The Pink Swastika and NARTH
In 2009, I reported that NARTH (National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality) had removed all but one reference to Scott Lively’s works from their website. That reference was a note in their newsletter which described Lively’s short speech at the 2005 NARTH convention where he donated money to the organization on behalf of his Pro-Family Charitable Trust. As an aside, Lively has donated at least $2000 to NARTH since 2003.
In fact, Lively’s involvement with NARTH goes back further than his donations. In 1995, Lively spoke at the NARTH conference and presented his signature theme – homosexuals started and animated the Nazi party. In that paper still available on the NARTH website, Lively wrote, “In many respects, the SA was a creation of Germany’s homosexual movement, just as the Nazi Party was in many ways a creation of the SA.”
The problem is not that Lively documents the existence of homosexuals among the Nazis; that much was true. For instance, Ernst Roehm and others in his orbit were gay or bisexual. However, Lively errs by saying the “homosexual movement” created the Nazi party, as if the inevitable outcome of a movement for civil rights for gays is national socialism. See this link for more on the Pink Swastika.
In fairness, the paper does not show up in a search conducted on NARTH’s website (actually very little available on the website comes up from using that search engine). However, it does come up in various Google searches.
Although NARTH is not making this article easy to find, it is still available and demonstrates to me something about the DNA of the organization. Despite claiming to be a scientific organization, the leadership has invited anti-gay activists to present their views since the early days of the organization. Scott Lively favors legal restrictions on homosexual behavior and free speech surrounding advocacy for gay rights. At the most recent conference, NARTH featured Sharon Slater, a leading proponent of criminalization.
It is unfortunate that several years ago, when the book first appeared, the BBC in England made a documentary as part of their otherwise excellent Timewatch series, based on the Pink Swastika which more or less presented Lively particular brand of Shoah denial, as fact.
David Hart – You are right on. Lively’s efforts are beyond disgusting for the reasons he engages in them and for the insult to the memory of those who were victims.
Of course, Roehm was murdered at the “Night of the Long Knives.” But I digress.
The problem that I have with gratuitous Nazi imagery is that it works to dilute the real horror of the Third Reich. Indeed, as a Jew, I am offended by Lively who makes an intellectually dishonest argument to support a social agenda.
Correction
… “that Lively’s “Pink Swastika” heavily relies on Jewish anti-nazi propaganda in the 1930s and 1940s).”
Some years ago, I tried to find out, when and where Nazi imagery got part of homosexual pornography. The most probable place was the gay biker and leather subculture in the U.S. after WWII.
My explanation was, at that time, that a lot of those gay bikers and leathermen were veterans of WWII, who had in fact collected Nazi trophys and, as veterans, were interested to look at their Nazi opponents as a real challenge – bad, but extremly manly and strong (which would make the conquerors even more manly and stronger).
On the other hand, those gay bikers and leathermen may simply have sucked to the equation af nazism and homosexuality which was well established by anti-nazi propaganda.
David Hart,
being a Jew, you perhaps should better not overlook the fact, that Lively’s “Pink Swastika” heavily relies on Jewish anti-nazi propaganda in the 30th and 40th.
From a German point of view, I must stress the point that all social movements before 1933 were splitted into a right and a left wing, and so were homosexuals. Now, “movemental” historical writing uses to be mostly motivated by piety (reverring “our predecessors”), and so the left wing of the movement is remembered much better than the right wing – we don’t even know how much members the right wing organisations had nor do we know the names of the members. So it’s open to discussion how much homosexual rightwingers joined the SA.
I’m quite sure that Lively’s book (as well as the historical anti-nazi propaganda) is much exaggerated, but we don’t know where truth ends and exaggeration begins.
Correction
… “that Lively’s “Pink Swastika” heavily relies on Jewish anti-nazi propaganda in the 1930s and 1940s).”
Some years ago, I tried to find out, when and where Nazi imagery got part of homosexual pornography. The most probable place was the gay biker and leather subculture in the U.S. after WWII.
My explanation was, at that time, that a lot of those gay bikers and leathermen were veterans of WWII, who had in fact collected Nazi trophys and, as veterans, were interested to look at their Nazi opponents as a real challenge – bad, but extremly manly and strong (which would make the conquerors even more manly and stronger).
On the other hand, those gay bikers and leathermen may simply have sucked to the equation af nazism and homosexuality which was well established by anti-nazi propaganda.
David Hart,
being a Jew, you perhaps should better not overlook the fact, that Lively’s “Pink Swastika” heavily relies on Jewish anti-nazi propaganda in the 30th and 40th.
From a German point of view, I must stress the point that all social movements before 1933 were splitted into a right and a left wing, and so were homosexuals. Now, “movemental” historical writing uses to be mostly motivated by piety (reverring “our predecessors”), and so the left wing of the movement is remembered much better than the right wing – we don’t even know how much members the right wing organisations had nor do we know the names of the members. So it’s open to discussion how much homosexual rightwingers joined the SA.
I’m quite sure that Lively’s book (as well as the historical anti-nazi propaganda) is much exaggerated, but we don’t know where truth ends and exaggeration begins.
It is unfortunate that several years ago, when the book first appeared, the BBC in England made a documentary as part of their otherwise excellent Timewatch series, based on the Pink Swastika which more or less presented Lively particular brand of Shoah denial, as fact.
Lively moved to Springfield, MA a few years ago with the intent of “rechristianizing” Springfield. His Holy Grounds Coffee House is only a few doors down from my organization, Arise for Social Justice. When we found out who he was, we had to do something.
Two Sundays ago, we ran a very accurate signature ad in the Sunday paper outing Lively to the community. Last Friday Occupy Springfield chose Lively and his coffee house for a protest. You can read about the rally and see a short video here that makes me so proud of my community!
Now Lively and his Tea Party cronies are passing out flyers in the community saying “Arise Lies.” We’ll be meeting soon to figure out our next steps. Lively is a scary guy but we’re not backing down.
Lively moved to Springfield, MA a few years ago with the intent of “rechristianizing” Springfield. His Holy Grounds Coffee House is only a few doors down from my organization, Arise for Social Justice. When we found out who he was, we had to do something.
Two Sundays ago, we ran a very accurate signature ad in the Sunday paper outing Lively to the community. Last Friday Occupy Springfield chose Lively and his coffee house for a protest. You can read about the rally and see a short video here that makes me so proud of my community!
Now Lively and his Tea Party cronies are passing out flyers in the community saying “Arise Lies.” We’ll be meeting soon to figure out our next steps. Lively is a scary guy but we’re not backing down.
David Hart – You are right on. Lively’s efforts are beyond disgusting for the reasons he engages in them and for the insult to the memory of those who were victims.
Of course, Roehm was murdered at the “Night of the Long Knives.” But I digress.
The problem that I have with gratuitous Nazi imagery is that it works to dilute the real horror of the Third Reich. Indeed, as a Jew, I am offended by Lively who makes an intellectually dishonest argument to support a social agenda.