While not exactly a third wheel, I wasn’t part of the bike, either. Still, with half of the city, including my wife, at the Superdome, I couldn’t help but feel a little left out. She hadn’t been amused.) And we had no way of scrounging up another ticket to the game - for which I was eternally thankful, since I had no desire to cram myself into a crowd of drunken, cheerful football fans. I’d already made myself something of a headache for them, since my wife had spent hours on the phone trying to find a restaurant that not only still had seats available on Thanksgiving, but which also provided vegetarian options (“You can be thankful I’m not vegan,” I’d told her. I’d never been to New Orleans, and so I’d tagged along. I’d come to New Orleans as a sort of stowaway: my wife’s friend had an extra ticket to the game, and had invited her down for the Thanksgiving weekend. The game was in the waning minutes of the fourth quarter, with the Bills in a commanding lead. A few couples, all men, sat scattered around the triangular bar, drinking from plastic cups (necessary for a city where you can take beverages to go, and drink openly on the streets). But I’d come early in the night and the place was quiet. Lafitte in Exile, in New Orleans’ French Quarter, is the oldest continuously operating gay bar in New Orleans, and a must-stop for LBGTQ+ tourists looking for the famed city’s gay scene. I settled into a seat at the bar and ordered an Aperol spritz, reassured I’d come to the right place.
#GAY BARS NEW ORLEANS TONIGHT SERIES#
Then I caught sight of the rainbow flag, and a series of framed plaques lining the interior walls, each defining “ Queer” in creative and empowering ways. I looked around for a quick exit, fearing I’d stumbled into a straight bar by mistake. In my experience - admittedly, mostly limited to Boston’s Club Cafe - gay bars played Anderson Cooper on CNN, followed by music videos, if they broadcast anything at all.īut football? In a gay bar? No way.
Yet there it was, the Thanksgiving showdown between the New Orleans Saints and the Buffalo Bills, blasting on the screen above the bar at Lafitte in Exile. I hadn’t expected to see a football game televised in a gay bar.