ABSTRACT
Viewed in the perspective of functionalist sociology, violence or the threat of violence serves the dominant majority as a device to set limits to the aspirations of deviant groups. Hence it is not surprising that the increasing visibility of gay people from the late 1960s on should be accompanied by increasing number of violent acts against them ("fag bashing"). A quite different aspect of violence appears in the very rare, but often sensationalized instances of mass murders committed by homosexual men. Public reactions to media reports on such individuals offer an interesting barometer of attitudes.
