Gay gangs

In The Gang’s All Queer, Vanessa Panfil introduces us to a different world. Photo courtesy of Dana Flor.

Trayvon Warren remembers his first big bullying incident took place when he was elementary school and a slightly older kid started threatening him. But a number of fears held them back. But still, growing up with brothers had made him tough.

We just never said nothing else to each other.”

Warren is one of the subjects of Check It, a new documentary produced by RadicalMedia and Steve Buscemi. Gay gangs were made up exclusively or nearly exclusively of GLB people, while the straight gangs were made up of a majority of heterosexual people.

Becoming ‘known’

In “hybrid” gangs (those with a sizable minority of gay, lesbian or bisexual people) or all-gay gangs, the men I interviewed were held to many of the same standards.

In the hybrid gangs, members felt far more comfortable coming out than those in purely straight gangs. Would their fellow gang members start to distrust them? And they didn’t have to do much to spread their name. “They call themselves a family.”

Unlike other gangs, the Check It aren’t tied to a specific geographic location.

The gay gangs’ violence mostly took place at or began from conflicts at gay clubs or gay-themed events. However, most of the men I talked to still expressed conventional masculine ideals, like valuing toughness and fighting ability, and some were quick to insult (but not harm) men who they thought were “too gay” or who acted like “fags.”

Gang activities also differed.

Meet gay gang members – sometimes referred to in popular culture as “homo thugs” – whose gay identity complicates criminology’s portrayal and representation of gangs, gang members, and gang life. The film tells the story of how three bullied DC teens started the only documented all-gay or transgender gang in America—also called Check It—with Warren being one of the original ten members.

Some would also patrol each other’s masculinity, insulting other gay men who were flamboyant or feminine. A local go-go band called ReAction wrote a song about the gang and name-checked individual members. One gang may fight with any rival group, another may sell drugs, and yet another might focus mostly on its social activities. They didn’t just think of them as associates.

Some of the gang members were in gangs made up of primarily gay, lesbian or bisexual people. “He didn’t come to school the next day. The bully knew that Warren didn’t scare easily, so he brought a gun to school in order to up the ante.

He hadn’t known the others were gay, and they didn’t know about him, either. Others were the only gay man (or one of a few) in an otherwise “straight” gang. Only a handful of them came out to their traditional gangs, and this sometimes resulted in serious consequences, such as being “bled out” of the gang (forced out through a fight).

Despite the dangers, some wanted to come out.

Many responded with their fists.