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

Contents:

• ‘THE SOPRANOS’ BELONGS TO THE GAYS NOW
• READ AN ORAL HISTORY OF THE SOPRANOS' VO SPATAFORE "JOHNNY CAK" GAY MOBSTER STORYLE
• THE GAY MOBSTER ‘SOPRANOS’ WRERS USED AS THE BASIS FOR VO SPATAFORE
• GAY ‘SOPRANOS’ MOBSTER FDS A B OF FAME
• SOPRANOS‘ GAY CHARACTER ‘JOHNNY CAK’ KILLS HIMSELF
• HOW GAY IS VO OM THE SOPRANOS?
• ''THE SOPRANOS'': TONY'S GAY ISSU
• JOE GANNASLI DISCS HIS LIFE DURG AND SCE PLAYG GAY MOBSTER VO SPATAFORE ON ‘THE SOPRANOS’

‘THE SOPRANOS’ BELONGS TO THE GAYS NOW

But, all this heterosexism and flattened nuance ignor the obv tth: The Sopranos belongs to the gays now. 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.

READ AN ORAL HISTORY OF THE SOPRANOS' VO SPATAFORE "JOHNNY CAK" GAY MOBSTER STORYLE

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. 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.

THE GAY MOBSTER ‘SOPRANOS’ WRERS USED AS THE BASIS FOR VO SPATAFORE

— 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.

GAY ‘SOPRANOS’ MOBSTER FDS A B OF FAME

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. The acclaimed HBO drama earned s only GLAAD nomatn for Joe Gannasli's portrayal of a closeted gay mobster, which the actor pched after havg read a about a real-life gay mobster named Vo. Omar’s homosexualy is obvly a pot of ntentn for his enemi.

Yet, the fact that the show sets this nversatn about his h an all-male space (a basketball urt) wh characters sharg a shirtls homosocial exchange ironiz the very homophobia that driv .

SOPRANOS‘ GAY CHARACTER ‘JOHNNY CAK’ KILLS HIMSELF

Th, while shows like Oz and The Wire put LGBT characters at their center, The Sopranos didn’t center on an overtly gay storyle until Vo (a married fay man) is outed the show’s fifth season. This of masculy ns through the entire seri, but ’s not surprisg is so central to this particular episo, which se that very vlent be btally nnected to issu of homosexualy.

HOW GAY IS VO OM THE SOPRANOS?

To answer that we’ll look at Sacha Baron Cohen’s Da Ali G Show, the bro-tastic Entourage and cult-fave The Comeback, all of which had proment gay rol that skirted the le between stereotype and riture. 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. 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.

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

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. Gannasli had read a book about a gay mobster who was an associate of New York’s Gambo crime fay. Gambo associate Vo Arena had survived as a gay mobster the ’80s.

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

There’s a mobster who’s gay and you don’t really see that.

Though Green sound terted, Gannasli didn’t hear anythg more about until the murr of a gay Jersey mobster splashed across headl. A gay Jersey mobster’s murr ma ‘Sopranos’ wrers rensir. Durg the trial of Jersey mobsters, a DeCavalnte soldier scribed murrg DeCavalnte boss Johnny Boy D’Amato for beg gay.

“Nobody’s gonna rpect if we have a gay homosexual boss, ” the killer said urt. Revisg the Sopranos "Gay Episo".