Other rightwing gays
Senator Joseph McCarthy (left) chats with Roy Cohn at the Army–McCarthy hearingsRoy Cohn's SexualityRoy Cohn spent several decades living a discreet life as a closeted gay man. When he brought on
G. David Schine as chief consultant, speculation arose that
Schine and
Cohn had a sexual relationship, although some historians have more recently concluded the friendship was platonic. During the Army–McCarthy hearings,
Cohn denied having any "
special interest" in
Schine or being bound to him "
closer than to the ordinary friend."
Joseph Welch, the Army's attorney in the hearings, made an apparent reference to
Cohn's homosexuality. After asking a witness if a photo entered as evidence "
came from a pixie," he defined "
pixie" for
McCarthy as "
a close relative of a fairy."
Fairy was, and is, a derogatory term for
a gay man.
Pixie was also a brand name for a line of cheap cameras. The people at the hearing recognized the allusion and found it amusing;
Cohn later called the remark "
malicious," "
wicked," and "
indecent."
Cohn and
McCarthy targeted many government officials and cultural figures not only for suspected
Communist sympathies, but also for alleged
homosexuality.
Michael KühnenMichael Kühnen (21 June 1955, Bonn – 25 April 1991, Kassel) was a leader in
the German neo-Nazi movement. He was one of the first post-World War II Germans to openly embrace Nazism and call for the formation of
a Fourth Reich. He enacted a policy of setting up several differently-named groups in an effort to confuse German authorities, who were attempting to shut down neo-Nazi groups.
Kühnen's homosexuality was made public in
1986, and he died of
HIV-related complications in
1991.
Kühnen was raised as a staunch
Roman Catholic, and initially came to politics in his early teens as a
Maoist. When he took a job at the shipyards of Hamburg,
Kühnen moved to the far right, joining a local
National Democratic Party of Germany (
NPD) youth group. He did not remain long in the
NPD, soon denouncing party members as "
a bourgeois crowd of swines", and leaving the party.
Jörg HaiderJörg Haider (help·info) (German pronunciation: [ˈjœɐ̯k ˈhaɪdɐ]; 26 January 1950 – 11 October 2008) was an Austrian politician. He was Governor of Carinthia on two occasions, the long-time leader of the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) and later Chairman of the Alliance for the Future of Austria (Bündnis Zukunft Österreich, BZÖ), a breakaway party from the FPÖ.
Haider was a controversial figure within Austria and abroad for comments that were widely condemned as praising Nazi policies or as being xenophobic or anti-Semitic. Several countries imposed mild diplomatic sanctions against his party's participation in government alongside Wolfgang Schüssel's ÖVP, starting from 2000. Haider died in a car accident shortly after leading the BZÖ in the Austrian Parliamentary elections.
Pim FortuynDutch rightwing populist politicianWilhelmus Simon Petrus Fortuijn, known as Pim Fortuyn (Dutch: [ˈpɪm fɔrˈtœyn] ( listen); 19 February 1948 – 6 May 2002), was a Dutch politician, civil servant, sociologist, author and professor who formed his own party, Pim Fortuyn List (Lijst Pim Fortuyn or LPF) in 2002.
Fortuyn provoked controversy with his stated views about multiculturalism, immigration and Islam in the Netherlands. He called
Islam "
a backward culture", and said that if it were legally possible
he would close the borders for Muslim immigrants. He was labelled
a far-right populist by his opponents and in the media, but he fiercely rejected this label and explicitly distanced himself from "
far-right" politicians such as the Belgian
Filip Dewinter, the Austrian
Jörg Haider, or Frenchman
Jean-Marie Le Pen whenever compared to them. While
Fortuyn compared his own politics to centre-right politicians such as
Silvio Berlusconi of
Italy, he also admired former Dutch Prime Minister
Joop den Uyl, a social democrat, and Democratic U.S. president
John F. Kennedy.
Fortuyn also criticised the Polder model and the policies of the outgoing government of
Wim Kok and repeatedly described himself and
LPF's ideology as
pragmatism and not
populism.
Fortuyn was openly homosexual.
Fortuyn was assassinated during the 2002 Dutch national election campaign by
Volkert van der Graaf. In court at his trial,
Van der Graaf said he murdered
Fortuyn to stop him from exploiting Muslims as "
scapegoats" and targeting "
the weak members of society" in seeking political power.
Ernst RöhmErnst Julius Günther Röhm (November 28 1887 – July 2 1934) was a German officer in the Bavarian Army and later an early Nazi leader. He was a co-founder of the Sturmabteilung ("
Storm Battalion";
SA), the Nazi Party militia, and later was its commander. In
1934, as part of
the Night of the Long Knives, he was executed on Hitler's orders as a potential rival.
Under
Röhm, the
SA also often took
the side of workers in strikes and other labour disputes, attacking strikebreakers and supporting picket lines.
SA intimidation contributed to the rise of the Nazis, breaking down the electoral activity of
the left-wing parties. However,
the SA's reputation for
street violence and
heavy drinking was a hindrance.
Another hindrance was
the homosexuality of
Röhm and other
SA leaders such as his deputy
Edmund Heines (both of whom were later sentenced to death on Hitler's orders). In 1931,
the Münchener Post, a Social Democratic newspaper, obtained and published
Röhm's letters to a friend in which
Röhm discussed his sexual affairs with men.
Edmund Heines, Nazi Party leader and top SA officialEdmund HeinesEdmund Heines (21 July 1897, Munich – 30 June 1934, Stadelheim Prison ) was a Nazi Party leader and Ernst Röhm's deputy in the Sturmabteilung or SA.
LifeHeines served in
World War I as a Kriegsfreiwilliger and was discharged in 1918 as a lieutenant. From
1919 to December,
1922, he served as leader of a unit in
Freikorps Roßbach and later as Gruppenführer of
the Munchen Ortsgruppe. In December, 1922, he transferred to
the Nazi Party and
the SA (
stormtroopers). In 1929, he was convicted of murder, but soon received an amnesty. That same year, he was appointed to temporarily serve as the head of a Nazi district in the Upper Palatinate region. In
1930,
Heines became a member of
the Reichstag for the district of Liegnitz. From 1931 to 1934, he served as an
SA leader in
Silesia while simultaneously working as
Ernst Röhm's deputy. In 1933,
Heines was on the Prussian privy council, and in May of the same year he became head of police in Breslau.
ExecutionHitler's chauffeur
Erich Kempka claimed in a 1946 interview that
Edmund Heines was caught in bed with an unidentified 18-year old male when he was arrested during
the Night of the Long Knives (1934), although
Kempka did not actually witness it. According to
Kempka,
Heines refused to cooperate and get dressed. When
the SS detectives reported this to
Hitler, he went to
Heines' room and ordered him to get dressed within five minutes or risk being shot. After five minutes had passed by,
Heines still had not complied with the order. As a result,
Hitler became so furious that he ordered some
SS men to take
Heines and the boy outside to be executed.
Ernst Röhm and Edmund Heines observing an SA rally.