Friday, June 28, 2013

Strange Bedfellows: The Birth of the Gay Liberation Movement and the Mafia

45 years ago today marks the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, violent demonstrations waged by the members of the gay community, which is considered the catalyst for the foundation of the Gay Liberation Movement in America.

In the early hours of June 28, 1969, the Stonewall Inn was raided by the NYPD. Police raids on gay bars were not uncommon at the time, because they were illegal. Although tensions were already strained between the police and the gay community, this raid was considered more of an insult because it coincided with the funeral actress Judy Garland, an icon in the gay community.

Unlike normal raids on gay bars, where the suspects would cooperate fully with the authorities, the officers violent treatment of a lesbian trying to escape the raid caused the crowd outside to erupt into violence; the more the police tried to subdue the crowd, the more violent they became. The outnumbered cops quickly barricaded themselves within the Stonewall Inn, seeking sanctuary in the very place they came to terrorize. 

The Tactical Police Force (TPF) arrived as reinforcements to lift the siege that the officers trapped inside the Stonewall faced. Armed with night sticks and shields, the TPF formed a phalanx, and attempted to push the crowd back. In turn, many of the demonstrators formed a kick line and started singing. Suddenly, the police rushed the kick line, beating the demonstrators. Police chased rioters and then were in turned chased by clusters of rioters. The violence on the streets stopped at 4:00 AM. Thirteen people were arrested, several in the crowd were hospitalized, and four police officers were injured. 

Despite the Stonewall being completely destroyed, thousands of gatherers surrounded it the next night. Violence erupted again. Fires were started in garbage cans while police phalanxes and kick lines again battled for supremacy on Christopher Street. The next two days saw sporadic demonstrations because of the rain (1). 

Once the demonstrations had ended, the sense urgency for the gay community to unify was the biggest effect of the Stonewall Riots. In his book Towards Stonewall, Nicholas Edsall compares the Stonewall Riots to "any number of acts of radical protest and defiance in American history from the Boston Tea Party on. But the best and certainly a more nearly contemporary analogy is with Rosa Parks' refusal to move to the back of the bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in December 1955, which sparked the modern civil rights movement. Within months after Stonewall radical gay liberation groups and newsletters sprang up in cities and on college campuses across America and then across all of northern Europe as well." (2)


It has only come to light in the past few years why the police raided the Stonewall Inn that night. For years the reasoning was that the NYPD raided the club to harass homosexuals. While the police's actions towards the gay patrons of the bar was repulsive, the point of police presence at the Stonwall that night was part of a federal crackdown on the New York Mafia(3).


The Stonewall Inn was owned by the Genovese crime family(4). As mentioned earlier, gay establishments at the time were illegal, and not allowed to have an operating liquor licence. Like other underground establishments, the Stonewall Inn actually kept little alcohol on the premises. Usually the liquor was stored in a car outside, to avoid getting smashed or confiscated in police raids. Seeing that homosexuals were being shunned by society, the Mafia established a mutual beneficial relationship with the gay community. Without organized crime sheltering the gay community from the oppression of society, the Stonewall Riots would have never happened, hence the great call to arms across the gay community would have never taken place, or more realistically, would have just taken place at a later time and location.
But it would be dubious to commemorate the Mafia on a day that is reserved to celebrate gay liberation.


While the Mafia did provide a haven for the gay community to socialize, it came with a price. Besides the unhygienic conditions in which the Stonewall was maintained, those appointed by the Genovese family to run the bar,  like Ed "The Skull" Murphy, often committed blackmail and extortion among the Stonewall's weathlier patrons. A homosexual himself, Murphy would use the identity of homosexuals against themselves, demanding money from them under the threat of being outed in open society (5). 



Murphy was also a pimp. In maybe one of the most disgusting crimes that organized crime has ever associated with, Murphy pimped out underage boys to wealthy pedophiles. Murphy would use the Stonewall as a way to lure underage boys into his clutches. 

Former Lucchese crime family associate turned government witness Henry Hill says this about the lengths that the Mafia would go to make money:
"There is no line that they draw, as far as luring underage girls, teen prostitution. Most of those guys do not have consciences; they'll do anything, and they'll go to any lengths to make an illegal dollar as long as they don't have to use the sweat of their brow." In his time, Hill said that child prostitution was a big enough taboo to be off limits for the Lucchese family. But that doesn't mean it didn't happen then, or especially now. "There's a lot of people in organized crime, a lot of bosses, families, that don't condone it. But some do, and they don't care what they have to do to make a buck."(6)


While the Mafia was tolerant of the gay community to make money off of, a homosexual lifestyle within the ranks of the Mafia is not tolerated. If you are a member of the Mafia, just the suspicion of being a homosexual is an instant death sentence. 

This can be seen in the murder of John D'Amato. 
More recently, former Mafia hitman Robert Mormando lived in the closet the entire time he was executing people for Gambino crime family capo Vincent Gotti, brother of former Gambino boss John Gotti. Mormando, who came out in open court, explained that he had to keep his sexuality a closely guarded secret, for fear he would be killed(8). 




Lacking running water, the Stonewall Inn wasn't a fancy joint. The ability to cut corners,  like serving watered down drinks and the use of a bathtub filled with water to rinse glasses out, made even the Stonewall's most loyal patrons refer to it as "a dive". But this did not stop people from coming. This was one of the only few locations in the city where a person could be themselves. They could turn on the jukebox and dace they way they wanted to the songs they wanted to hear.



In 1989, in an effort to install his influence over the New Jersey DeCavalcante crime family, Gambino crime family boss John Gotti reached out to DeCavalcante capo D'Amato to take control of the family after its new acting boss, Giovonni Riggi, was murdered. After he became boss of the DeCavalcante family, D'Amato got into a fight with his girlfriend; who spread rumors that D'Amato frequented gay bars. Soon after the rumors started, D'Amato disappeared and was never found. 20 years later Anthony Capo, a former DeCavalcante soldier, testified in court that he murdered D'Amato once he found out about his secret lifestyle. Capo reasoned:

"Nobody's gonna respect us if we have a gay homosexual boss sitting down discussing La Cosa Nostra buisness."(7)


In the sixth season of The Sopranos, while the audience knew since the fifth season, it is uncovered by the Mafia that one of its own is a homosexual. Vito Spatafore(Joseph R. Gannascoli), who is a capo in Tony Soprano's(James Gandolfini) fictitious DiMeo crime family, is seen by an associate of a rival crime family dressed provocatively while dancing with a man at a gay bar. As soon as he is seen, Vito skips town to upstate New York, knowing the consequences of his secret lifestyle. 

As soon as his fellow mobsters find out about his sexuality, the majority of them are disgusted and demand his death. In the shows effort to humanize Tony, he is the only one that disapproves of Vito's lifestyle while having a reluctant "live and let live" attitude towards him. When Vito eventually returns to New Jersey and reaches out to Tony, he first considers letting him back in the family, for a price. But Tony soon realizes that the homophobia long installed in the Mafia will get in the way of business. Even though Tony orders Vito's murder, rival mob boss Phil Leotardo(Frank Vincent) and his henchmen surprise Vito in his hotel room and brutally beat him to death. 

While the Stonewall Inn will be full of celebration this anniversary because of the long overdue demise of DOMA(Defense of Marriage Act), it should come to mind that when society tries to oppress any kind of subculture with laws, society is driving them into the underworld. And while the underworld, and the Mafia, both have a long track record of sheltering those oppressed throughout history, it is usually for financial opportunity and exploitation rather than for social justice.



Notes