ABSTRACT
When aggression and hostility are displaced from the real sources of frustration and directed instead against a group or individual, the phenomenon is called scapegoating. Opponents of the Nazis used the homosexuality of Ernest Roehm, which was fairly well known, as one of their charges against the Nazis, while elements within the Nazi Party opposed to Roehm also used his homosexuality as a weapon. The problem the Nazis immediately had was to find homosexuals. The more obvious male prostitutes could easily be located, but the discreet homosexual was another matter. In 1928 a German sociologist, Robert Michels, had estimated the number of homosexually inclined men in Germany at 1.2 million. Homosexuality was too potent an issue for an ambitious politician to ignore. Freedom riders of the 1960s as well as antiwar activists of the 1970s were often accused of being homosexuals. Even where homosexuality is not against the law, as in Great Britain, charges of homosexuality can cause political scandal.
