Evil twks and gay gangsters: why we need to remember history’s horrid homosexuals | Culture | The Guardian

Contents:

• ERNST RöHM, THE HIGHT-RANKG GAY NAZI
• GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME
• HLER WAS GAY - AND KILLED TO HI , BOOK SAYS
• WH ‘DON’T SAY GAY’ LAW, GAY CONSERVATIV FD THEIR INNER ERNST RöHM
• EVIL TWKS AND GAY GANGSTERS: WHY WE NEED TO REMEMBER HISTORY’S HORRID HOMOSEXUALS

ERNST RöHM, THE HIGHT-RANKG GAY NAZI

A man  make-up and pearls nmng transgenr people may seem untertuive, but Milo Yiannopoulos is hardly the first gay reactnary.

GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME

The se of Ernst Röhm, the hight-rankg gay Nazi, prents an tertg study the nstctn and ntament of masculy by the right. Röhm opposed his party’s stand on Paragraph 175 of the German penal , which ma male homosexual acts illegal. This ma some German homosexuals thk he might ultimately tone down the Nazi stance.

(Earlier, the Social Democrats, one of the few parti to mpaign for the repeal of Paragraph 175, showed self willg to gay-ba Röhm. As Eleanor Hanck explas, Röhm, his face srred om war wounds, strsed a hyper-masculy to unteract ntemporary views of homosexualy as feme.

HLER WAS GAY - AND KILLED TO HI , BOOK SAYS

Röhm suggted that the le between homosocial and homosexual, however, was potentially fluid. Hanck says that Röhm “challenged the privilegg of heterosexual over homosexual masculi.

His open homosexualy may have threatened the psychologil secury of some other Natnal Socialists, creatg a form of ‘male homosexual panic.

'” She go further, wonrg if “the purge of the SA and the killg of Röhm reprented the leral objective rrelative for the supprsn and reprsn of the homosexual sir their own Nazism? Even before Ernst Röhm was murred, the Nazis had begun crackg down on homosexualy, banng anizatns, burng books, and arrtg the first of some 100, 000. Around 15, 000 gay people were sent to ncentratn mps, where some were experimented upon bizarre efforts to fd a “cure” for sexual orientatn, a forhadowg of Amerin psychologil and later fundamentalist efforts to try the same thg.

WH ‘DON’T SAY GAY’ LAW, GAY CONSERVATIV FD THEIR INNER ERNST RöHM

The Nazi regime rried out a mpaign agast male homosexualy between 1933 and 1945.

It is unclear how many of the men publicly or privately intified as gay or were part of gay muni and works that had been tablished Germany before the Nazi rise to power. It is important to note that not all of the men arrted and nvicted unr Paragraph 175 intified as gay.

EVIL TWKS AND GAY GANGSTERS: WHY WE NEED TO REMEMBER HISTORY’S HORRID HOMOSEXUALS

However, the Nazi mpaign agast homosexualy and the regime’s zealo enforcement of Paragraph 175 ma life Nazi Germany dangero for gay men.