INS Reportedly Tried to Deport Pat Patterson For Being Gay in 1960s

A new report says that the INS tried to deport WWE Hall of Famer Pat Patterson in the 1960s over suspicions that he was gay. David Bixenspan has a new feature for Mel Magazine in which he details the late Canadian star’s being targeted by the US Justice Department’s Immigration and Naturalization Service because they suspected that he was a homosexual.

Patterson was a Canadian native and was in fact gay. According to the feature, the INS began to focus on Patterson during the “Lavender Scare” era of the era, in which US Government sought out and targeted governmental employees who they believed were or might be queer. As part of this, the INS would try to deport queer people as sexual deviants and afflicted with personality disorders, justifying it as saying that they were national security risks and Communist sympathizers. If queer immigrants fell into legal trouble they could then be deported.

Patterson drew the attention of the INS in part because when he began working in Portland, he was working a more effeminate character as “Pretty Boy” Pat Patterson with lipstick, a cigarette holder and more flamboyant ring gear at the direction of Seattle promoter Harry Elliot. The report notes that Patterson’s INS file doesn’t make it entirely clear how the investigation began, but that there is a summary of witness interviews dated April 14th, 1965, that suggests one of the “flash points” was the Portland Police Department’s morals squad investigating the local gay community over “homosexual parties” in the city. Patterson and his partner Louis Dondero are described in the file as having attended the parties, and the witness who said such also alleged that Patterson would regularly pick up male sex workers.

Patterson had moved to San Francisco to work for Roy Shire by May 10th, 1965, when he was interviewed by the INS in that city. The interview was said to be “uneventful”, and the matter went quiet until the INS initiated deportation proceedings against Patterson in November of 1966 on the pretext of Patterson having given them a fraudulent work itinerary. He was interviewed and asked about his gimmick, to which he said that the promoters suggested it because he needed something to stand out. He was asked flat-out of he was gay and denied it, as well as denying a question about whether he “molested little boys.” The matter was dropped because the investigator had “no evidence with which to confront him” in the interview.

Bixenspan reports that the records indicate that the INS was hoping to get Patterson to leave the country believing that he would be able to secure a green card without issue, so they could then declare him unfit to enter the country. The attempts to deport him ended in late 1966 and early 1967, and Patterson received US citizenship decades later in 2002.

The lengthy feature, which is well worth the read, is here.