The line between gay and straight bars is a blurry one in New Orleans, a place where diversity is a given and differences of perspective are celebrated in festivals like Southern Decadence. Southern Decadence -Bar Crawl - 700 Club. Peter Street because of his diminutive stature, often drank with famed lesbian photographer Frances Benjamin Johnston, who upon retiring moved to New Orleans in 1949 and lived a few blocks away in the 1100 block of Bourbon. Gay and gay-friendly bars abound in this town known for diversity. Whitesell, whom Quarterites called the Leprechaun of St. Dixie’s Bar of Music and the Bourbon House, a popular eatery among gays and lesbians, dominated the corner while not far away Pat O’Brien’s featured a bar “for bachelors.” And next door, behind what would later become Preservation Hall, was fabled French Quarter eccentric Pops Whitesell, who in addition to his “respectable” photography, also photographed virtually nude men for bodybuilder magazines, the gay porn of the time. Peter and Bourbon was the trendy, upscale gay locus. After a drug arrest, he broke bond and made for Mexico. Home of Southern Decadence Grand Marshal XLIII - Persana. Burroughs frequented the Alley, although he lived in Algiers. About: New Orleans Premier Gay Dance Club and the GAA Dance Club & Show Bar of the Year 2016. Nearby Exchange Place Alley (along with Cabrini Park on the other end of the Quarter) was a popular cruising area among gay men searching for anonymous assignations.
