A Horrific Haunting in New Orleans’ LGBTQ Community: The Upstairs Lounge Arson Fire

Posted on by Ken Summers

In the summer of 1973, while gays and lesbians across the United States were celebrating the fourth anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in New York City with parades in several major cities, the disorganized LGBTQ community in New Orleans made little effort to hold any official gay pride events. Sunday, June 24, marked the end … Continue reading A Horrific Haunting in New Orleans’ LGBTQ Community: The Upstairs Lounge Arson Fire

A Bisected Body in Cleveland: The Queer Specter of the Torso Murders

Posted on by Ken Summers

Cleveland is a city of ghosts. And like most cities, it tries very hard to bury its darker past and paint itself in the most positive light. Mention its "Burning River", the Cuyahoga, which caught fire over a dozen times and people will shift the conversation to how clean its become; its decreasing population becomes … Continue reading A Bisected Body in Cleveland: The Queer Specter of the Torso Murders

Insidiously Queer: My Bizarre Date with a Former Satanist

Posted on by Ken Summers

Sometimes, first dates are memorable for all the wrong reasons. Before I continue, I'd like to say that a majority of my friends over the years have been non-Christian. I was raised without any overt religious upbringing or membership in any church; I was fortunate enough to choose my own spiritual path if or when … Continue reading Insidiously Queer: My Bizarre Date with a Former Satanist

The Mysterious Multo Parlorista: Unsolved Trans Murder in Manila?

Posted on by Ken Summers

Over the past decade, numerous anonymous people have mentioned queer ghost stories worth looking into: bridges known locally for high suicide rates, scary sites of hate crimes, haunted bars in various cities around the world, and plenty of rumored-to-be-gay individuals haunting well-known places. Without specific details (and sometimes, no specific locations), these vague recollections still … Continue reading The Mysterious Multo Parlorista: Unsolved Trans Murder in Manila?

Lizzie’s Labrys: The Murky Sexuality Behind the Borden Murders

Posted on by Ken Summers

We all know the immortal rhyme created after the horrific Fall River double homicide in 1892: "Lizzie Borden took an ax, and gave her mother forty whacks..." It was (allegedly) a hatchet, of course. And certainly not the double-headed ax adopted by the lesbian feminist movement in the 1970s. While the symbol has no connection … Continue reading Lizzie’s Labrys: The Murky Sexuality Behind the Borden Murders

Haunted Horror: The Corpsewood Murders

Posted on by Ken Summers

[An earlier version of this article was originally written for Week in Weird] Being openly gay in certain parts of the rural United States often has been considered more dangerous than in urban environments.* And for two men who relocated from Chicago to rural Georgia, this was proven true one night in 1982. While nature has … Continue reading Haunted Horror: The Corpsewood Murders

Growling in the Afterlife: Hair-Raising Bear Experiences

Posted on by Ken Summers

It’s Halloween again, that time once a year where we all get a little wild and overindulgent, releasing the inner party animal and pretending to be someone else if only for one night. And as the leaves turn in autumn splendor, those nondescript streets now hold eerie possibilities. The veil between this world and the … Continue reading Growling in the Afterlife: Hair-Raising Bear Experiences

What’s New: The Reinvention of Moonspenders

Posted on by Ken Summers

A lot has changed since moonspenders.com went live in October of 2002. Even before then. (This site started as an AOL Hometown page back in 1998.) And if you're a returning visitor, you've probably noticed some major changes this summer as well. While it may seem like an abrupt departure from its origins, the reality … Continue reading What’s New: The Reinvention of Moonspenders