By Ed Walsh
NEW ORLEANS – In a defiant show of resilience, the planned Southern Decadence parade through New Orleans' French Quarter went on as planned, albeit on a much smaller scale.
"Instead of the 90,000 people we had about 45," wrote Starlight by the Park bar owner CW Stambaugh in an e-mail to this reporter just after the parade on Sunday, Sept. 4. "Lisa Boumann was our Grand Marshal who led us from the Golden Lantern (not open) to Johnny Whites, a local straight bar that has been open since, and then the parade went to our bar, Starlight."
Stambaugh kept his bar open through Hurricane Katrina and operated it as a makeshift shelter. He had to close on Aug. 31, two days after the hurricane hit, after authorities ordered him to shut his doors. Then, through the weekend, he was able to shelter seven people in his home in the French Quarter, near his bar. But, he said, they finally had to leave on Labor Day on orders from city officials.
The French Quarter is home to a number of gay bars and gay-friendly Bed and Breakfasts. It is the oldest part of the city and at its highest elevation. It was spared the major flooding that devastated an estimated ninety-percent of the city.
