The Sons of Tennessee Williams

The Sons of Tennessee Williams tells the story of the gay men of New Orleans who created a vast and fantastic culture of state chartered public "drag balls" in the early 1960s, pioneering the first gay civil rights in the US. They staged a flamboyant, costumed revolution without politics and won freedoms during a time, as now, when laws and people fought against them. By 1969, there were four gay Mardi Gras organizations legally chartered by the state of Louisiana, holding yearly extravaganzas at public venues across the city. New Orleans was the first place in America where gay and straight people came together to publicly recognize gay culture. These men are the embodiment of the archetypal "southern bachelor gentleman," complete with the cast-iron fortitude. Their story will reveal the pathos of the early persecutions and arrests to the uncommon freedoms in the decades that followed, as their political power began to emerge because of this culture. We will hear of AIDS emptying krewe rosters in the 1980s and eventually, the experiences during and after Katrina. They have more than a few stories to tell.