Before any of the mainline Christian churches or denominations became inclusive of LGBT folks, there was Metropolitan Community Churches. MCC was founded by the Rev. Troy Perry in 1968 in Los Angeles. Soon, other MCC churches began to pop up in other large cities around the country. One of those churches was located in New Orleans. They held services in the Up Stairs Lounge for a while. The services were not being held there at the time of the fire, but there were a number of members of MCC there when the fire broke out, and these members were some of the victims. The pastor of MCC New Orleans, the Rev. Larson, was among the victims.
From Rev. Perry's book, "Don't Be Afraid Anymore":
On October 6, 1968, nine months before Stonewall, the first Metropolitan Community Church was born in a suburban Los Angeles home -- a new church with a mission to minister to lesbians and gay men.
Troy Perry was raised among Southern Pentacostals and Baptists. Married at eighteen, he became the father of two children and the pastor of the Church of God in Illinois until he was excommunicated for his homosexuality, losing his church, his wife, and his children. He then spent years searching until he finally realized he was called to minister to those believers the Christian churches had driven away because of blind prejudice. And for the next two decades Perry and the church struggled against adversity, arson, hate, and prejudice to become one of the fastest growing Christian denominations in the world.
The book quoted from was published back in 1990. Since MCC's founding, a number of other mainline Christian denominations have become quite inclusive of LGBT people. But, it definitely was not always this way.
Chapter six in the book is about the Up Stairs Lounge. I'll quote just one short excerpt form it.
Seventeen sites where we have worshiped have been intentionally burned, three in 1973 alone. Our Mother Church was the first, burned in January. Two months later, in March, our meeting place in Nashville, Tennessee, was torched, destroying sacred items upon the altar. Authorities called it a fire "of suspicious origin." As in Los Angeles, no one was injured and no one was ever apprehended.
The third fire, in June 1973, was by far the worst, a nightmare in a city where unsuspected intolerance festered like an unclean wound.
One of the heartbreaking stories that Rev. Perry tells in that chapter is about how difficult it was for him (and, the other members of the gay community) just to find a place to have a memorial service for the victims of the fire.
A new documentary is being made about the event. Follow me below the fold for a glimpse.
From The Advocate:
Forty-one years after the largest gay mass murder in U.S. history, a new filmmaker Robert Camina's eagerly awaited documentary, Upstairs Inferno, tackles the topic. The first trailer for the film has been released (watch below) and the Camina (whose previous documentary was the much-awarded, Meredith Baxer-narrated Raid of the Rainbow Lounge) has launched an IndieGoGo fundraising campaign to help cover the remaining production costs.
On June 24, 1973, an arsonist set fire to a gay bar in New Orleans called the Up Stairs Lounge. Thirty-two people were killed and some bodies were never identified because their families were ashamed that the victims were gay. No one was ever charged with the crime.
And updated trailer is below:
UPSTAIRS INFERNO - Teaser Trailer [HD] from Camina Entertainment on Vimeo.