It seems to me that Hitler used homophobia to justify to the populace the Night of the Long Knives.

He had come to believe Rohm was disloyal and the SA he commanded commanded represented a potential center of opposition.

But extrajudicial killings were were not yet normalized in Germany, not with a population accustomed to punctilious attention to law.

So Rohm’s homosexuality was very useful. Hitler knew most people would approve of what looked like a homosexual purge in the Nazi party.

I’ve written about this previously from a different perspective if you’re interested.

Cabaret and the Death of Queer Equality

https://medium.com/james-finn/cabaret-and-the-death-of-queer-equality-7dd1cf2589fc

Jim