UpStairs was a gay bar located at the corner of Chartres and Iberville in the French Quarter-where regulars came together to sing songs around the piano and put on “nellydramas,” campy melodramas performed in drag. That Sunday marked the end of the city’s Pride weekend 60 people gathered at UpStairs Lounge to listen to pianist David Gary perform, while others discussed an upcoming fundraiser for children with disabilities. On June 24, 1973, 32 people died in what was then the most gruesome mass murder of LGBT people in U.S.
