Origins of "Gay Tony": Queer Idenity Within the Gta-verse (Grand Theft Auto 4)

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN: February 2021

DISCLAIMER: I am not a correctional professional or psychiatrist, this post is just based off of research I have personally done in the past.

CONTENT WARNINGS: Homophobia, Slurs, Drug Abuse/Addiction, Police Brutality, Abuse, Rape, and Sexual Content

This post is just a (hopefully coherent) headcanon I have for Tony Prince surrounding his homosexuality and the culture he seems to have grown up in.

According to Tony’s wiki page, which cites information found within the games and the overall “lore” of Grand Theft Auto, Tony was never openly gay until 1985:

“ The first club Tony opened for himself was PUDDLE, a rave venue famously located in a converted mortuary, until it was shut down when Tony was arrested for tax evasion in 1985, spending 3 months in jail. According to Luis, Tony also first earned the nickname “Gay Tony” in 1985 - as the nickname suggests, Tony became openly homosexual by the time he was 27. “

Now obviously there isn’t a lot of history depicted up until this point, the only other notable things really being that Tony was born in 1958 in Dukes (the Grand Theft Auto equivalent of Queens, a borough in New York state), and he hated it there. A lot:

“ According to the Maisonette 9 website, ‘as a young boy, he wandered to the Humboldt River and dreamed of living on the other side (in Algonquin) so he would no longer be considered bridge and tunnel’. He also used to play in front of the Monoglobe and would sometimes stare into it, wondering what life was like in different countries. He is ashamed of his Dukes background, and it’s hinted during the beginning of Departure Time that he doesn’t speak to his parents anymore. “

However, with how much the Grand Theft Auto series likes to pull from reality (and dramatize it as a form of criticism), and as I’m a gay male myself, I want to assume that Tony did not have a realization that he was gay in 1985, but rather was able to feel proud about coming out in 1985 (re: he knew he was gay but repressed it).

Let’s bullet point some LGBT+ history from New York state between roughly 1969 - 1985, as Tony would be between ages 11 - 27 respectively during this time period:

• 1969 (Age 11): Stonewall Riots happened in Greenwich Village. The Stonewall riots were a series of violent conflicts between gay men, drag queens and lesbians against a police officer raid* in New York City. Riots began as police raided the inn.
• 1970 (Age 12): Commemorative march held one year after the riots, organized by the impetus of Craig Rodwell, owner of the Oscar Wilde Bookshop, drew 5,000 marchers up New York City’s Sixth Avenue, which drew nationwide publicity and put the Stonewall events on the historical map and led to the modern-day pride marches.
• 1971 (Age 13): In 1971, the first version of the Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act (passed 2002; Age 44) was introduced into both houses of the state legislature.
• 1974 (Age 16): The Village of Alfred became the first municipality in the state to pass a gay rights ordinance which prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
• 1977 - 1979 (Ages 19 - 21): Gaysweek existed as the first openly LGBT weekly newspaper in New York. At the time, it was only one of three weekly LGBT publications in the world, and the first to be owned by an African-American.
• 1980 - 1983 (Ages 22 - 25): The New York Court of Appeals case New York v. Onofre abolished most remaining laws regarding sodomy in New York. In 1983, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center was established in New York City (borough: Manhattan).
• 1985 (Age 27): The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation was formed by a group of gay and lesbian artisans in New York City (borough: Manhattan).

So from what can be gleaned, it really would make sense that Tony was never openly gay from the moment he may have realized that. I mean, in Grand Theft Auto IV which takes place in 2008, we still see Tony being called a fag, fairy, and queen by numerous people. He still actively faces discrimination however it’s not nearly as bad as it was.

Yet we’ll delve into the modern history later, let’s focus now on Tony earning the nickname and his three months in jail in 1985.

Tony went to jail in 1985 for tax evasion and served three months. It’s a bit of a stretch to draw a connection to Tony’s “coming out” and his time in prison, yet it’s not an impossible thing and I personally see the two being connected given their timeframe.

Sexual behaviors in prisons/jails often include:

• Suppression, in which an inmate chooses celibacy (i.e. refrains from sexual activity while in prison, most commonly to stay loyal to a partner who is outside of prison).
• Autoeroticism (i.e. masturbation).
• Homosexuality (which consists of two types, consensual true and consensual situation. Consensual true occurs between people who were already homosexual before entering prison. Consensual situation occurs between people who have homosexual experiences for the first time in prison)
• Sexual violence (which includes coercion, manipulation, and compliance. Manipulation is performed for power or some kind of reward. Compliance occurs to obtain safety, protection, or out of fear).

NOTE: A small disclaimer before I go any further, a lot of the above applies to prison culture. The distinction between a jail and a prison is the severity of the crime and sentences served [EDIT: Also included is the staffing structure, security protocol, layout, etc.]. Tony went to jail because he only served three months. If his sentence was one year or greater, he would have went to prison. Granted, the culture tends to be fairly similar across both institutions dependent on the population (types of inmates).

The interesting thing in Tony’s case is that given the interactions he had behind bars, if any himself, were consensual, he can apply to both the consensual true and consensual situation model. With how rough the culture surrounding LGBT+ individuals and dating was up to this point, it’s hard to imagine he had any sort of intimacy with another male, yet he has recognized that he is gay, yet has also not come out. If he had any interactions during this time, then that would have most likely been his first. The only thing I can assume that would lead to him earning the nickname “Gay Tony” during the course of 1985, and his consequent coming out, would be that he has had intimate relations within that three month period and it became a “brand” from his jail time, so to speak, as giving inmates nicknames based on whatever attributes makes them notable is very common even to this day.

It could also be entirely coincidental, but that’s what headcanons are for.

[EDIT: I also highly recommend this video from Larry Lawton on prison relationships, as he goes into some discussion on LGBT+ relationships that he witnessed or heard of while in the system himself.]

But since we’re here, let's end this by taking a look at some of New York’s LGBT+ history in the early 2000s, as it's relevant to the timeframe of Grand Theft Auto 4's happening:

• 2002 (Age 44): The Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act was passed by the Legislature. Governor George Pataki signed the bill into law, and it went into effect on January 16, 2003 (Age 45).
• 2005 (Age 47): The Queens Chapter of PFLAG announced the creation of the “Brenda Howard Memorial Award”. This was the first time a major American LGBT organization named an award after an openly bisexual person.
• 2008 (Age 50): Governor David Paterson issued a directive for all government agencies to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states of the Union where such marriages are legally certified.