Sopranos' Gay Character 'Johnny Cak' Kills Himself - Queerty

Contents:

• GAY ‘SOPRANOS’ MOBSTER FDS A B OF FAME
• JOE GANNASLI DISCS HIS LIFE DURG AND SCE PLAYG GAY MOBSTER VO SPATAFORE ON ‘THE SOPRANOS’
• ‘THE SOPRANOS’ BELONGS TO THE GAYS NOW
• HOW GAY IS VO OM THE SOPRANOS?
• ''THE SOPRANOS'': TONY'S GAY ISSU
• SOPRANOS‘ GAY CHARACTER ‘JOHNNY CAK’ KILLS HIMSELF
• KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY
• JAGS' MAXEN IS FIRST MALE AMERIN PRO SPORTS ACH TO E OUT AS GAY

GAY ‘SOPRANOS’ MOBSTER FDS A B OF FAME

In 2004, the Season 5 episo "Unintified Black Mal", is disclosed to viewers Vo is fact homosexual after he is seen performg fellat on a secury guard early one morng at the Esplana nstctn se by Meadow's boyiend, Fn De Trol.

Vo at the gay bar. Later, that eveng while makg a llectn at a gay bar, two Lupertazzi Fay associat, one named Sal Iaccuzzo, saw Vo dancg provotively wh a gay man. The Iaccuzzo character was based on real-life Gambo Crime Fay po Matthew Lanniello, who was known to extort and own several nightclubs New York Cy that tered to homosexual clientele.

Vo claimed that his homosexual behavr had been ed by meditn. Lupertazzi crime fay boss Phil Leotardo, a vilent homophobe, mand Vo's ath, so Tony quietly arranged for Carlo Gervasi to make a h on Vo.

JOE GANNASLI DISCS HIS LIFE DURG AND SCE PLAYG GAY MOBSTER VO SPATAFORE ON ‘THE SOPRANOS’

It was later revealed that Vo was found wh a pool cue stick his rectum, a msage that he was killed bee of his homosexualy.

Phil Leotardo later told Vo's wife, Marie, that her hband was probably killed by two homosexual transients Vo had picked up at a bar. ”Drsed appropriate leather bar attire, Vo Spatafore — the heretofore closeted gay mobster — was sighted by a uple wiseguys who me by the sweaty S&M jot to llect their protectn money. )Now that the gay story le is heatg up, the 47-year-old Brooklyn-born actor is immensely pleased, part bee was his ia to make Vo homosexual.

“I wanted to make him sort of self-nial, self-loathg, a real gay hater.

‘THE SOPRANOS’ BELONGS TO THE GAYS NOW

”Gannasli’s suggtn was spired by the book “Murr Mache, ” about the Gambo fay, which had an openly gay member also named Vo.

But even amid all the recent gay buzz, Gannasli knows the reactn to Vo won’t be all posive. The Sopranos was a show wh some wild twists, but arguably s most shockg revelatn was that Vo Spatafore, the portly po of the Aprile crew and one of Tony’s bt earners, was actually a closeted homosexual.

He’d pched to one of the wrers after learng about a real-life gay mobster om a book he was readg, lled Murr Mache. Sce fdg fame on The Sopranos, Gannasli has published a novel, gotten married (“I got married late, and I said ‘I gotta get married quick here bee people are really gog to thk that I’m gay, ’ so was a sh job.

HOW GAY IS VO OM THE SOPRANOS?

You talked about them rporatg real-life thgs wh the actors to the show, but the whole Vo arc where he’s gay, that was your ia, right?

And one of the characters was gay and I thought that was… I was like, “Wow, was a gay mobster. They’re so homophobic that even the portrayal of a gay man on TV they’re like, “I don’t like . I worked a gay rtrant.

''THE SOPRANOS'': TONY'S GAY ISSU

If you have a problem wh gays you shouldn’t be the rtrant bs. In the episo where they disver that Vo’s gay at the leather bar, do you remember what you were thkg the first time that they me and showed you the wardrobe that you were gog to have for that? But, all this heterosexism and flattened nuance ignor the obv tth: The Sopranos belongs to the gays now.

SOPRANOS‘ GAY CHARACTER ‘JOHNNY CAK’ KILLS HIMSELF

And while some of the Gays of Gabagool have been fans sce the begng, seems many of them have only disvered recently, via word of mouth. But this new realy rais qutns: How did a show about vlent straight men bee so popular wh queer and trans people, pecially given the racism, misogyny and homophobia shows?

LGBT LbianGay Bisexual Tony Soprano. — hawaiian k-hole (@TheGayChgy) Augt 12, 2021. — hawaiian k-hole (@TheGayChgy) March 28, 2021.

“The men are so secure about thgs like homosexualy, but at the same time, many of them are much more image-nsc and effete than mastream men of different social class — the manicur, the obssn wh cloth, the hair, the jewelry, the logne.

KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY

There’s a lot of shared terrory between this branch of 1990s/2000s Italian-Amerin ultra-macho culture and gay men’s club culture of the same perd. — hawaiian k-hole (@TheGayChgy) April 3, 2021. — hawaiian k-hole (@TheGayChgy) October 14, 2020.

But even better, what I found was other gays to chat wh about my favore mobsters.

— hawaiian k-hole (@TheGayChgy) September 27, 2020. But wrer and gay porn performer Ty Mchell says “g at the end” might be exactly why The Sopranos has bee so beloved queer circl now.

JAGS' MAXEN IS FIRST MALE AMERIN PRO SPORTS ACH TO E OUT AS GAY

Gannasli is known to Sopranos watchers as “Gay Vo” (or even GaVo, certa exotic circl). Gannasli dancg gleefully a biker’s p a leather bar, or gog on the lam to a gay Shangri-La ( this se, “Live Free or Die” New Hampshire) and fallg love wh the handsome mtached ok om the der—“Johnny Cak”—that have given TV viewers that rare feelg that they are watchg somethg new.

Sure, there have been plenty of gay characters on televisn before: wacky Jack om Will & Grace, or David, the fsy unrtaker wh the hot p boyiend on Six Feet Unr. But the plight of Gay Vo has stirred up siar feelgs to those viewers felt when they first tuned on Sunday nights 1999 to see a Prozac-poppg Mafia boss spill his guts to his therapist. Gannasli’s character, Vo Spatafore, was revealed as a closeted gay man when, at the end of last season, viewers spied his head e bobbg up om the lap of a secury guard.

GANNASCOLI who had ially brought up the ia of a gay mobster to the show’s wrers durg the filmg of season three, after he’d read Murr Mache by Gene Mta and Jerry Capeci, about an openly gay member of the Gambo crime fay who was allowed to live bee he was a good earner. Early this season, the stage for tragedy was set when Vo was spotted by mobsters as he gallivanted full leather regalia a gay bar. Gannasli was recently asked to serve as grand marshal at an Atlanta Gay Pri para, and he’s received letters om openly gay and closeted men appldg his portrayal.