuts down Loyola Ave. to protest lack of AIDS funding
1990 Larry Bagneris becomes first openly gay candidate for City Council
1991 City Council passes non-discrimination ordinance
1991 Women With a Vision founded
1992 Lesbian and Gay Community Center of New Orleans founded
1993 Lesbian Avengers New Orleans chapter founded
1993 Belle Reve opens
1994 New Orleans Bears and Bear Trappers Social Club founded
1995 Brotherhood Inc. opens Trinity House
1995 Louisiana State Museum sponsors panel on gay and lesbian culture
1997 J.B. Harter’s Encounters With The Nude Male published
1998 Krewe of Mwindo founded
2002 Cavaliers Motorcycle Club founded
2003 Saints and Sinners Literary Festival founded
2006 GrrlSpot founded
2011 BreakOUT! founded
2012 Last lesbian bar in New Orleans (Rubyfruit Jungle) closes
2012 Renegade Bears of Louisiana founded
2013 Last Call: Dyke Bar History Project founded
2013 Krewe de la Rue Royale Revelers founded
2013 Krewe of Narcissus founded
2014 LGBT+ Archives Project of Louisiana founded
2014 Club New Orleans closes
2015 New Orleans Advocates for GLBT Elders (NOAGE) founded
2015 Big Easy Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence founded
2022 New Orleans City Council recognizes victims of Up Stairs Lounge fire
