Call Me Larry: A Creole Man's Triumph over Racism and Homophobia

Raised in a large, loving Creole family, Lawrence Bagneris Jr. knew from a young age that he liked boys. But New Orleans in the 1950s and early 1960s wasn’t an easy place to be out. In high school, he channeled his energies into the Civil Rights Movement. By college, he was exploring the gay bars of the French Quarter— and telling new acquaintances to ask for Larry, not Lawrence, when they phoned him at home. It wasn’t until his 1969 move to Houston that the many strands of his Creole identity—Black, white, Catholic—coalesced into a powerful political force for gay rights.

In this bracing, uplifting, and sometimes laugh-out-loud memoir, Larry Bagneris recalls his activist career: as founder of Houston’s Pride Parade and then, following a return to his hometown, as political organizer and mainstay of the local gay community. He invites us to join him on his travels, as well—from San Francisco to New York, Tel Aviv to Singapore—as he builds community, and finds family, in queer spaces around the world.