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On the Friday night of June 27, 1969 the NYPD raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village, and a firestorm of protest erupted that continued over the next several nights. The Stonewall riots are considered the birth of the modern gay rights movement, and over the following decades often has been characterized as a protest against police harassment. However, in actuality, the Stonewall Inn was raided pursuant to an investigation against its reputed mob owners, and the ensuing rage on the streets by its gay patrons was directed as much against the wise guys...

Joseph Gannascoli, the actor who played the gay mobster Vito Spatafore on The Sopranos, was arrested yesterday morning on a DUI charge in Tampa, FL as reported by Kristie Cavanagh for the Daily News: On "The Sopranos," Gannascoli played Vito, the mobster who took over as capo after the deaths of Richie, Gigi and Ralph and was eventually killed for being gay. According to the actor's Web site, Gannascoli was appearing Thursday night at a Tampa smoke shop, Soho Cigars, to promote his Cugine brand of cigars.

On the Friday night of June 27, 1969 the NYPD raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village, and a firestorm of protest erupted that continued over the next several nights. The Stonewall riots are considered the birth of the modern gay rights movement, and over the following decades often has been characterized as a protest against police harassment. However, in actuality, the Stonewall Inn was raided pursuant to an investigation against its reputed mob owners, and the ensuing rage on the streets by its gay patrons was directed as much against the wise guys...

Congressman Barney Frank, originally from Bayonne, NJ, is profiled in a piece by Jeffrey Toobin in The New Yorker, and among the more interesting revelations is that Frank's father, Sam, was a Genovese crime family associate: "Because Bayonne was such a sleazy place, nobody knew whether Barney was going to wind up in Congress or in jail" [said lawyer Alan Dershowitz]. According to Frank, his father was involved with the Mafia. "[Alfonse Frank] Funzi Tieri, a big-time gangster with the Genovese family, came to my brother David's bar mitzvah, when I was twenty-three," he said. Sam Frank died at the...

A transsexual Mafia boss has been arrested by police in what is believed to be the first case of its kind. Ugo Gabriele, 27, who insisted on being called Kitty, was held by armed officers in a raid which also saw 27 other mobsters arrested. Gabriele ran a sophisticated drugs and prostitution racket and his clan had dozens of members. His mugshot showed him as thickset and butch-looking but he also had very defined plucked feminine eyebrows and was wearing lip stick when held in Naples. The southern Italian port city is a popular destination for British holidaymakers en route...

It's a first for "The Sopranos" - a gay mobster. On last night's episode, capo Vito Spatafore was caught in a compromising position with a male security guard - definitely not the kind of behavior that would go over well with the oglers at the Bada-Bing. "It adds a lot of depth to the character," actor Joseph Gannascoli, who plays the newly outed mobster, told the Daily News. In the real mob, being gay can add real depth - about 6 feet underground. Vincent (Vinny Ocean) Palermo, former boss of New Jersey's DeCalvacante family, said to be the model for...