The gay ghosts of New Orleans spill some serious tea.
ill-famed for voodoo traditional knowledge , above - ground grave , and timeworn taverns , New Orleans is often regarded as a mystical finish with no shortfall of allegedlyhaunted places . Capitalizing on such mythos , ghost toursare a dime a 12 here , take node on saunter through ghoulish history with vary levels of camp , creepiness , and debauchery .
But there ’s only one tour in town that combines ghost stories with jock , and that’sWalking with the Gay Ghosts of New Orleans , a weekly tour through the Gallic Quarter that ’s as saucy as it is light .
I ’ve done specter tours in New Orleans before , but never like this . My married man and I , in township forSouthern Decadence , convoke at the encounter compass point atCafe Lafitte in Exile , the onetime unendingly operating gay legal community in the land . Even amidst the merry melee of Decadence , our guide was easy to make out , thanks to his hot - pink athletic supporter and giant sword lily of Britney Spears and Madonna kissing . To - go cups in mitt , Marcus Shacknowwrangled our gaggle of gays and paraded us around the French Quarter to closure both familiar and unexpected , hesitate every twain blocks or so to run out some ghostly tea .
Photo courtesy of Walking with the Gay Ghosts of New Orleans
Walking with the Gay Ghosts of New Orleans reveals a young side of this storied city — a side that , as Shacknow describes it , bridges gay history with jovial smut — and showcases New Orleans as an epicenter of pouf culture . I anticipate it to be funny , campy , and crass , with some horny hearsay dust in here and there . It ’s all of those thing — but it ’s also heartwarming and illuminating , depart us with a newfound adoration for a city we all love for different reasons .
Growing up in New York City and working on Broadway , history and theatrics have always been in Shacknow ’s blood line . It was n’t until a causeless trip to New Orleans , which was theorise to be a brief sabbatic but plow into four ongoing years due to the pandemic , that those passions inspired him to create a new kind of ghost hitch in a metropolis teeming with them . “ I was already a nerd , so when I first moved here , I take every walking tour I could possibly take , ” Shacknow recalls . “ And when my friends would come chaffer , I would give them an unofficial tour . ”
His hitch evolve from unofficial to a full - fledged business two year ago when Shacknow got his tour guide license and offered his first homo tour of the Quarter . He later put a haunted tailspin on the route for Halloween and to facilitate broaden the interest for a city inherently rapt by ghosts .
While the tours are n’t ghostly in a scary sense , they scratch that eerie urge through salacious folklore and sordid infamy . Now held once a workweek , they highlight everything from homoerotic vampire who may or may not have been interlock away in a French Quarter building to the commissioning of Jackson Square by Baroness Micaela Leonarda Antonia Almonester y Rojas , who may or may not have been a lesbian .
Some elements are saucy , like tales of Marlon Brando ’s alleged epicene hookup in the French Quarter during the filming ofA Streetcar Named Desire . Other narrative are wrenching , like the fire-raising fire on the UpStairs Lounge homophile bar 50 class ago — the deadliest tragedy in LGBTQ+ American history until the Pulse film in Orlando .
These tour are as much about community as they are about scandalous storytelling — a sentiment we felt strongly on the hitch , and one that lingered all weekend , as we run for into newly familiar font at rainbow - clad mental block parties andgay bar .
“ These tours are so fun because gay history is not write down , and it ’s all folklore , ” Shacknow explains . “ I ’ll be on the tour and this honest-to-god queen will interrupt with something that they heard when they came to New Orleans in the ' 70s , so these history tours become super communal . ”
For Shacknow , walk with the Gay Ghosts of New Orleans is an chance to show New Orleans in a new light , as a metropolis that ’s long been integral to baffle refinement , and one that rivals the gayest of metropolitan meccas .
“ I produce up in Manhattan , and Manhattan people have this world power of thinking New York City is the only city in the commonwealth , ” he proclaim at the start of our term of enlistment . “ So I develop up thinking gay account was just Manhattan with a little San Francisco disperse in , but when I came here , I realise that was n’t the case . Now I believe fully that New Orleans is the braw city in the country . ”
It ’s also an chance to give visitor and topical anesthetic alike something to be majestic of , unified over untold New Orleans stories from someone who be and breathe it . “ Something I take a lot of pride in with this duty tour is that it ’s operate by a merry person , for gay people , ” adds Shacknow . “ It ’s about New Orleans and it ’s of New Orleans . ”
That persuasion is on full , unembarrassed video display on Shacknow ’s term of enlistment as guest walk with the “ gay touch ” who pave the style and alongside those who stay on to honor them .
Walking with the Gay Ghosts of New Orleans tours are held once a week , all year long . Tickets can be purchasedonline .
