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Most of these young men still present a traditionally masculine persona and voice deeply-held affection for their fellow gang members. Their social worlds and definitions of acceptable identity were constantly changing and being challenged.
Being effeminate was a nonstarter; they were all careful to present a uniformly masculine persona, lest they lose status and respect.
“Homosexuality with the gangs that is largely kept secret.
“But the punishment is usually the same. The rest told us that we’re already carrying two death sentences, for quitting the gang and for being gay,” said Viñayo.
The gay inmates of the San Francisco Gotera prison were rejected and threatened with death by their gang when they came out as gay.
In their words, they were able to be “the real me.”
Men in gay gangs were expected to be able to build a public reputation as a gay man – what they called becoming “known.” Being “known” means you’re able to achieve many masculine ideals – making money, being taken seriously, gaining status, looking good – but as an openly gay man. In The Gang’s All Queer, Vanessa Panfil introduces us to a different world.
That he was trying to have sex with them inside the prison.
The two gang members said they saw El Fénix touch the genitals of other gang members without any provocation while they watched television together inside the cell.
It helped that the initial group of men whom I spoke to knew me from years earlier, when we became friends at a drop-in center for LGBTQ youth.
The gang was on its best behaviour.
Two weeks after that meeting, on January 8 2013, they ushered out all the gang members held in sector three of the prison, except for El Fénix. Likewise, coming out was a huge risk.
For my book “The Gang’s All Queer,” I interviewed and spent time with 48 gay or bisexual male gang members.
When they went to the Ranfla, the top leadership, for permission, they assured them that they had evidence to show El Fénix was gay. Timely, powerful, and engaging, this book will challenge us to think differently about gangs, gay men, and urban life.
The Gang's All Queer: The Lives of Gay Gang Members
Description
Many people believe that gangs are made up of violent thugs who are in and out of jail, and who are hyper-masculine and heterosexual.
Then, El Baxter and another gang leader kicked him in the stomach. It makes sense,” said Viñayo.
Unforgivable is currently the only Salvadoran documentary film to win several awards at international film festivals such as the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, the Guanajuato International Film Festival and the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam.
But eventually the church banished them too, and they were sent to a cell called “El Zope”, so named after the vulture – a bird of prey.
That putrid and tiny cell, according to director Viñayo, was their only safe space inside the prison.
As one man told me, he was glad cellphones had been invented because he could keep his private sexual life with men just that: private. By this point, the body was oozing blood from the head and face. Then there were what I call “hybrid” gangs, which featured a mix of straight, gay, lesbian and bisexual members, but with straight people still in the majority.
Since no one goes to a prison expecting to find tenderness. How is it possible that these people feel free in a cell that is 3 ft by 5 ft?! Just let us know and please don’t kill him with a knife,” he said, according to transcripts in court documents seen by VICE World News.
It was December 2012 and at that time the gangs had agreed to a truce with the Salvadoran government – prison benefits in exchange for reducing murders throughout the country.
Sociology & Criminal Justice Faculty Books.
The Gang’s All Queer poignantly illustrates how these men both respond to and resist societal marginalization. In vivid detail, Panfil provides an in-depth understanding of how gay gang members construct and negotiate both masculine and gay identities through crime and gang membership… [From Amazon.com]
Publisher
New York University Press
Keywords
Gang members, Gay men, United States
Disciplines
Criminology and Criminal Justice | Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies
Recommended Citation
Panfil, Vanessa R., "The Gang's All Queer: The Lives of Gay Gang Members" (2017).