My Gay Prison Gang Fights Neo-Nazis | The Marshall Project

Contents:

• INSI A PRISON CELL FOR GAY FORMER GANG MEMBERS EL SALVADOR
• LEARN ABOUT THE GAY GANG THAT SUPPORTS S MEMBERS BEHD BARS
• EVIL TWKS AND GAY GANGSTERS: WHY WE NEED TO REMEMBER HISTORY’S HORRID HOMOSEXUALS
• 'CHECK IT' IS A NEW DOCUMENTARY ABOUT AMERI'S ONLY ALL-GAY GANG
• JAGUARS ACH KEV MAXEN RECEIV OVERWHELMG SUPPORT AFTER G OUT AS GAY
• MY GAY PRISON GANG FIGHTS NEO-NAZIS
• DWEN CURRY THE ‘ORIGAL GAY GANGSTER’ SHAR HER STORY ON AMERIN GANGSTER: TRAP QUEENS
• GAYS THE GANG
• RULTS FOR : YOUNG GAY LATO BOYS

INSI A PRISON CELL FOR GAY FORMER GANG MEMBERS EL SALVADOR

LONG BEACH >> Serg Romero knew would be difficult for his mother to accept that the 37-year-old was gay, but still shocked and hurt him to learn she preferred her son to be an active gang member than to be gay. “For her, I was more of a man as a gang member than beg gay, ” said Romero as he sat a Los Angel ffee shop tellg his story of beg an active member of a notor street gang and gay. He is one of the men featured a documentary, “Homeboy, ” on Lato gang members who are gay that will be screened this weekend at the QFilm Ftival, Long Beach’s longt-nng film ftival prentg narrative featur, documentari and short films about the lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer (LGBTQ) muny.

Gay gang members who are Lato gangs not only have to al wh the stereotypil machismo seen Lato culture, D said, they have to ntend wh the hyper-mascule posturg wh the gang microculture. “Before social media and Facebook, I had to post fliers gay bars orr to fd people willg to talk to me, ” D said. Wh an timated 9 ln Amerins intifyg as gay, lbian, bisexual or transgenr, acrdg to a 2011 report om the Williams Instute at the UCLA School of Law, gays are part of nearly every aspect of life, even wh the gang life.

LEARN ABOUT THE GAY GANG THAT SUPPORTS S MEMBERS BEHD BARS

However, an exact number of openly gay gang members is difficult to e by sce many do not disclose their sexual orientatn.

It took Manuel — he wanted to e only his first name — several years to adm he was gay. Manuel spent nearly two years Cho Instutn for Men on a dg nvictn the ’90s and said he did engage homosexual activi behd bars but was nial about the fact he was gay. “I kept sayg to myself I wasn’t gay bee I had a girliend and was only dog that bee I was prison, ” said the 33-year-old man who liv the Inland Empire.

While most gay gang members operate wh tradnal gangs, there is a group ma up solely of gay crimals. The Gay Boy Gangsters are part of a group of prison gangs that have spng up on the sensive needs yards, acrdg to Richard Valmar, a gang expert and retired Los Angel Police Department gang tective. Those yards at California state prisons are signated for mat requirg special protectn, such as certa sex offenrs, rmants and homosexuals.

EVIL TWKS AND GAY GANGSTERS: WHY WE NEED TO REMEMBER HISTORY’S HORRID HOMOSEXUALS

“What happens is you get the guys on the special needs yards who know how to be gang members and they form the gangs, ” Srrano said, addg that the ma reason Gay Boy Gangsters members formed this alliance is their sexual preference.

Manuel has been livg as a gay man for nearly a and is a mted relatnship. Rs’ and Manuel’s fai ially grappled wh acceptg their sons as gay, but both say they now have great relatnships wh them, pecially their mothers. “That’s where I had my first open homosexual enunter, ” Romero said.

'CHECK IT' IS A NEW DOCUMENTARY ABOUT AMERI'S ONLY ALL-GAY GANG

The prison director showed him an isolatn cell, where ne former gang members—om each of the untry’s three ma anized crime groups, MS-13, and two factns of Barr 18—had been moved after g out as gay. “Bee the gangs, if there’s even the spicn that you’re gay, you pay for wh your life.

” In this particular prison, San Francis Gotera, the east of the Central Amerin untry, gang culture was not the only source of vilent homophobia. The state had effectively ced ntrol of daily life si Gotera to church lears, who preach that homosexualy is a s as grave as vlence.

JAGUARS ACH KEV MAXEN RECEIV OVERWHELMG SUPPORT AFTER G OUT AS GAY

8—follows Geovany, a gay man who worked as a hman for Barr 18 and left the gang 2016.

Livg the isolatn cell wh his partner and other gay mat, he grappl wh both his sexualy and his vlent past.

MY GAY PRISON GANG FIGHTS NEO-NAZIS

Homosexualy remas taboo and vlence and discrimatn agast LGBTQ people is rife. “How is possible for a untry to have s moral pass so broken that homosexualy and murr n feel the same? “But the tth is that they are already nmned: they’ve left the gang; they’ve lived wh former members of other gangs; and they’ve lived openly as gay people, ” she says.

DWEN CURRY THE ‘ORIGAL GAY GANGSTER’ SHAR HER STORY ON AMERIN GANGSTER: TRAP QUEENS

The homosexual is the same, ” says a pastor one terview laid over a scene of him preachg to rapturo crowds the prison urtyard.

) Martez says the film is not an attempt to reem the subjects “jt bee they’re gay, jt bee they n show love or tenrns. “Te Gay Gangstas, ”.

GAYS THE GANG

It is not easy beg Gay prison. She told him that the fact she uld be around so many homophobic men who nstantly shun her and give her dirty looks and still mata her feme attu shows she stead is the strong one. I have been gay my entire adult life.

I have attend balls, gay paras and have always been proud of who I am. Which stood for The Gay Group (or Those Gay Girls, Them Girlie Guys, or my favore, Te Gay Gangstas). For stance, if someone was around who was homophobic and a known “gay basher, ” the was “rabow ey, ” which meant: be alert, watch this guy.

While I do not advote gangs, I do believe we have to stick together and protect one another, bee the rrectnal officers will not, and even enurage or allow prisoners to harass, timidate, rob and asslt transgenr and gay prisoners. Major profsnal sports to publicly e out as gay. Last Febary, Maxen nnected wh lebacker Carl Nassib, who beme the first active NFL player to e out as gay 2021, as he navigated a path forward.

RULTS FOR : YOUNG GAY LATO BOYS

GBGGood Beer Gui (UK pub guibook published annually by the Campaign for Real Ale)GBGGraf Blum GroupGBGGarciaparra Baseball GroupGBGGeon Botanil Garn (Universy of Alaska; Fairbanks, AK)GBGGuild of Battlefield Guis (UK)GBGGuid by God (MLM pany)GBGGreat Big GrGBGGay Boy Gangsters (prison gang)GBGGoln Books Group (UK)GBGGeneral Bank of GreeceGBGGalburg Municipal Airport, Galburg, Illois (Airport Co)GBGGreater Boston Grane (Massachetts)GBGGoln Bridge GhanaGBGGame Breakg Glch (gamg).

There are many stereotyp of and assumptns about street gangs, jt as there are many stereotyp and assumptns about gay men. In movi and televisn, some of the most regnizable gay characters have been portrayed as effemate or weak; they’re “fashnistas” or “gay bt iends.

This obv ntradictn was one of the ma reasons I was drawn to the subject of gay gang members. For my book “The Gang’s All Queer, ” I terviewed and spent time wh 48 gay or bisexual male gang members.

All were between the ag of 18 and 28; the majory were men of lor; and all lived or near Columb, Oh, which has been referred to as a “Midwtern gay mec. The experience, which took place over the urse of more than two years, allowed me to explore the tensns they felt between gang life and gay manhood.