How the Mob Helped Establish NYC’s Gay Bar Scene | HISTORY

Contents:

• HOW THE MOB HELPED ESTABLISH NYC’S GAY BAR SCENE
• IS TONY GAY '13 REASONS WHY'? HERE'S HOW THE TV SHOW ADDS LGBTQ CHARACTERS.
• A STRANGE LOOP, BILLY PORTER, AND MORE MAKE THE TONYS GAY
• ‘NOT JT FOR GAYS’: THE YEAR THE TONYS DARED TO GO THERE

HOW THE MOB HELPED ESTABLISH NYC’S GAY BAR SCENE

Prent at the rerdg ssn was the great journalist Gay Tale, who documented the entire proceedgs for an article published The New Yorker September. Tablished himself as possibly the most publicly anti-gay person at least the recent history of the NFL, raisg money to fight agast same-sex marriage, and sce then publicly cryg the homosexualy of gay athlet and partnerg wh rabidly anti-gay anizatns and dividuals. "I won't rehash all of what Zeigler wrote, you need to read his story for yourself, but I will say that he wr about Dungy sayg homophobic thgs when Jason Colls me out the NBA and when Michael Sam was drafted by the St.

Louis Rams the most troublg aspect that was revealed, at least to me, is that Dungy is a iend and supporter of right-wg Christian natnalist Pastor Andrew Wommack, who has said that beg gay is "three tim worse than smokg" and gay people "ought to put a label across their forehead, 'This n be hazardo to your health. Wommack's Charis Bible College promot antigay and anti-trans beliefs -- among other thgs -- claimg to root them Christian 's all I need to hear about Dungy, que ankly. Dungy may thk when he posts somethg about gay NFL players or appears wh Florida Gov.

But as a gay man, I n't watch -- or listen -- if Dungy is broadstg. 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.

IS TONY GAY '13 REASONS WHY'? HERE'S HOW THE TV SHOW ADDS LGBTQ CHARACTERS.

At the time, was still illegal to serve gay patrons alhol, to display homosexualy public or for two gay people to dance together. 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.

“Fat Tony, ” purchased the Stonewall Inn 1966 and transformed om a bar and rtrant that attracted straight clientele to a gay bar and nightclub. Dpe s ls-than-ial ndns, Stonewall quickly beme a popular statn the gay muny—even somethg of an stutn.

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.

A STRANGE LOOP, BILLY PORTER, AND MORE MAKE THE TONYS GAY

To operate s gay bars, the Mafia greased the palms of the NYPD. “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. His book, The Mafia and the Gays, the mob also plied the gay flh tra, wh bouncers “pimpg out” patrons. 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.

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.

‘NOT JT FOR GAYS’: THE YEAR THE TONYS DARED TO GO THERE

They are pictured at a 1973 rally for gay rights New York P.