Yes! Ernst Rohm was all but openly gay. He barely tried to keep that under cover, nor did Hitler seem to care. Rohm was one of very few of Hitler's close political associates who felt free to address Hitler by a nickname, as one personal friend to another.

Later, after the SA became very powerful and Hitler began to perceive it as a serious political threat, he had Rohm killed — as part of what's become known as "Night of the Long Knives."

Hitler had many political opponents killed during that night, which actually lasted two or three days.

Then, to justify the extrajudicial assassinations to a rather shocked populace, he weaponized Rohm's homosexuality. Newspapers duly printed Nazi propaganda, assuring the public that the people targeted were corrupting the youth, destroying public decency and morality, etc.

One gay man was offered up as scapegoat to pacify the public, who mostly bought it.

That's not in any way meant to make Rohm sound like a hero. He was a violent, cruel thug who raised a private army of other violent, cruel thugs. When that army grew powerful enough to be a threat to Hitler, he destroyed it.

There's a cautionary tale buried in there somewhere that would be really instructive for gay Republicans.