Puzo's characters express contempt for gay men as well as for blacks. Those attitudes were common during the 1940s and 1950s. By including this in the novel, Puzo not only added another dimension to the Sicilians' jingoism, but kept the setting authentic. Could you imagine a novel like Fannie Flagg's "Fried Green Tomatoes," set in the 1930s American South, without at least some racist characters?
