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HOW NYC’S GAY BARS THRIVED BECAUSE OF THE MOB»

Who’d have guessed that, as far back as the 1930s, it was the mob who would give homosexuals a place to mingle, hook up and eventually coalesce as a movement — by running the city’s underground gay bars.

Two conditions brought these seemingly oppositional groups together. One: It was illegal to be gay, with police routinely hauling in homosexuals on charges of lewdness or indecency. Two: The Mafia, principally Vito Genovese, controlled Manhattan’s West Side, including the Village.

In short, a gay bar was an illegal business — or at a minimum, a business subject to relentless harassment. Yet where most New Yorkers saw deviance, the Mafia saw profit. Same as with gambling, prostitution or bootlegging, all it took was the customary payoffs for cops to look the other way.

(Source: New Shelton)