Marsha was raised
as Marion Greeson in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
His mother Betty Greeson was a cop, and Marion came out to her at age 15
– although they agreed not to mention the fact to his father, a high-school
football coach. His first boyfriend was
his mother’s hairstylist.
 |
| Marsha & Rip 1972 |
In 1973, on a weekend trip to New Orleans Marion met Rip Naquin (1954 – 2017) on Bourbon
Street. They soon moved in with each other in Baton Rouge, and Marion became
Marsha Naquin-Delain. They started two
gay publications that ultimately failed.
Their third attempt was Ambush
Magazine. Originally it covered
Baton Rouge and north Louisiana, until 1985 when they moved to New Orleans.
In 1986 they acquired the building at 828
Bourbon Street. The ground floor was the
office of Ambush Magazine and Naquin
and Delain lived upstairs. They have
been active in Southern Decadence, PFLAG, LGBT+ Archives of Louisiana. They founded the carnival Krewe of Queenateenas,
and participated in the Gay Easter Parade.
When New Orleans introduced same-sex domestic
partnerships in 1993, Naquin and Delain were the first to be registered. In 2013 they were married in St Patrick’s
Cathedral in New York on their 40th anniversary.
Rip
died age 63 in August 2017 of liver failure.
Marsha died four months later – some say of a broken heart.
·
Frank Perez & Jeffrey Palmquist. In
Exile: The History and Lore Surrounding New Orleans Gay Culture and Its Oldest
Gay Bar. LL-Publications, 2012: 131-2.
·
Cathy Hughes. “Rip Naquin, a leader in New Orleans' LGBT community, dies
at 63” The Times-Picayune, Aug 10, 2017. Online .
_________________________
Ambush Magazine is still going.
I did not find any statement to the effect that Marsha considered herself transgender. Certainly she did not change her legal gender to female so that she and RIP could marry before 2013.
In the two articles by Frank Perez the pronouns referring to Marsha drift from male to female.
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