Leading up to the 1960s, most forms of LGBTQ+ sexualities and identity expressions were illegal throughout the majority of the country. At the time of the Stonewall Riots, homosexuality was technically legal in the state of New York, according to PBS, though as noted by Mental Floss, there were statues that required people to wear "gender appropriate" clothing. Even with homosexuality being legal, state authorities and other groups, not to mention the general public, found creative ways to keep the LGBTQ+ community down. For instance, the state liquor authority would claim gay bars carried out illegal offenses on the regular, giving them the right to refuse their liquor license. Obviously, this made places like the Stonewall Inn difficult to operate legally, and that's where the mob comes in.
The mob, at its core, is a business entity. Sure, they don't necessarily operate inside the law, but as with any other business, the mob's main goal is making money. Gay bars provided plenty of it, and in the form of cash. The New York mafia owned most of the states LGBTQ+ bars because it was an untapped market. People pushed to the fringes of society could gather and be themselves, and a liquor license didn't make a single bit of difference to mobsters whose organization grew out of the Prohibition era. The Stonewall Inn, in particular, was owned by the Genovese crime family after "Fat Tony" bought the place in 1966. But that was all before the riots.
