Arson

SEATTLE — Police and fire investigators said Thursday that a New Year Eve’s fire at a popular Seattle gay nightclub was most likely arson.

SKOPJE, Macedonia – The country’s LGBTI Support Center has been set on fire by unknown arsonists. At around 4:20 a.m., on July 5, an unknown number of people climbed on to the roof of the center, punched a hole in the tiles and poured gasoline on the roof planks, setting them on fire.

NEW ORLEANS — Forty years ago, on June 24, 1973, an arsonist set fire to the UpStairs Lounge, a popular gay bar on the corner of Iberville and Chartres Streets in New Orleans.

SOUTH BLOOMINGVILLE, Ohio — All that remains of South Bloomingville’s last historic landmark are smoldering embers and the bell that once could be heard throughout the community. Residents woke early Friday morning saddened to find that the South Bloomingville Christian Church was burned nearly to the ground.

SALT LAKE CITY — Police and fire investigators In Salt Lake City are actively seeking the identities of three or four people in their late teens or early 20s who launched flaming projectiles at Club JAM, a gay patronized nightclub located north of the Capitol Hill neighborhood in downtown.

EDMOND, Okla. — An Oklahoma gay man says he awoke in the early morning hours on July 21 to the noise two men dressed in black and wearing face masks vandalizing his car — he said one of the suspects threw something in his vehicle that caused an explosion and fire, while the man other fled.

A lesbian couple in Tennessee whose home was burned to the ground last September, is now the target of a federal lawsuit by their insurance company, who claim the couple themselves caused the fire.

An overnight barn fire in Ohio earlier this week that killed eight horses is being called a hate crime after police said they found homophobic messages painted outside the building, leading them to believe the fire was deliberately set.

CLAYTON, N.C. — A fire that gutted the home of a gay couple who had been victims of harassment for more than a year, is being investigated as arson, and possible hate crime.

VONORE, Tenn. — A lesbian couple in Tennessee who home was burned to the ground last September, has filed a lawsuit against the woman they believe set the fire — their next-door neighbor.