Also even before that, many queer bars were owned by institutions like ethnic mafias - it's pretty well known that the famous Stonewall Inn was owned by members of the Italian mafia in the New York City area.

There were lots of institutions decades ago that were not what they presented themselves publicly as being, in one form or another; the difference was that the alternative media outlets that would have allowed interested people to disseminate this information widely were less developed than they are today.