1.
Homosexuals were separated into two distinct groups during the Third Reich.
The first, an elite corp who acquiesced to the National Socialist German Workers’ Party and found favor with Adolf Hitler. Adolf conveniently turned a blind eye to our ‘degenerate’ ways (like Margaret Thatcher 50 years later) whilst simultaneously enacting anti homosexual legislation.
The other group of homosexual men and women were less fortunate. The thriving LGBTQ ‘out’ community were rounded up and sent to the concentration camps where thousands were murdered, raped and experimented upon in barbaric clinical trials. They were the butch dykes, the fairies, the trans. They refused to keep quiet or give in to the newly established master race and paid dearly for their rebellion.
During the past year I asked 100 gay men if they had lived in Nazi Germany would they have joined the Nazi party? Not one said yes.
We delude ourselves that we are more anti-establishment than we actually are.
I asked 100 jewish gay men under the age of 30 if they could imagine a white homosexual elite sending LGBTQ people to the gas chambers. 86% could not imagine a gay Nazi sending anyone to the gas chambers. They could not imagine what a gay Nazi looked like.
Ernst Rohm, the head of the SA (the Brownshirts) – the forerunner of the SS – was gay, as were several other key figures in the SA such as his deputy Edmund Heines.
Röhm’s chiefs, men of the rank of Gruppenfuehrer or Obergruppenfuehrer, commanding units of several hundred thousand Storm Troopers, were almost without exception homosexuals. Indeed, unless a Storm Troop officer were homosexual, he had no chance of advancement.
Hitler was aware of Röhm’s homosexuality. Hitler and Rohm were so close they addressed each other as du (the German familiar form of “you”). No other Nazi enjoyed that privilege and their close association led to rumors Hitler himself was homosexual.
Röhm was the only Nazi leader who dared to address Hitler by his first name “Adolf” rather than “mein Führer.”
Rohm was instrumental in the rise of Nazism. When Hitler decided to do away with his great friend it was with a heavy heart. Nothing could or would get in the way of Hitler’s ambition to rule the world. Roehm’s parochial mindset was his undoing.
After the night of the long knives Roehm was sent to prison where he was given the option to commit suicide or be executed. When the time came he stood in his cell, his chest puffed out. He was shot point blank. He was 46 years old when he died.
Rohm and his homosexual gang of bullying Brown Shirts believed that they were invincible. They allied themselves to Hitler and disgracefully purged their own. Rohm’s story might have some relevance today as the Fascist State of Gay takes shape in the USA. Buoyed by Presidential support, organizations like GLAAD and the HRC use bullying rhetoric and bullying behaviors. Our unelected gay officials go unchecked, unchallenged by the establishment who are wary of being described as ‘homophobic’ and dissenting LGBTQ accused of ‘self loathing’.
We have become quietly consumed by the Fascist State of Gay. Look around you.
Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia.
Rainbow flags are everywhere: symbols on clothing and public displays. The rainbow flag flies proudly over businesses, lights up the Empire State Building and thousands upon thousands line the streets during every ‘pride’ manifestation.
I wondered if the Rainbow flag was my flag and what it represented.
I reimagined these Gay Pride parades like the great communist militaristic rallys during the 1970’s and the parades of other fascist regimes. Buff, bare-chested boys for all gays to aspire. Overseen by the gay white elite, like the polit bureau… or Hitler surveying the perfect blond youth of Nazi Germany.
The gays have, within a very short time, achieved huge and enviable human rights gains. Yet, within the broader gay community there is a disdain for the recognition of other human rights. Gay white men seem fatigued when asked if they support the rights of women, people of color, undocumented workers, the freedom of expression for all.
Despite Glenn Greenwald (a gay white man) championing the causes of both Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowdon these human rights heroes have found little favor within the larger gay white male community. My friend and writer Benoit Denizet-Lewis dismisses Glenn Greenwald as ‘unattractive and unnecessarily combatative’.
Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the fascist state of gay believe certain human rights can be ignored because of “need.” They (like the general population) look the other way, approving of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.
Within a very short time the gays have forgotten that all the above were once used against… us.
The Fascist State of Gay, using organizations like GLAAD, identifies Enemies/Scapegoats as a unifying cause. The gays are rallied into a patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial, ethnic or religious.
Gay white men believe in racial purity.
I asked 100 white, gay men under the age of 30 years old if it was reasonable or unreasonable for others to state on their Gay Dating App or Gay Hookup Website a specific racial preference (no Asians/blacks/Latinos etc.) 85% of those interviewed stated that they thought it ‘reasonable’.
I asked 100 white, gay men under the age of 30 years old if it was reasonable or unreasonable for others to state on their Gay Dating App or Gay Hookup Website a preferred ‘interest’ in men who had penis’ over 10 inches long. 92% of those interviewed thought it ‘unreasonable’.
To the Fascist State of Gay the end of DADT was a profound victory. They believe in the supremacy of the military. Soldiers and military service are glamorized/sexualized.
Within the Fascist State of Gay there is rampant sexism. Women are degraded, trans derided. Fascist cults tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid.
The Fascist State of gay seeks to control mass media. Sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Encouraging self censorship, the ownership of certain ‘gay’ words that only gays are privileged to use.
Within the Fascist State of Gay there is rampant cronyism. Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to positions of power and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability.
Powerful anti establishment voices within the LGBTQ community are silenced, those with alternative views… alienated.
I asked 100 gay men if trans Chelsea Manning should be pardoned for leaking classified documents. 5% said yes. 42% said no. 53% didn’t know who she was.
I asked if those who knew who she was thought her a hero or a traitor. Most gay white men who knew her name described Chelsea Manning as a traitor.
Denver Nicks, one of Chelsea’s biographers, writes that the leaked material, particularly the diplomatic cables, was widely seen as a catalyst for the Arab Spring that began in December 2010.
When we were young (foolishly imagining a gay Utopia) we fought for an inclusive gay community under the rainbow flag… evolved from years of brutal struggle. Sadly, our community is anything other than inclusive. The dream some of us had has been highjacked by naturally right-wing, affluent, gay, white men who merely tolerate others in the unwilling LGBTQ coalition.
2.
A Long Time Coming.
On the morning of London Gay Pride, 1983 I was taken by friends to a small party near The Houses of Parliament. The men I met were drinking champagne. They were closeted, openly right-wing and sneered at the ‘herd’ gathering across the Vauxhall Bride to celebrate their gayness.
I remember them laughing at the bull dykes, the fairies and the trans.
These men were powerful, public school/Oxbridge educated men holding important positions in government. Civil Servants, Member’s of Parliament and to my surprise, lurking in a corner, an ex Prime Minister.
One of the men at that small party was Michael Trestrail, the Queen’s personal protection officer who had resigned the year before after being ‘outed’ by the press. Apparently he had taken a liking to me. The others boasted about him… as if his proximity to the Queen and his infamy would persuade me to have sex with him.
I asked him about his resignation. He seemed less than eager to talk about it, lunging at me for a wet kiss. I recoiled.
Many of the men in the room like MP Harvey Procter (even though he later resigned for having sex with underage boys) would stand mute beside Margaret Thatcher as she enacted laws based on her loathing of homosexuals… unless, of course they shared her right wing values and kept their gay lives to themselves.
Not one of those gay men would challenge Thatcher. Like Ken Mehlman in the USA (who stood by the Bushes deferring to their homophobia) they ignored the plight of the many to line their own pockets.
It is the first of the tenets of fascism: OBEDIENCE. As Andy Tobias wrote in his best selling book The Best Little Boy in The World a self loathing gay man will do whatever it takes to go unnoticed by excelling where ever he can.
Rights, it turned out, were reserved for the few not for the people. Realizing these men were scoundrels I drank their champagne, laughed at their views and kept my pants on. Recognizing a dog in the manger I was quickly sent to join my own kind drinking beer and playing tug of war behind The Royal Vauxhall Tavern. As it turned out, these men did not forget my appearance at their party and caused, wherever they could, as much trouble for me as they were able.
Right wing gays in the UK have nothing on the right wing gays in the USA.
Purity. Military. Obedience .
I have always been a thorn in the side of the establishment. Last year, if I needed any further proof, messing with the right wing velvet mafia proved very dangerous. Critical of their business practices and on the precipice of revealing fraud and sexual unmanageability they had me arrested and switches flipped deep in government that held me illegally in LA County Jail.
I was told by one powerful man within the Democratic Party the media mogul ex boyfriend of the man I accused of defrauding me had seriously considered ‘putting a bullet in my head’.
The white male gays, emboldened by the repeal of DOMA and DADT are not interested in creating an inclusive LGBTQ community. They would prefer that bisexuals did not exist, that the trans put on men’s clothes/owned their penis, that the lesbians do their dirty work and the queers sent to prison.
Their Utopia, under their rainbow flag, does not include us. It is a terrible sham, and sooner or later we will wake up to what is happening under the pride banner. Acts of rebellion may become forcefully suppressed… like the flash mobbing of San Francisco Pride in support of Chelsea Manning.
The relationship between the gays, the establishment and the corporations is ideal for all involved. Every gay man infected with HIV will, during his lifetime, generate a million dollars plus in added revenue to big pharma. The gays (white males) are avid consumers and have been embraced as ideal capitalists. They are good at being good, they seldom break the law. They are clear about their message. They have, in terms of human rights, leapt over those of the blacks and women.
Nothing will stop them. Except maybe… their hubris.
One reply on “The Fascist State of Gay USA”
Lovely essay.