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

Contents:

• THE RISE OF THE GAY MAFIA, A POWERFUL CABAL THAT NEVER EXISTED
• ADAM CAROLLA: THE GAY MAFIA IS REAL
• GAY MAFIA
• MAFIA BOSS BBED OUT 'FOR BEG GAY'

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

The paranoia over an “ternatnal homosexual nspiracy” rivaled the McCarthy munist wch hunts of the 1950s.

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.

ADAM CAROLLA: THE GAY MAFIA IS REAL

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. The ver of Gregory Woods’ Homtern: How Gay Culture Liberated the Morn World. 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.

GAY MAFIA

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.

There is some irony to this history, as the term homosexual was first ed 1868 before the word “heterosexual” even existed.

MAFIA BOSS BBED OUT 'FOR BEG GAY'

Homosexual was set opposn to the ia of a “normalsexual, ” a word which was later disrd for “heterosexual. ” 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.