[baumschubser]

> unimaginable two decades ago let alone the 60’s

Ernst Röhm, leader of the Nazi's SA forces, was gay. People did not join the Nazi movement because of the impeccable life style of their leaders, but their political program. Same with AfD or Trumpists.

[sedatk]

Sure, the history is full of gays who were closeted or whose homosexuality were open secrets. But those have always been kept plausibly deniable towards the public, not open like this at all.

[foldr]

Röhm was actually known to the public to be gay for some of the time that he was in power: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%B6hm_scandal He wasn't quite 'openly gay' in the modern sense, but he didn't really put up much of a pretense.

[trallnag]

Vito, an important member of the New Jersey crime family DiMeo (Italian Mafia) during the early 2000s was gay as well