Gay Men unr the Nazi Regime | Holot Encyclopedia

Contents:

• STANFORD SCHOLAR EXPLOR THE HISTORY OF GAY RIGHTS GERMANY
• GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME
• GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
• ACTIVISTS NMN VLENCE AGAST LGBTQ MUNY ST. VCENT, WHERE GAY SEX IS ILLEGAL

STANFORD SCHOLAR EXPLOR THE HISTORY OF GAY RIGHTS GERMANY

In the summer of 2017, Germany’s Feral Government wined s Natnal Actn Plan Agast Racism, which homophobia and transphobia are outlawed. The first step towards legal stat for homosexual upl was the registered civil partnership 2001, known lloquially as the homo marriage. December 29, 2018 The relatively rapid evolutn of gay rights Germany trigued Stanford doctoral ndidate Samuel Clow Huneke.

Ls than 80 years after roughly 6, 000 gay men perished Nazi ncentratn mps, Germany has bee one of the untri mostly wily acceptg of lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr (LGBT) people. Several of East Germany’s gay activists, cludg well-known transgenr woman Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, center, pose for a photo the 1970s.

That stark cultural and polil change trigued Stanford rearcher Samuel Clow Huneke, a doctoral ndidate history, who began vtigatg how East and Wt Germany alt wh homosexualy om 1945 to 1990. “I started this work wh one big qutn: How do a untry go om the Nazi dictatorship to beg the standard bearer of gay rights that is today?

GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME

Huneke found that durg the Cold War era, munist East Germany had more lenient sodomy laws and accepted gay activists’ mands more quickly than s mocratic tw. As a rult, East Germany ntributed signifintly to Germany’s pro-gay turn once the untry unified 1990, some regards more than Wt Germany did. “There is an assumptn that the state of gay rights Germany today is somethg that’s mostly due to events mocratic Wt Germany, which had a more vibrant gay culture and a more visible gay rights movement durg the 1970s, ” Huneke said.

Prev historil rearch has vtigated how gay people fared Germany durg the Weimar perd, the terwar years that ran roughly om 1918 to 1933, and durg Adolf Hler’s Nazi dictatorship.

“Wt Germany is often thought of as this bean of liberalism, but was anythg but liberatg toward gay people, pecially the 1950s and 1960s. The tw Germani spl on how they approached homosexualy as soon as the untry separated after World War II, Huneke said. Wt Germany restated former Nazis ernment and kept the same strict Nazi-era sodomy laws, which crimalized any act perceived to be homosexual, cludg kissg and touchg.

GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

As a rult, the Wt German ernment prosecuted more than 100, 000 gay men between 1949 and 1969, of whom over 50, 000 were nvicted. “On the one hand, wanted to live up to this anti-fascist legacy, but was also a btal dictatorship that didn’t want to appear to be gay-iendly.

In general, they seemed to let gay people be, unls someone who was nnected to the regime was acced of beg a homosexual. Wt Germany’s gay rights movement the 1970s spired activists the East, who eventually formed pro-gay rights anizatns of their own. While the Wt’s activism died down after 1980, when a group of pro-pedophilia activists dispted a major gay rights event Wt Germany’s pal Bonn durg that year’s feral electn, activists the East ntued to anize, Huneke said.

From 1985 until the Berl Wall fell 1989, the East German ernment released a s of pro-gay policy chang, grantg gay people the right to serve the ary, among other eedoms, acrdg to his rearch. “This history troubl our assumptns about gay liberatn and how mori fare unr certa forms of ernment, as well as our lgerg Cold War expectatns about munist and mocratic regim, ” Huneke said.

ACTIVISTS NMN VLENCE AGAST LGBTQ MUNY ST. VCENT, WHERE GAY SEX IS ILLEGAL

But actually, the first public LGBTQ+ rights prott took place Germany, over a century earlier, 1867—one year before the term ‘homosexualy’ was ed, German! The Nazis ma more severe and imprisoned 10, 000 gay men (and some lbians, although they were not vered by Paragraph 175) ncentratn mps, where they were marked wh the pk triangle—and a majory died.

But there is plenty to see today to remember the highs and lows of German LGBTQ+ history, om the Monument to Homosexuals Persecuted unr Natnal Socialism and the Schwul Mm (Gay Mm), both Berl, to the Dtsche Eiche bar and bathhoe Munich, where Freddie Mercury hung out the 1970s.