The Velvet Mafia: the gay men who helped shape mic the 60s | Mic | The Guardian

Contents:

• ADAM CAROLLA: THE GAY MAFIA IS REAL
• THE VELVET MAFIA: THE GAY MEN WHO HELPED SHAPE MIC THE 60S
• THE RISE OF THE GAY MAFIA, A POWERFUL CABAL THAT NEVER EXISTED
• HOW THE MOB HELPED ESTABLISH NYC’S GAY BAR SCENE
• LIFTYL OF THE GAY AND MOBSTER
• BEWARE THE GAY MAFIA
• THE GAY MAFIA: A MIL
• GAY MAFIA
• GROUNDBREAKG BOOK DETAILS WHEN MAFIA CONTROLLED GAY BARS
• THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT AND THE MOB
• MAFIA BOSS BBED OUT 'FOR BEG GAY'

ADAM CAROLLA: THE GAY MAFIA IS REAL

(Geffen, as mor has , is supposed to have been thrilled that the movie a homophobe father beats up his son when he spects him to have had a gay affair wh Kev Spacey’s character, and even more thrilled when is later revealed that the homophobe was actually a reprsed gay.

Here is one of Bill Clton’s close supporters, one who had a ee n of the Lln bedroom, and was, I believe, once even lled an adviser to the Draft Dodger, phg a gay agenda of promotg stars and directors who make movi and rerds sympathetic to the gay liftyle. But Buzz, a lively monthly out of Los Angel - 's sort of like Toronto Life but more fun - says s ver story that a lot of people who ph the squeaky-clean, mom-dad-two-kids-pl-dog, relentlsly upbeat Disney image are more than jt cheerful, gang: they're gladly, joyoly gay. Everyone knows Hollywood is a ''boy's club, '' meang straight men n , but even if the straight boys don't accept someone, there are plenty of gays and lbians to bond wh, and there has even arisen, the media, a phrase, ''the gay Mafia.

On the posive ont, the radil gays argued that homosexuals should be entled to get married the same way as heterosexual upl, and that schools should teach about gay sex as if were no more normal or abnormal than male-female terurse. The pot of this exercise was to monise normal heterosexual behavur, and to make the ordary ruals of attractn and relatnships seem aberrant, so that gays uld advance their own e by claimg 'straights' led liv that were much worse than theirs.

THE VELVET MAFIA: THE GAY MEN WHO HELPED SHAPE MIC THE 60S

If you're wonrg why homosexuals have skyrocketed recent years to jo blacks and femists at the top of liberalism's hallowed list of "mory groups" entled to special rights and privileg, look no further than Hollywood --- Tseltown is ntrolled the days by the "Gay Mafia.

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

The csant need to not only advance their fellow homosexuals but to zealoly protect each other om public scty is bee the "need to mata Ameri's wholome image of them is somethg that nnects Hollywood gays at all levels --- whether one is a stgglg (or a mega- star) actor, wrer, agent, or producer, " Ebner wr.

But the people who shaped and advised those artists – the on who managed the stars of the classic rock age – were, by an outsized marg, gay terwoven muny clud Brian Epste (who brought the world the Beatl), K Lambert (who -managed the Who), Simon Napier-Bell (the Yardbirds, and a young Marc Bolan), Robert Stigwood (Cream, the Bee Ge), Billy Gaff (Rod Stewart), Ken Pt (David Bowie), Barry Krost (Cat Stevens), as well as Tony Stratton-Smh (who formed the visnary label Charisma for bands like Genis).

A new book tled The Velvet Mafia: the Gay Men who Ran the Swgg Sixti aims to tell the Brish si of this story by focg on several key players the scene, cludg a few of the aforementned nam along wh the novative producer Joe Meek and the head of the UK’s most powerful label at the time, Sir Joseph Lockwood.

HOW THE MOB HELPED ESTABLISH NYC’S GAY BAR SCENE

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. 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.

” 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. Des later, “homtern” entered Cold War disurse, beg reappropriated by nspiracy theorists that exploed s munist associatn and claimed referred to a longstandg “ternatnal homosexual nspiracy” across the untry, whose one goal was to perate posns the Amerin ernment and urp tradnal Amerin valu of fay and heterosexualy. Wh Amerins fearful of the tonatn of an atomic bomb and a enzy about polics beg overtaken by munist fectors, the elive figure of the homosexual—known but never seen public; closeted but apparently everywhere—was ripe to explo to spire fear.

LIFTYL OF THE GAY AND MOBSTER

Woods says that the anxieti around homosexuals Cold War Ameri take some of their orig the social “cleansg” mpaigns enacted Nazi Germany and Soviet Rsia, mpaigns lnched to eradite homosexual men (and other “unwanted” dividuals) om society. 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. 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.

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. “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.

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.

BEWARE THE GAY MAFIA

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.

THE GAY MAFIA: A MIL

" This sign was wrten by the Mattache Society–an early anizatn dited to fightg for gay reportg the events, The New York Daily News rorted to homophobic slurs s tailed verage, nng the headle: “Homo Nt Raid, Queen Be Are Stgg Mad. 1 / 14: RxSome scholars have argued the famo Stonewall rts that sparked the natnwi LGBT movement were as much a ristance agast the mob’s exploatn of the gay muny as they were a stggle agast police harassment and discrimatory laws.

” Two of the ma gay-rights anizatns that me out of the rts, the Gay Activists Alliance and Gay Liberatn Front, actively champned gettg anized crime out of gay Mafia’s stranglehold on New York Cy’s nightlife bs took a huge h wh a seri of high-profile prosecutns the 1980s. Footnote 13 This parody of the genre and/or s characters has often been ed njunctn wh LGBTQ+ narrativ or characters, whether they be a very mor characters like Spike’s “dyke” mother Spike om Bensonhurst (1988), or more central protagonists and narrativ, as is the se the shorts The Gay Mafia: A Mil (2020), The Pk Mafia (2006), and the promo/short The Brothers Sclair (2011).

GAY MAFIA

Ridiculons follows, not only bee Jenny Patrizzi persuas the oafish henchmen that they mt “play gay” to nvce the Torcellis that the terg service is legimately n by their son and his partner, but also bee Jenny’s fiancé’s adoptive parents are part of an anti-ernment ia that cis this party is the perfect opportuny to mence their plot to stroy the edic stcture at the foundatn of much of the film follows one basic prciple: take a stereotype, name , and prove the oppose.

” Here and throughout the film the ntradictn between our expectatns of the genr prentatns of mobsters and gay men and those prented to prove an unendg source of edic very premise of the film self reli on the edic stctur of ngy humor, as Leon Rappoport explas: “What the ngy theory of humor boils down to is our apparently nate tenncy to be amed by scen that are clearly absurd or ntradictory;”Footnote 14 and here, the stereotype-based character expectatn (rerced by the athetics and overall stctur of the film) is ngo to the actual characters beg prented to .

On the other hand, their sexual orientatn is equally ngo bee stereotypil gay men are portrayed as effive, effemate, affectnate characters terted fashn, hair, and other feme rol and profsns, certaly not ventta, and guns. ” The ngy humor we fd the prentatn of their sexual orientatn do not serve, however, to make thk crilly about our prenceived notns of sexual inty, if anythg is, some rpect, unrmed by the fact that Stephen and Danny themselv adm that their choice of profsn may fact be due to some latent ternalized homophobia; a notn rerced by their iend Richard who dismiss their machismo as self-loathg.

GROUNDBREAKG BOOK DETAILS WHEN MAFIA CONTROLLED GAY BARS

Th, while reliant on a lack of character pth—which we will soon see—the film seems to ultimately double down on the pthls stereotyp on which re of the film’s narrative, is, ed, reliant on the superficialy of the characters themselv, or, more specifilly on the ways that both archetypil characters (the mob thugs) and stereotypil characters (gay men) are typified by performance and artifice. As Stephen and Danny prepare for the ftivi they are pretendg to ter, the mafsi—who will work the event as part of the terg staff—all agree that they mt pretend to be gay, bee a terg pany Manhattan n by two gay guys would obvly exclively employ gay men.

THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT AND THE MOB

Here, as the henchmen learn to be gay the mafia archetype seemgly expands or, as Bayman discs, what gets revealed is “the unrlyg siary beneath a surface opposn, ” as the archetypal mafia thug, the dumb bte, be pound wh gay stereotyp durg the procs of this gay schoolg. Footnote 16 The gay school, tght by Stephen and Danny’s flamboyant iend Richard, Footnote 17 allows s stunts, and viewers, to explore the embodied archive of gay experience through a crash urse on effemate genr performance, subculturally d speech, opulent outfs, and gay ins and culture, om Judy Garland to Ellen De Generis, to J. When time to put their newfound gayns to the tt, they spend the eveng htg on the guts at the party and makg sexual nuendos; their gayns is performed by exudg sexualy and sexual sire toward everythg and everyone, while donng lorful silky to light here is the way that this very narrative premise is pennt on inty as performative praxis.

This, fact, is precisely what Jack Babc emphasiz “The Cema of Camp (AKA Camp and the Gay Sensibily)” when he discs the relatnship between mp and irony: “Camp is ironic sofar as an ngo ntrast n be drawn between an dividual/thg and s ntext/associatn. The fact that the fsi unrgo this queer transformatn and perform sissyns to keep Stephen and Danny’s secret, reveals an tertg rrelatn between the gay sissy and the Italian his foundatnal work The Celluloid Closet, Vo Rso explas that: “Early sissi were yardsticks for measurg the virily of the men around them. While they n’t take over the fay bs bee they aren’t Sicilian, the bras and btaly of the gay assasss make them more eful than Patrizzi’s hetero-sissy here and historilly, the fso and the sissy are sted for failure, one bee his goodns and bte force (at least this gangster eratn) are not enough for him to succeed on his own, and the other bee dandi lack the mascule social telligence for Amerin succs.

MAFIA BOSS BBED OUT 'FOR BEG GAY'

Specifilly referrg to the Tontelli and Beddi characters The Gay Divorcee and Top Hat rpectively, he remarks, “the films pat both characters as excsively feme wh the e of make-up, wardrobe, and Rhos’s gtur and movements. Footnote 29 Th the fso-thug to fso-sissy mutatn Fay & Friends mirrors the mediatic transformatn of the archetype Amerin film more are other nvergenc between gay and mafso culture that are woven through the narrative, nvergenc that seem to rely on the mafia’s proximy to reprentatns of Italianns. ” Th, throughout the film gay culture is exprsed through expectatns of the portrayal of gayns, the portrayal of Italianns is also heightened by the urban ntext, and this visibily many ways brgs gay and Italian smopolanism together.

” there is a very visible overlap the muni participatg this cultural event: both Italians and gays are there en masse to celebrate and appreciate the opera, th, while Stephen and Danny seem to attend the opera wh their gay iends, they leave to perform their work duti durg termissn, and n to several of their affiliat while might say that both groups n bt live out the fullt extent of their inty wh a smopolan environment.

Throughout the film, however, Stephen and Danny act opposn to the tras that une the mory groups: they are not effemate, and as such are speculated to have ternalized homophobia, and their lks to Italianns are pletely pennt upon their relatnship to the mafia fay.