Canadian independent booksellers near you

Rainbow Fleur de Lis
240 pages, 6 x 9
Hardcover
Release Date:15 May 2025
ISBN:9781496857583
CA$34.95 add to cart button Pre-order
Shop Local
GO TO CART

Rainbow Fleur de Lis

Essays on Queer New Orleans History

University Press of Mississippi

Rainbow Fleur de Lis: Essays on Queer New Orleans History is an anthology of eighty-five short, easy-to-read essays that originally appeared in Ambush Magazine and French Quarter Journal. Author Frank Perez has collected essays on a wide variety of topics in LGBTQ+ history and arranged them into multiple sections. Each section contains five essays and begins with a brief introductory overview that ties the individual pieces together.

The book opens with Gay Carnival and provides a unique glimpse behind the scenes of this distinct New Orleans tradition. “Bars and Gay Spaces” examines the ever-shifting queer centers of gravity throughout the French Quarter. The section on the AIDS epidemic demonstrates how, by the end of the 1980s, New Orleans was a model city for providing AIDS-related services. “Arts and Letters” highlights figures such as lesbian photographer Frances Benjamin Johnston and playwright Tennessee Williams. The next section looks at homophobia in New Orleans in the 1950s. “Activists and Activism” traces the birth and rise of queer activism in New Orleans. Historical surveys of several organizations are then provided, followed by a unit on the Up Stairs Lounge fire. A section on Southern Decadence follows before the book turns its attention to how gay men saved the French Quarter a hundred years ago. Several legendary entertainers are then featured, as is the history of Pride in New Orleans. The book closes with a section on historical scholarship and several interview transcripts. Altogether, these essays provide an invaluable resource on New Orleans LGBTQ+ history.

Frank Perez is cofounder and current executive director of the LGBT+ Archives Project of Louisiana. He is an instructor in the Office of Professional and Continuing Studies at Loyola University New Orleans, owner of Crescent City Tour Booking Agency, and columnist for Ambush Magazine and French Quarter Journal. He is author of Treasures of the Vieux Carré: Ten Self-Guided Walking Tours of the French Quarter and Political Animal: The Life and Times of Stewart Butler, the latter published by University Press of Mississippi; and coeditor of Southern Decadence in New Orleans; My Gay New Orleans: 28 Personal Reminiscences on LGBT+ Life in New Orleans; and In Exile: The History and Lore Surrounding New Orleans Gay Culture and Its Oldest Gay Bar.

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Gay Carnival

Dixie’s, Yuga, and Gay Carnival

The Children of Yuga

The Lost Krewes of Gay Carnival

Mardi Gras and Mythology

Remembering Polyphemus

Bars and Gay Spaces

The Queer Quarter: A Moveable Feast

Bourbon Street Gets Its First Gay Bar

The Glory Days of North Rampart Street

The Lavender Line: Jerry Menefee, St. Ann, and Bourbon

The Phoenix Rises from the Ashes of Smoky Mary

HIV/AIDS

How the Greed of an Insurance Company Almost Killed John East

Acting Up in New Orleans

NO/AIDS Task Force

Project Lazarus

Belle Reve

Arts and Letters

Gay Letters and Desire

The Gay Lens: Frances Benjamin Johnston and Pops Whitesell

The Gentlemanly Last Years of George Dureau

Tennessee Williams: Out in the Quarter; In on the Stage

Was John Kennedy Toole Gay?

A Climate of Hostility

Crimes against Nature

Climate of Hostility

The Persecution of Tony Bacino’s Bar

The Gay Bashing Murder of Fernando Rios

The Rose Room, the Goldenrod Inn, and Police Raids

Activism

Activism and Ink

The Gay Liberation Front Marches on City Hall

Anita Bryant Comes to New Orleans

The Southeastern Conference of Lesbians and Gay Men

Gay Bars, Gender Discrimination, and Boycotts—1980s Style

Activists

Lion in Winter: A Tribute to Stewart Butler

Courtney Sharp: Unsung Trans Hero

Queer Pioneer Skip Ward

Remembering Charlene Schneider

Go Your Own Way: The Life of Barbara Scott

Organizations

For the Love of Song—The New Orleans Gay Men’s Chorus

Jeanne Manford and New Orleans PFLAG

Metropolitan Community Church

LGBT Community Center of New Orleans

The LGBT+ Archives Project of Louisiana Turns a Year Old

The Up Stairs Lounge Fire

Remembering the Up Stairs Lounge Fire

The Saga of Ferris LeBlanc’s Mortal Remains

Recently Discovered Document Sheds Light on the Aftermath of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire

Remembering the Rev. Bill Larson

Interest in the Up Stairs Lounge Fire at an All-Time High

Southern Decadence

How Labor Day Weekend Became Decadent

The Two Sides of Decadence

Grand Marshal Observations

Tiffany Alexander and Southern Decadence 2011

Southern Decadence 2020 Update: The Southern Decadence That Wasn’t

Journalism and Media

Remembering Rip

Rip and Marsha: The Early Years

Rich Magill and His Times

Valda Lewis and Just for the Record

Michael-Chase: Out on the Radio

Preservation

Queer Eye for Preservation

William Ratcliffe Irby: A Gay Man of Consequence

The Gay Twenties and the French Quarter Renaissance

Remembering Clay Shaw

LGBT+ National Landmarks in New Orleans

Entertainment

Entertainingly Out: Tony Jackson and Patsy Valdelar

My O My! The Most Interesting Women Aren’t Women at All

James Booker: The Black Liberace

Boys on the Bar: The Corner Pocket

John Q. Hustler

Pride

The Archbishop, Sissies in Struggle, and Gay Pride

A Pride Parade to Remember

The Politics of Pride

Reflecting on Pride Month

A Brief History of Pride in New Orleans

Historical Scholarship

The State of Scholarship on Queer New Orleans History

The 1995 Panel on Lesbian and Gay History in Louisiana

The New Orleans Dyke Bar History Project

LaRC: A Treasure Trove of LGBT+ History

October Is LGBT History Month

Lagniappe

The Historical Closet: Mid-Nineteenth-Century Gay New Orleans

All about the Bears

Here Cums Mr. Bingle

FAB: Faubourg Marigny Arts and Books

Miss Fly, Ms. Do, and the Double Play

Interviews

Race and Gay Spaces: Remembering the Safari Lounge—An Interview with Robert Fieseler

Cruising Public Bathrooms: An Interview with Retired NOPD Officer Larry Williams Sr.

Decadence Past: An Interview with 2010 SDGMs Julien Artressia and Toby Lefort

Local Queer History Goes to the Lammys: An Interview with Deacon Maccubbin

Ricky Everett Recalls the Night He Escaped the Up Stairs Lounge Fire

Index

Find what you’re looking for...
Stay Informed

Receive the latest UBC Press news, including events, catalogues, and announcements.


Read past newsletters

Free shipping on online orders over $40

Publishers Represented
UBC Press is the Canadian agent for several international publishers. Visit our Publishers Represented page to learn more.