Reminds me of the relationship between the Mafia and the homosexual community of the early-mid 20th century. The Mafia didn’t particularly like gays, but they ran all of the gay bars because it gave them the opportunity to blackmail their patrons.
Source? Curious to read more about this.
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/gqmym3/how-the-mafia-once...
I had never heard this before, but it is easy enough to find it. There are at least a couple of other articles that readily came up.
Blackmail probably existed but it was just a great opportunity to sell drugs and booze in illegal bars.
When you hit the nadir of NYC in the 70s, it was difficult to make sales tax payments with all of the leeches attached to the business.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/stonewal...
Someone’s HIV status, for example, could definitely expose them to social stigma. Is that a problem? Yeah; but it doesn’t change human behavior — there are some things we would prefer to keep private.