The Discursive Construction of Hate: A Comparative Analysis of the Marginalization and Dehumanization of Homosexuals in Nazi Germany and in Pre-Stonewall United States

This research study explores and compares substantive and rhetorical strategies through which homosexuals came to be reviled and pathologized in Nazi Germany and the pre-Stonewall US by sufficiently large segments of their respective societies that their persecution and eradication became tolerated. Considering that the majority of manifestations of discrimination (e.g., homophobia, racism, sexism, anti-Semitism) are mostly discursive, my analysis focuses on the reproduction of hatred and discrimination through different types of text and talk within the broader sociopolitical and religious contexts of both Nazi Germany (19331945)and the US in the 1950s (van Dijk, 1993). This study seeks to understand the discursive constructions of the Other, because in its definition and characterization, the Other (the homosexual) was described, portrayed, and presented as a stranger who was different and unwanted in both historical contexts (Bauman, 1993). Through critical discourse analysis (CDA) as the methodological and analytical framework of this study, I collected and analyzed written and spoken texts that represent a significant sample of moderate mainstream politicians, newspapers, and education texts for both historical contexts. The analysis of the collected data demonstrates that in both contexts the discursive construction of the Other mostly relied on stereotypical notions of homosexuals. However, there were differences between the institutional and political approaches against homosexuals in the two societies in terms of levels of homophobia. Persecution (i.e., medicalization, criminalization, dehumanization, and extermination) and the use of rhetorical devices largely depended on the sociopolitical structures of each nation (e.g., democracy versus dictatorship). At the same time, there were also similarities, as both societies needed to rely on pseudoscientific information to legitimize institutional, social, and violent homophobia and to persuade their citizens to turn against homosexuals.