The Rise of the Gay Mafia, a Powerful Cabal That Never Existed - Atlas Obscura

Contents:

• HOW THE MOB HELPED ESTABLISH NYC’S GAY BAR SCENE
• THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT AND THE MOB
• THE ITALIAN MAFIA HAS DROPPED THEIR ADLY “BAN” ON GAY MOBSTERS
• TELLG COURT HE'S GAY, MOB INFORMER CROSS LE
• MAFIA BOSS BBED OUT 'FOR BEG GAY'
• MAFIA BOSS LIFTS BAN ON GAY MEMBERS AFTER HE FDS OUT HIS SON IS A DRAG QUEEN
• THE RISE OF THE GAY MAFIA, A POWERFUL CABAL THAT NEVER EXISTED
• AFTER YEARS OF PROGRS ON GAY RIGHTS, HOW DID THE US BEE SO ANTI-LGBTQ+?
• MAFIA ALLOWS GAY MEN TO JO AFTER EMERG MOB CHIEF'S SON IS LIVG AS DRAG QUEEN
• GAY MAFIA HMAN MURRED BY OWN BEE CRIME FAY ‘DISGRACED’ BY HIS SEXUALY
• LGBT HATE CRIM DOUBLE RSIA AFTER BAN ON 'GAY PROPAGANDA'
• MAFIA OPENS DOOR TO GAY PEOPLE AFTER MOB BOSS FDS OUT HIS SON IS A DRAG QUEEN
• ANTI-LGBT HATE CRIM DOUBLE SCE 'GAY PROPAGANDA' LAW RSIA
• ITALIAN MOB OPEN TO GAY MEMBERS, AS LONG AS THEY DON’T ‘PARA PUBLIC’

HOW THE MOB HELPED ESTABLISH NYC’S GAY BAR SCENE

But between New York’s LGBT muny the 1960s beg forced to live on the outskirts of society and the Mafia’s disregard for the law, the two ma a profable, if uneasy, the gay muny blossomed New York Cy the 1960s, members had few plac to gather publicly. Unr the guise of New York State’s liquor laws that barred “disorrly” premis, the State Liquor Authory and the New York Police Department regularly raid bars that tered to gay the law saw viance, however, the Mafia saw a goln bs opportuny. It was the only place where gay people uld openly dance close together, and for relatively ltle money, drag queens (who received a bter receptn at other bars), naways, homels LGBT youths and others uld be off the streets as long as the bar was open.

“Fat Tony, ” for one, paid New York’s 6th Precct approximately $1, 200 a week, exchange for the police agreeg to turn a bld eye to the “cent nduct” occurrg behd closed Photo<em>An NYPD officer grabs someone by their hair as another officer clubs a young man durg a nontatn Greenwich Village after a Gay Power march New York, 1970.

David Carter explas his book Stonewall: The Rts That Sparked the Gay Revolutn, that durg a typil raid, bar owners would change the lights om blue to whe, warng ctomers to stop dancg and drkg. Sometim the ps even went to the extreme measure of sendg female officers to the bathroom to verify people’s get around laws that prohibed servg alhol to LGBT patrons, many gay bars—cludg the Stonewall—operated ostensibly as “bottle bars, ” private clubs where members would brg their own alhol. Apparently, too many high-powered dividuals—cludg Mafia members, police officers and big Hollywood nam—were implited as Stonewall Inn is a bar loted New York Cy’s Greenwich Village that served as a haven the 1960s for the cy’s gay, lbian and transgenr muny.

THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT AND THE MOB

At the time, homosexual acts remaed illegal every state except Illois, and bars and rtrants uld get shut down for havg gay employe or servg gay patrons. Most gay bars and clubs New York at the time were operated by the Mafia, who paid rptible police officers to look the other way and blackmailed wealthy gay patrons by threateng to “out” them. Here, protters monstrate outsi the New York gay bar, Christopher's the early hours of June 28, 1969, the Stonewall Inn was raid by police wh no warng.

THE ITALIAN MAFIA HAS DROPPED THEIR ADLY “BAN” ON GAY MOBSTERS

As -founr of the Gay Liberatn Front, Rivera was known for participatg the Stonewall Rts and tablishg the polil anizatn STAR (Street Transvte Actn Revolutnari). After the Stonewall Rts, a msage was pated on the outsi of the board-up bar readg, "We homosexuals plead wh out people to please help mata peaceful and quiet nduct on the streets of the village.

" This sign was wrten by the Mattache Society–an early anizatn dited to fightg for gay reportg the events, The New York Daily News rorted to homophobic slurs s tailed verage, nng the headle: “Homo Nt Raid, Queen Be Are Stgg Mad.

”Over the next several nights, gay activists ntued to gather near the Stonewall, takg advantage of the moment to spread rmatn and build the muny that would fuel the growth of the gay rights movement. They are pictured here marchg Tim Square,, Sylvia Ray Rivera (ont) and Arthur Bell are seen at a gay liberatn monstratn, New York Universy, 1970 Marsha P.

TELLG COURT HE'S GAY, MOB INFORMER CROSS LE

Johnson is seen at a Gay Liberatn Front monstratn at Cy Hall New York, a large crowd memorat the 2nd anniversary of the Stonewall rts Greenwich Village of New York Cy 1971. 1 / 14: RxSome scholars have argued the famo Stonewall rts that sparked the natnwi LGBT movement were as much a ristance agast the mob’s exploatn of the gay muny as they were a stggle agast police harassment and discrimatory laws.

” Two of the ma gay-rights anizatns that me out of the rts, the Gay Activists Alliance and Gay Liberatn Front, actively champned gettg anized crime out of gay Mafia’s stranglehold on New York Cy’s nightlife bs took a huge h wh a seri of high-profile prosecutns the 1980s.

Nearly 50 years ago, on June 28, 1969, LGBT people – led by drag queens – rebelled agast a raid by the New York Police Department on the Stonewall Inn gay nightclub. The Stonewall was secretly owned by Matthew “Matty the Horse” Ianiello, a high-level poregime (pta) the Genove crime fay who held hidn terts a seri of gay bars and porn stor the Greenwich Village and Tim Square neighborhoods.

MAFIA BOSS BBED OUT 'FOR BEG GAY'

A new generatn of hont gay bar owners had to venture to this uncerta terrory wary not only of ntug discrimatn by society, but of lgerg mobsters the bs.

Historian David Carter was the first to extensively tail the Genove fay’s volvement the 1960s his groundbreakg book Stonewall: The Rts That Sparked the Gay Revolutn.

Nila Gratteri — a 61-year-old anti-mafia vtigator Calabria, Italy (the toe of Italy’s “boot”) — has revealed that the ‘Ndrangheta fay, the richt crime fay Southern Italy, has bee more tolerant of gay members “so long as they don’t para public, ” he says.

MAFIA BOSS LIFTS BAN ON GAY MEMBERS AFTER HE FDS OUT HIS SON IS A DRAG QUEEN

Gratteri, who has lived unr police protectn for the last 30 years to shield him om var mafia assassatn attempts, preventg him om gog to a beach, movie theater, rtrant or even any of his children’s school plays over the last two s, says the crime fay’s acceptance of gay people is part of a softeng ntemporary mob culture.

But while he expected ath threats for revealg the mafia’s acceptance of gay men, he stead received letters cricizg his sensivy for equatg gay acceptance wh “gog soft. In 1992, John “Johnny Boy” D’Amato, head of the DeCavalnte crime fay of New Jersey — the fay that spired the HBO mod seri The Sopranos — was shot ad 1992 after mors of his gay affairs spread throughout the mob. Nila Gratteri told The Tim that although homosexualy is still taboo among olr boss, the Mafia has relaxed s l to perm gay men s lower ranks, as long as they don’t “para public”.

Instead of receivg the expected ath threats for his ments, Gratteri was bombard wh emails accg him of beg “sensive” for clarg the Mafia’s admtance of gay men meant they’d gone soft – suggtg that tim really have changed. While there is no suggtn that the iendship was anythg more than that, the mere fact that an avowed gay man was once “separable” om a Gotti is “an tolerable sta on their name, ” said the person who has knowledge of the, that type of “sta” has led to acts of vlence the past. In 1992, for stance, John D’Amato, a former boss of the DeCavalnte crime fay, was murred by an unrlg when, after an argument, his girliend told his croni he was gay.

THE RISE OF THE GAY MAFIA, A POWERFUL CABAL THAT NEVER EXISTED

“Nobody’s gog to rpect if we have a gay homosexual boss stg down discsg La Cosa Nostra bs, ” the gunman, Anthony Capo, ttified at a murr trial 2003. There are, nohels, certa gay men who prospered proximy to the mob — perhaps most notably the lawyer Roy Cohn, who reprented dons like Anthony Salerno and Carme Galante.

AFTER YEARS OF PROGRS ON GAY RIGHTS, HOW DID THE US BEE SO ANTI-LGBTQ+?

The mob was also known for nng gay bars and night clubs, cludg the Stonewall Inn, at a time when they were still nsired part of the Blankenhorn/HBOPsychologilly, of urse, the Mafia is built upon a tradnal view of manhood, one shar wh the ary, where “gayns” is nsired not only unnventnal, but also weak.

MAFIA ALLOWS GAY MEN TO JO AFTER EMERG MOB CHIEF'S SON IS LIVG AS DRAG QUEEN

D’Amato, particular, was such a breach of protol that “The Sopranos” stole his story, troducg a character named Vo Spatafore who was killed after two of his fellow gangsters saw him at a gay bar. The boss of the mafia fay on which the Sopranos seri is believed to be based was executed by one of his own soldiers bee he was gay and they feared that if news got out the fay would be ridiculed by the rt of the unrworld, a Manhattan urt has been told. "Nobody's gonna rpect if we have a gay homosexual boss stg down discsg La Cosa Nostra bs, " an rmer told the urt on "Johnny Boy" D'Amato, head of the DeCavalnte fay, the biggt the state of New Jersey, was shot ad 1992 after was moured that he was havg relatnships wh other a DeCavalnte soldier, Anthony Capo, heard the tale om D'Amato's girliend he was credibly angry.

As D'Amato sat the back of the r, Capo turned and shot him twice, and when he ntued to move, twice mafia culture there is a strict taboo agast homosexualy. Source - The Italian Mafia has opened s doors to gay men for the first time after emerged that a mob boss’ son is livg as a fabulo drag the past mobsters risked beg murred if they were even spected of beg gay. But the once fiercely homophobic Mafia has now “evolved wh society”, an anti-Mafia vtigator the southern regn of Calabria has Gratteri told The Tim that although homosexualy is still taboo among olr boss, the Mafia has relaxed s l to perm gay men s lower ranks, as long as they don’t “para public”.

GAY MAFIA HMAN MURRED BY OWN BEE CRIME FAY ‘DISGRACED’ BY HIS SEXUALY

”Instead of receivg the expected ath threats for his ments, Gratteri was bombard wh emails accg him of beg “sensive” for clarg the Mafia’s admtance of gay men meant they’d gone soft – suggtg that tim really have changed. But there was a time Amerin history when there was a real fear that a gay mafia—known llectively as “homterns”—existed, wieldg ntrol across Hollywood and throughout the arts and entertament dtri.

LGBT HATE CRIM DOUBLE RSIA AFTER BAN ON 'GAY PROPAGANDA'

In his new book Homtern: How Gay Culture Liberated the Morn World, English amic Gregory Woods chronicl the rise of the “homtern, ” explorg how the longstandg fear of homosexual men spurred a century-long paranoia about an alleged gay mafia ntrollg areas of ernment, the arts and amia. In the mid-19th century the pair rrpond about the threat of “perasts”—an antiquated term referrg to men who had sex wh younger men, sce “homosexual” did not yet exist as a label—to their goal of tablishg non-sexual raship between other men. Woods wr that was this obssn to tegorize so-lled “unsaid” male sexual impuls and behavrs that actually enuraged the fear of the homosexual figure larger society.

” This sire to study and fe sexual behavr further phed rearchers to “un-closet” the homosexual, all an effort to mystify a sexual inty that had long been ostracized and stigmatized but never really pned down through scientific quiry. Woods says was most likely vented as a word play, referrg to a disanized and rmal work of gay men who aternized the 1930s, cludg the lik of poet W. Des later, “homtern” entered Cold War disurse, beg reappropriated by nspiracy theorists that exploed s munist associatn and claimed referred to a longstandg “ternatnal homosexual nspiracy” across the untry, whose one goal was to perate posns the Amerin ernment and urp tradnal Amerin valu of fay and heterosexualy.

MAFIA OPENS DOOR TO GAY PEOPLE AFTER MOB BOSS FDS OUT HIS SON IS A DRAG QUEEN

Wh Amerins fearful of the tonatn of an atomic bomb and a enzy about polics beg overtaken by munist fectors, the elive figure of the homosexual—known but never seen public; closeted but apparently everywhere—was ripe to explo to spire fear. Woods says that the anxieti around homosexuals Cold War Ameri take some of their orig the social “cleansg” mpaigns enacted Nazi Germany and Soviet Rsia, mpaigns lnched to eradite homosexual men (and other “unwanted” dividuals) om society. ” The report claimed the “filtratn” of homosexuals to Amerin polil life meant that homosexuals would “envabl[y] … attempt to place other homosexuals Government jobs.

ANTI-LGBT HATE CRIM DOUBLE SCE 'GAY PROPAGANDA' LAW RSIA

The backlash agast homosexuals was only pound by the growg visibily of gay men public life, pecially the arts and entertament dtri, which only pound the ia of an unrground nspiracy of a “gay mafia. ” In 1966, one New York Tim cric mentned the wispread perceptn that bee the men were homosexuals their plays “prent[ed] a badly distorted picture of Amerin women, marriage and society. Siar claims were ma about the number of “gay” men (closeted but monly known to be gay) Hollywood, cludg Gee Cor, Montgomery Clift, Cary Grant, and Rock Hudson.

Although the men were not “out, ” mors of their sexualy circulated wily Hollywood and galvanized an image of Hollywood beg overn by gay men, many who allegedly wield power and tonomy. Unlike lbians, gay men were seen as the more subversive threat bee they had most public profil as well as more likely to occupy posns of power the entertament dtri.

ITALIAN MOB OPEN TO GAY MEMBERS, AS LONG AS THEY DON’T ‘PARA PUBLIC’

But some two s later, wh the groundswell mpaigns for eedoms and visibily that eventually beme the gay liberatn movement, the homtern lost all currency Amerin life. All the same, the homtern’s awakeng of fear public life 1950s Ameri monstrat an important narrative, remdg there was a time when the ia of a “gay mafia” lg Hollywood was a legimate ncern. A rash of laws ncerng the teachg of human sexualy school curricula, banng trans stunt athlet and strippg parents of the right to help their genr-variant children obta appropriate re have popped up numero red stat this same-sex marriage is now part of the fabric of Ameri, nservativ have chosen to explo Amerins’ unfaiary wh trans people and piggyback on parental anger over the perceived overreach of Covid-era school closur, nflatg wh an sid sense of “wokens”, the hop of fdg an electorally viable sluiceway for anti-LGBTQ+ most famo of the anti-LGBTQ+ laws is the piece of Florida legislatn banng stctn on sexual orientatn or genr inty schools between krgarten and third gra, the so-lled “don’t say gay” law.