The Fire Up Stairs
In the early nineteen-seventies, The Up Stairs Lounge, a little known queer oasis in the French Quarter of New Orleans, was a second home to its patrons, a place where folks felt safe and free to be themselves in a world that was rampant with discrimination.
Then on the night of June 24th, 1973, someone doused the entrance of the bar in lighter fluid and lit it on fire, causing a blaze that would kill 32 people. Until the tragedy at Pulse Orlando in 2016, the fire at The Up Stairs Lounge was the single deadliest attack on the queer community in the US on record, and it remains one of the deadliest fires in modern New Orleans history.
The Fire Up Stairs Podcast is a miniseries about the 1973 Up Stairs Lounge arson, exploring its lesser-known history and present-day themes. Over the course of the series, we'll be joined by notable members of the queer community to discuss the story of the Up Stairs Lounge; its role in the larger arc of queer history, and themes that are just as relevant to the queer community of today as they were fifty years ago.
Guests include: drag superstar Ben DeLaCreme, journalist Robert Fieseler, HRC's Cathryn Oakley, political strategist Brian Derrick, journalist Clancy Dubos, Up Stairs Lounge survivor Ricky Everett, and documentarian Robert L. Camina.
The Fire Up Stairs is produced and hosted by Joey Hardy Gray, executive produced by Ryan Killian Krause, and edited by Citizens of Sound.
Presented by Equal Pride and Provincetown Brewing Co.
Sponsored by Sean x Val, Malin & Goetz, Double Scorpio, and Halloween New Orleans.
The Fire Up Stairs
Chapter Four: The Legacy
On this episode, we cover the state of the affairs for the LGBTQ+ people in the United States. What is life like for queer people in 2023 and how does that differ from life in 1973? In what ways have we made progress since the days of the Up Stairs Lounge and in what ways might we be backsliding?
To learn more, host Joey Hardy Gray chats with Cathryn Oakley, State Legislative Director and Senior Counsel at the Human Rights Campaign and political strategist Brian Derrick. They discuss the wave of Anti-LGBTQ+ legislation that has swept across state legislatures in recent years, the impact these bills will have on the lives of queer people, where we've seen some glimmers of hope in recent days, and how we can best donate our time and resources to help fight for a more equitable world.
If you're interested in helping fund HRC's work, you can donate to them HERE.
To learn more about how you can get involved by using Oath, check out their website. You can also follow Brian on Instagram.
