EPISODE · Mar 24, 2026 · 1H 41M
Episode 9 - Upstairs Inferno, New Orlean's Forgotten LGBT+ Massacre
from Breaking Bard: The Forgotten History Podcast · host Breaking Bard
On June 24, 1973, a fire tore through the Upstairs Lounge in New Orleans. Within minutes, 32 people were dead — making it one of the deadliest attacks on the LGBT+ community in U.S. history. And yet, outside of queer memory, it has been largely forgotten. In this episode, Kaine Francesco and Lewis Miles explore the story of the Upstairs Inferno: the working-class gay bar that became the site of a devastating arson attack, the lives of the people who gathered there for community and refuge, and the shocking indifference that followed. From hostile media coverage to churches refusing funeral services for the victims, the aftermath revealed as much about 1970s America as the tragedy itself. Nearly fifty years before the Pulse nightclub shooting, the Upstairs Lounge fire exposed the vulnerability — and resilience — of queer communities fighting to exist in the open. This is the story of one of the worst, and most overlooked, LGBT+ massacres in modern history.
What this episode covers
On June 24, 1973, a fire tore through the Upstairs Lounge in New Orleans. Within minutes, 32 people were dead — making it one of the deadliest attacks on the LGBT+ community in U.S. history. And yet, outside of queer memory, it has been largely forgotten. In this episode, Kaine Francesco and Lewis Miles explore the story of the Upstairs Inferno: the working-class gay bar that became the site of a devastating arson attack, the lives of the people who gathered there for community and refuge, and the shocking indifference that followed. From hostile media coverage to churches refusing funeral services for the victims, the aftermath revealed as much about 1970s America as the tragedy itself. Nearly fifty years before the Pulse nightclub shooting, the Upstairs Lounge fire exposed the vulnerability — and resilience — of queer communities fighting to exist in the open. This is the story of one of the worst, and most overlooked, LGBT+ massacres in modern history.
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Episode 9 - Upstairs Inferno, New Orlean's Forgotten LGBT+ Massacre
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