10 Things I Learned About the UpStairs Lounge Arson, the Biggest LGBT Mass Murder in America’s History

Forty-two years ago today, an almost unimaginable inferno, caused by arson, burned and suffocated 32 people to death. All were patrons of New Orleans’ UpStairs Lounge, a gay bar. I wrote about it in 2013 here.

Over the past few days, I’ve been reading Johnny Townsend‘s 2011 book about the massacre,Let the Faggots Burn: The UpStairs Lounge Fire. For all its shortcomings, including a disjointed narrative structure, it’s a gripping account of the horrors that transpired that night, as well asa re...