It was the third fire at a MCC church during the first half of 1973, following earlier arsons in Nashville and Los Angeles.
Founded in Los Angeles in 1968, the MCC was the nation’s first gay church.
At the time, the bar had recently served as the temporary home for the fledgling New Orleans congregation of the Metropolitan Community Church. On the last Sunday in June, 1973, a gay bar in New Orleans called the UpStairs Lounge was firebombed, and the resulting blaze killed 32 people.
