Monday, October 31, 2005

Home, Homo on the Range

For the religious wingnuts calling down damnation on New Orleans for its gay-friendly -- and otherwise fun-loving -- atmosphere, we have some bad news: Others may be relocating to Houston, San Antonio and other cities across the country ... but the queers are staying.

Lee now lives with a friend in the French Quarter and works around the clock shaping up gay New Orleans. She estimates that most gay businesses will be up and running by Halloween and that the remainder will be back in time for Mardi Gras in February.

Lee's observation is shared by others who have visited the French Quarter and the adjacent Marigny neighborhood, where almost all of New Orleans' gay businesses are located. These are the oldest parts of the city and the highest in elevation, so they avoided the devastating floods seen elsewhere.

At least two bars in New Orleans, Good Friends Bar and Cafe Lafitte in Exile, are promising that this year's Halloween party will be "the biggest the nation has ever seen." That hopeful bravado can be seen on the Good Friends Bar's Web site, which is playing a loop of the disco anthem "You Sexy Thing," with its hook line "I believe in miracles." Cafe Lafitte and Le Roundup led the way for other gay bars in New Orleans by officially reopening for business on September 27.

"I believe in miracles"? How classically New Orleans -- and how classically queer. And with fewer other residents returning to the Crescent City, the gay population is poised to capture the political clout it has long desired.

Douglas Haller of the Creole Inn said that Hurricane Katrina could be a turning point for the city's gay community, with the gay tourism industry leading the way.

"We stand poised to make a real difference in the city's history and to assume our rightful place in the politics of one of the great cities of the American South," he said.

A Southern San Francisco? We do believe in miracles, after all.