Upstairs Lounge Fire

On June 24, 1973, an arsonist set fire to the UpStairs Lounge, a gay bar on the second floor of a building at Chartres and Iberville Streets in New Orleans. Thirty-two people died from the flames and smoke, trapped by barred windows and a single stairway exit. The bar had hosted the city's fledgling Metropolitan Community Church congregation, a gay church, and it was the third MCC-linked arson in the U.S. that year. The crime was never solved. In its era the tragedy drew cruel indifference from officials, clergy, and press, and some families refused to claim the dead. It remained the deadliest attack on an American gay venue until the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting, and is now widely commemorated.