Organized Crime Control Of Gay Bars [View All]

[derzauberberg]

This topic was tangentially referenced in the Stonewall Inn thread on this board, but I think it deserves its own message topic for a full discussion. I have done a great deal of research on the history of gay bars, and was surprised to learn of the significant role of organized crime -- particularly the Genovese and Gambino crime families -- in the ownership and operation of gay bars. See http://www.bitterqueen.typepad.com/

I fully understand why organized crime originally ventured into the gay bar industry because of the fact that being gay used to be illegal, and by offering payoffs to the police the Mafia was able to keep bars open. However, gay bars have been legal since 1967, and I don't understand why the Mafia continues to have interests in at least some gay bars in cities such as Chicago, New York and Montreal. The press and insider accounts provide ample support that organized crime has maintained its interests in at least some gay bars in some American cities throughout the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s if not through the present.

What saddens me is that the Stonewall Inn riots -- widely regarded as the rallying cry for the modern gay rights movement -- specifically were a protest against Mafia control of gay bars as much as a protest against police harassment of gays and lesbians. However, I am not sure that we as a gay and lesbian community have successfully eliminated organized crime from our bars, and I don't understand why law enforcement continues to allow the mob to exploit our community. In some instances the Mafia has used its control over at least some gay bars to blackmail closeted gay men and as distribution centers for illegal drugs. Organized crime is not a friend to the GLBT community, and eliminating the Mafia should be a central issue on our civil rights platform.

To what extent does organized crime maintain an interest in gay bars in America, and what should we as the GLBT community do about it?