Tulane senior Summer Lawson said she has had similar experiences at The Boot. Gaston said she believes that this experience, and many others like it, directly correlate to the close proximity of the Boot and The Palms Bar and Grill to Tulane and Loyola. Though LGBTQ Nation ranked New Orleans as one of the top ten “most LGBT-friendly cities in the United States” in 2016, some students feel that, because Tulane’s student population consists of people from outside the city, there is an effect on “LGBT-friendly” environments. “So we go, and my girlfriend and I start dancing with each other and all of a sudden, a group of straight girls starts taking pictures of us and laughing at us.” “I’d never been to the Boot ,” Loyola senior Twila Gaston said. In addition to the problematic nature some feel engross the popular queer club scene, the areas around Tulane University and Loyola University New Orleans are, for many, a hostile place. While the city may seem like a welcoming space, some members of the queer community feel these well-known spaces are extremely exclusive and cater primarily to cisgender white queer men. New Orleans is seen by many as a queer cultural hub, with award-winning bars and clubs like Oz New Orleans and the annual Southern Decadence festival.
