Fascism and LGBTQ Identities in Historical Perspective

Fascist regimes in twentieth‑century Europe mobilized sexuality and gender as central instruments of authoritarian governance, and their treatment of LGBTQ individuals demonstrates how such systems construct political power through the regulation of private life. Both Italian Fascism and German National Socialism articulated national identities grounded in militarized masculinity, demographic expansionism, and rigid heterosexual norms. Within these ideological frameworks, queer people were framed as internal enemies whose existence threatened the moral, biological, and ideological coherence of the nation. The fascist fixation on social purity and reproductive vitality meant that any deviation from state‑sanctioned gender and sexual norms was interpreted not merely as personal behavior but as a political danger. This ideological foundation shaped the distinct yet interconnected forms of repression that emerged in Italy and Germany.

In Italy, the Fascist regime pursued a strategy of medicalization and administrative discipline rather than codified criminalization. Although homosexuality was not explicitly outlawed, the state relied on psychiatric institutions, police surveillance, and forced internment to regulate individuals labeled as sexually deviant. Historians such as Gabriella Romano have shown that this apparatus functioned through collaboration between doctors, police officials, and local administrators, who collectively enforced the regime’s ideal of the virile, productive citizen. Confinement in psychiatric hospitals in cities such as Rome, Florence, and Girifalco served both as punishment and as a mechanism of social erasure, removing queer individuals from public visibility without the need for formal trials. This system, while less publicly dramatic than the German model, nonetheless reinforced the Fascist state’s broader project of moral purification and demographic control.

Nazi Germany, by contrast, implemented one of the most extensive and violent campaigns against queer people in modern history. Building on earlier German legislation, the regime intensified Paragraph 175 to criminalize male homosexuality, resulting in tens of thousands of arrests. Many of those convicted were imprisoned or deported to concentration camps, where they were forced to wear the pink triangle and subjected to forced labor, medical experimentation, and exceptionally high mortality rates. This persecution was deeply intertwined with the broader racial project of the Volksgemeinschaft, which sought to purify the German nation by eliminating those deemed biologically or socially “undesirable.” The Nazi state’s fixation on reproductive capacity and racial purity meant that queer men, in particular, were framed as threats to the demographic future of the nation. The violence inflicted on LGBTQ individuals thus formed part of a larger system of genocidal exclusion targeting Jews, Roma, disabled people, and others the regime sought to eradicate.

Despite the severity of repression, recent scholarship emphasizes that queer experiences under fascism were not uniform. Historians such as Laurie Marhoefer have highlighted the complex ways individuals navigated authoritarian systems, sometimes through concealment, coded social networks, or strategic compliance. A small number of queer individuals even expressed sympathy for fascist politics, revealing the contradictory ways identity and ideology could intersect under conditions of coercion. These cases do not diminish the structural violence of fascist regimes but instead underscore the diversity of strategies queer people employed in response to repression. They also complicate simplistic narratives of victimhood by illustrating how individuals negotiated survival within systems designed to erase them.

Ultimately, the historical relationship between fascism and LGBTQ identities demonstrates how authoritarian regimes weaponize gender and sexuality to consolidate power, enforce ideological purity, and define the boundaries of national belonging. By policing bodies, pathologizing difference, and criminalizing non‑normative identities, fascist states sought to construct a purified national community grounded in exclusion and conformity. Studying this history is essential not only for understanding the mechanisms of past repression but also for recognizing the ongoing vulnerability of marginalized groups in political systems that rely on the suppression of difference. The fascist past thus offers a stark reminder of how easily state power can be mobilized to regulate intimate life and how crucial it is to safeguard the rights and dignity of all individuals in the face of authoritarianism.

Marhoefer, Laurie. Racism and the Making of Gay Rights: A Sexologist, His Student, and the Empire of Queer Love. University of Toronto Press, 2022.

Marhoefer, Laurie. Sex and the Weimar Republic: German Homosexual Emancipation and the Rise of the Nazis. University of Toronto Press, 2015.

Plant, Richard. The Pink Triangle: The Nazi War Against Homosexuals. Henry Holt, 1986.

Romano, Gabriella. Il caso Braibanti: Gli omosessuali e l’Italia fascista. Feltrinelli, 2015.

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