A
s millions gather in Manhattan
this month to commemorate
WorldPride and the 50th
anniversary of the Stonewall riots, a
pivotal point in gay history, so too will
members of the Crescent City LGBTQ
community, as they have since the
early 1970s.
The annual New Orleans Pride
celebration takes place June 7-9,
with a jam-packed roster of events.
The big to-do is a daylong block party
at the Phoenix on Elysian Fields Ave-
nue, which kicks off June 8 at noon,
followed by a massive parade through
the French Quarter beginning at 7:30
pm. (For a full lineup, visit http://www.
togetherwenola.com.)
Pride isn’t the city’s only LGBTQ
event, however. Labor Day weekend
brings Southern Decadence, one of
the largest gay gatherings in the
South, which drew more than 250,000
revelers last summer. There’s Hal-
loween New Orleans, a huge circuit
party now in its 35th year, the Gay
Easter Parade and, of course, Mardi
Gras, where the over-the-top Bourbon
Street Awards costume contest is
a must-see no matter your sexual
orientation.
Opening June 6 is Grand Illu-
sions: The History and Artistry of
Gay Carnival in New Orleans at
the Presbytére in Jackson Square. The
exhibit, the Louisiana State Museum’s
rst-ever in-depth examination ofgay Carnival, features more than 100
items, from creative costumes to rare-
ly seen photos of amboyant tableau
balls from the 1950s.
“People in New Orleans are different
from other places,” notes tour guide
Glenn DeVilliers. “People say we’re
liberal or tolerant and things like that.
But really and truly, we don’t care. I
don’t think I’ve ever known anyone from
New Orleans who I would swear on a
stack of Bibles was straight; there’s a
lot of gray area here.”
DeVilliers is sitting at the bar of
the storied New Orleans Athletic
Club, where Tennessee Williams
was a regular, swimsuits were long
verboten and he’s been a member
since high school. “There have
been gay people here from the very
beginning,” he says. “At the time of
the Stonewall riots there were 15 gay
bars in New Orleans.”
Each Saturday DeVilliers sets off
on The Twirl: A Gay Heritage and
Drinks Tour (www.glfdevilliers.com),
which revisits the French Quarter
haunts of Williams, Truman Capote,
“Miss Dixie” Fasnacht and other
key players in the city’s homosexual
history, making multiple cocktail stops
along the way. “Queens like to drink,”
he quips, “but we don’t go to the gay
bars; if you do, you lose them.”
Instead, DeVilliers starts with
a Sazerac at Antoine’s then hits
Brennan’s for a Caribbean Milk Punch,19
(TOP) ©DOUG BRANTLEY; (BOTTOM) ©KERRI MCCAFFETY/BRENNAN’S; (OPPOSITE PAGE) ©CHERYL GERBER; (OPENING SPREAD) ©PAUL BROUSSARD/NEWORLEANS.COM
BRENNAN’S, A STOP ON THE TWIRL TOURNOLA DRAG TOURS19
before moving on to the Carousel Bar,
where Liberace once tickled the ivo-
ries. “There’s a gay-history connection
to all of these things,” he explains,
“though the milk punch might be the
biggest stretch: The rum they use is
Mount Gay.”
Think tours are a drag? Give NOLA
Drag Tours a try. The two-hour
excursions (www.noladragtours.com)
are led by Quinn Laroux, a “draguate”
of the New Orleans Drag Workshop,
who begins at Congo Square with
a discussion on slavery and gender
identity. “That’s probably the most
dif cult topic we talk about,” Laroux
says en route to Storyville, a former
red-light district. “Everything else
gets raunchier from here.”
Out tted in gold lame, shnets
and sensible sneakers, Laroux guides
groups down side streets and through
Jackson Square, ending at a cluster
of clubs. “This circle is called the Fruit
Loop; it’s where the gay bars are.
“You’ve probably seen all of the
rainbow ags ying during the tour,”
Laroux adds in summation. “This is
a city where gay life is very public
and celebrated. Queer people have
always been part of here—as well
as every other city in the country—to
the point that now we have a drag
queen leading tours of the Quarter...
and it’s ne!”Where Now