The Mafia and LGBT Subculture in New York

Abstract

This paper examines the protection relationship between different LGBT subcultures and Italian Mafia families in New York from the 1900s to the 1980s. Mafias offered jobs and protection to LGBT people in night clubs and saloons and ran or protected meeting places where LGBT people could drink and socialise - such as the famous Stonewall Inn. We address three interrelated questions. First, we study the chronology of this relationship from 1900-1990. Second, we examine the nature of the business relationship between New York Mafia families and their LGBT employees and patrons, which is variously described as abusive, exploitative, and cooperative. However, we find a straightforward business relationship between the mafia and the LGBT community that did not replicate the wider social discrimination, stigmatisation, and persecution of LGBT individuals by members of the public and the police. Third, we examine the cultural and social norms that facilitated constructive business alliances between nominally socially conservative Southern Italian and Sicilian mafiosi and the widely despised LGBT minority. Historically, homosexuality per se was not seen as problematic in working class, immigrant and Southern Italian culture. Italian Mafia families (and specific individuals within them) thus had both an interest and a comparative advantage in organising the protection of LGBT subculture in certain areas of New York.