Ani Ucar of LA Weekly visits the gay wing of LA Men's Central Jail. It's no fun to be in jail, but the gay wing looks better than being in the general population. "Straight inmates fake being gay to live in the less menacing gay wing. Classification officers use a gay-dar test to keep the straight guys out."
MCJ's gay wing was set up in response to a 1985 ACLU lawsuit, which aimed to protect homosexual inmates from a higher threat of physical violence than heterosexuals faced. But something unexpected has happened. The inmates are safer now, yes. But they've surprised everyone, perhaps even themselves, by setting up a small and flourishing society behind bars. Once released, some re-offend in order to be with an inmate they love. There are hatreds and occasionally even severe violence, but there is also friendship, community, love — and, especially, harmless rule-bending to dress up like models or decorate their bunks, often via devious means.
Filing down a plastic razor blade, say, to create a sewing needle, not a shank. "Smuggling" a rumored male seamstress from another bloc to handle custom work on a dress. And neatness counts among some of these men, who repurpose newspapers into long-handled brooms.
