Being homosexual seems to have been regarded as some sort of disease or abnormality.
Within a rigid society abnormalities are not tolerated easily and changes in attitudes do not happen over night.
Phrases such as 'abominable thing' and 'disgusting feelings' are used in context with homosexuality. This only shows how eager people were to judge and critisize homosexuals.
One of the reasons for why this lack tolerance and even passionate condemning of homosexuals was so common, is stated in the novel.
With the constant 'little niggle of anxiety' soldiers had, because of the 'enormous emphasis on love between men' , the need to 'make it crystal clear what the penalties for the other kind are' was the priority of many soldiers.
The 'other kind' were singled out from the society. Making sure that they were not part of the same group as anyone else, made it easier for the society to condemn them.
This is similar to war, in which people fights with each other by differentiationg themselves and the others. By singleing out certain groups, it was easier to fight against them, since they were not part of the own group anymore.
Similtanously to this, some people in power seemed to use this attitude towards homosexuals to reinforce their own power and their reach their own goals.
The 'Black Book' is said to contain many names of homosexual people whose 'loyalty to their country [is] suspect' due to their 'pricate lives'. This implies that just because they were gay, they are directly associated with the enemies of the country.
The people in charge of running the country and who are responsible for the war, might have used this to undermine the power of oppositions. By making everyone opposing war look gay, it is hard for the rest of society to support their view, since they would be supporting a gay person's view.
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