Southern Decadence is an annual six-day event held in New Orleans, Louisiana, by the gay and lesbian community during Labor Day Weekend, culminating in a parade through the French Quarter on the Sunday before Labor Day. The event traces its beginnings to August 1972, as an end-of-summer party among a group of 40–50 friends both straight and gay. They billed their event as "Southern Decadence Party: Come As Your Favorite Southern Decadent." People who attended were required to dress as their favorite decadent Southerner. Two weeks later, the group threw another party as a farewell to Michael Evers, who left to join his lover, David Randolph, in Michigan. The first small "walking parade" occurred the following year when the participants first met at Johnny Matassa's Bar in the French Quarter to show off their costumes and then walk back home to Belle Reve, a name taken from A Streetcar Named Desire, in the Tremé neighbourhood via Esplanade Avenue. This first group impersonated people and characters ranging from Belle Watling (the prostitute character in Gone With the Wind) and Mary Ann Mobley to Tallulah Bankhead and Helen Keller. The event expanded with Frederick Douglas Wright, an African American, appointed as the first grand marshal by members of the original group in 1974, who would have complete control over the parade of characters and costumes as they marched through the French Quarter. More information...
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