davidbix posted:

Speaking as someone who's done more research/reporting about Titangate than anyone else has in the last 30 years but who also wrote an incredibly sympathetic and widely-acclaimed ~3,500 word article about the unusually cruel persecution that Pat Patterson faced as a gay immigrant, I can be very confident in telling you that you have no idea what you're talking about.

Literally nobody was talking about clumsy anonymous public restroom hookups. We weren't even talking about a witness telling the INS in the mid-1960s that Patterson was regularly patronizing street hustlers who were "young boys," which I don't think can be taken at face value for a number of different reasons. We're talking about specific allegations about Patterson from the late 1970s through his 1992 WWF resignation, almost all of which involved him being in a position of power over his accusers.

Tom Cole was an underage ring boy who everyone agrees was credible about Mel Phillips and Terry Garvin's respective sexual abuse and sexual harassment of him. He also accused Patterson of groping him and otherwise sexually harassing him by staring at his crotch and licking his lips. He never recanted that allegation. And everything he alleged? He also swore to it under oath.

Jim Stuart, Vince's limo driver, told both federal investigators and lawyers for Phil Mushnick/the NY Post that when Vince McMahon fired Mel Phillips in 1988 for being a pedophile, Patterson was the one who pushed Vince to rehire him as long as he agreed to "stay away from kids." (He didn't, and he wasn't shy about it.) Never mind that Terry Garvin was Patterson's childhood friend and Pat knew what he was about, because...

Barry Orton accused Patterson and Garvin of groping his genitals during a 1978 car ride in west Texas where he was seated between them, going after him so hard that they tore his pants down the middle and he eventually fled the car in a panic. Ted DiBiase corroborated the story to Dave Meltzer, though he classified it as a "rib." Orton swore to this under oath, as he also did with his claims about Patterson waiting outside the showers while a WWF VP/booker/road agent so he could stare at the wrestlers' genitals.

"Karate Kid" Chris Dube accused Patterson of repeatedly making unwanted passes at him while serving as his superior. The "midget wrestler" troupe stopped being booked by the WWF shortly after he and Lord Littlebrook complained about it.

Tom Hankins accused Patterson of offering a quid pro quo at a bar to get work as a TV job guy in 1985. Numerous witnesses confirmed that it happened, although some claimed that it was just Patterson joking around. But: 1. It was phrased much more like an actual pass than what you'd imagine a "joke" would be. 2. Hankins was no longer allowed to visit the locker room after rejecting the advance. 3. That doesn't really matter anyway.

Lots of people don't do their research and/or get deep into denial that Patterson could have ever done anything wrong and try to justify it by pointing to the fact that yes, he had two accusers who, as best as we can tell, made up their allegations (one admitted it, the other was a longtime con man with a history of blackmailing closeted gay men) and they happened to be the most prominent ones against him. Or try to minimize it by saying the stories were true, but his intent was a "rib" or a "joke." But that doesn't loving matter. Even if that was his intent — and "hey, I was just joking!" is classic predator poo poo regardless — it doesn't change how it impacted other people. And though there are no stories out there that I've ever heard about him being outright predatory after he returned later in 1992, he clearly didn't learn his lesson about what kind of "jokes" were sexual harassment. From Bob Holly's book:

"Pat wasn’t a bad guy or anything and we always got on fine, but I probably didn’t do myself any favors with him later in my career. I bent to pick something up and he happened to be there. He said, 'If you bend over and I’m behind you, you’re hosed.' I shot right up and said, 'No, motherfucker, if you touch me, you’re gonna be hosed.' He looked at me as if to say, 'Hey, I was just kidding.' I definitely wasn’t kidding though. All the boys in the locker room couldn’t believe what I’d said because Pat had a lot of stroke."

This is not that complicated.