Tuesday, August 7, 2018

Tinderbox

"Tinderbox" by Robert W. Fieseler was truly heartbreaking. In 1973, a fire in a New Orleans gay bar killed over thirty people, some of whom were burned so badly they were never identified. The fact that it was a gay establishment meant the media wasn't interested in the story, and friends and family members of the deceased were afraid to speak out and mourn publicly for fear of being outed, since so many gays were living firmly in the closet at that point. If all that wasn't bad enough, a con man made off with a bunch of money donated to help the victims of the fire and the families of the deceased. The man who admitted to setting the fire committed suicide a little over a year later. There were just no winners in this story, everyone suffered and it feels like nothing good came out of it. It's definitely an important story that needs to be remembered.

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