Scott Lively, an infamous fundamentalist bigot, is one of those obsessed with hating gays. He has gone so far as to twist history in an attempt to prove, in long, tedious manuscripts, that Nazism was a homosexual movement and that gays were responsible for the Holocaust.
Of course, given that homosexuality is a sexual orientation, it is likely to be found in all groups and movements. A certain percentage of socialists, conservatives, Baptists, bowlers, ice skaters, CEOs, etc will have a gay sexual orientation. That is inevitable.
Lively's dishonesty is well known, his twisting of facts is just par for the course in Christian fundamentalist circles, where all facts are twisted in order to fit fundamentalist obsessions. For instance, it is quite similar to the way they twist science to try to justify creationism.
One of the many targets of Lively was the pioneering gay publication, Der Eigene. Lively falsely claims the term "can be roughly translated 'queer' which may shed some light on the derivation of this term in term in English, but we have chosen the translation used most often by historians because it emphasizes the elitist philosophy of Der Eigene's authors." Lively claims the publication was "racist, nationalistic and anti-Semitic."
Der Eigene was published in the late 1800s and early 1900s, before closing down under the threat of Nazis grabbing power. Given its period some degree of racism might be expected, though it was far less frequent than it would be in the typical Christian fundamentalist sect of the same era. It was not nationalistic or anti-Semitic. Lively has also claimed that the members of the group publishing Der Eigene were the "Community of the Elite" and that the publication's name meant "The Elite."
He cites "Oosterhus and Kennedy" as his source for this claim. The problem is Harry Oosterhuis and Hubert Kennedy, editors of Homosexuality and Male Bonding in Pre-Nazi Germany never made that claim. This work, the most in-depth on Der Eigene and its publisher Adolf Brand, explains well what the focus of the publication was. The world's first gay publication had a strong libertarian tone to it, not a fascistic one.
Oosterhus correctly translated Der Eigene as The Self Owner. He explained, that Brand was inspired by the works of libertarian Max Stirner, author of The Ego and His Own: The Case of the Individual Against Authority. Stirner, who wrote in German, used the term to convey the meaning of self ownership, not elitism. Brand himself wrote in the publication that the magazine "represents the right of personal freedom and the sovereignty of the individual to the furthest consequence."
Liz Highleyman, in Seattle Gay News, wrote, "Though sometimes labeled 'right-wing,' Brand is perhaps more accurately characterized as libertarian, as exemplified by his statement that 'the right of self-determination over body and soul is the most important basis of all freedom.'"
Like other individualists of his era, such as Benjamin Tucker, Brand used the term socialist to describe himself, but clarified his socialism "is not programmatic, but individual -- not regulative, but naturally determined -- not dogmatic...which nowhere strives for political power. Which pursues no leveling mania, which rejects every dictatorship and fights every use of force...does not forbid private property, but rather makes everyone an owner. And whose most important and vivid goal in the sense of our great German classics is the dismantling of the state."
Brand did not enforce ideological conformity to his own views. People from all walks of life and beliefs wrote for his publication. A few, but very few, were German nationalists and anti-Semits, but the publication itself was not.
One author criticized the views of gay activist Magnus Hirshfeld, and made references to him being a Jew. Brand distanced himself from that view and wrote that he disagreed with the article. But, when Brand did make a political endorsement he urged readers to vote for the Social Democrats, fearing the right-wing parties were too anti-gay.
Brand did write about the presence of some homosexuals within National Socialist circles. He was not impressed. He wrote that same-sex relationships "from grounds of personal freedom" are "of no concern to anyone, so long as no other person is harmed by it."
He said the Community of Self-Owners "fight above all things the state, which, through illiberal laws such in the case of §175 [the legal code criminalizing homosexuality] benefits only the extortionists of politics and the street, and through mendacious moral views commits a ridiculous assault on natural rights and an infamous oppression of the person." But, when a person "joins a party that raises such an indecent view to a program and would like to set in the most damaging way the intimate love contact of others under degrading control -- in that moment his own love-life has ceased to be a private matter and forfeits every claim to remain protected henceforward from scrutiny and suspicious oversight." Brand saw opponents of gay rights, who were themselves gay, as guilty of "political hypocrisy" and insolent swindlers, "enjoying the joys of life that he wants to withhold from the public."
As for the Nazis, Brand wrote that "the National Socialist Party openly fights the homosexual movement" and "would drive out of Germany or hang on the gallows all homosexuals and all backers of repeal of §175 as soon as they had come to power." Yet, Lively wants people to think Brand was a Nazi.