Carl Paladino Made Money Off Son's Gay Club

Carl Paladino may be really concerned about gay men grinding against each other, but it didn’t stop him from cashing the rent checks paid by Cobalt, a Buffalo gay club his son William ran and co-owned from 2004 to 2005, the New York Daily News reports. The club—which was housed in a building Carl owned—featured drag queen nights, “boy-tenders” behind the bar and, according to one review, “the kind of gyration normally confined to Manhattan.”

Then, late in 2005, the owners abruptly changed Cobalt to a straight club named “Tantra,” firing everyone except its three straight bartenders. “The way they did it was really horrible,” says one ex-bartender. “They got rid of all of us gay people.” But at least there was another gay bar in town—Buddies II, which was also in a building owned by Paladino. Oh, and remember that gay nephew Paladino cited in his Today Show interview? Jeff Hannon told the New York Post he was “very offended” by his uncle’s comments, and hasn’t shown up for work at the campaign's headquarters since. (More Carl Paladino stories.)