Stanford scholar explor the history of gay rights Germany | Stanford News

Contents:

• STANFORD SCHOLAR EXPLOR THE HISTORY OF GAY RIGHTS GERMANY

STANFORD SCHOLAR EXPLOR THE HISTORY OF GAY RIGHTS GERMANY

Lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr (LGBT) rights Germany rank among the hight the world and have evolved signifintly over the urse of the last s. [2] Durg the 1920s and the early 1930s, lbian and gay people Berl were generally tolerated by society and many bars and clubs specifilly pertag to gay men were opened. [3] Although same-sex sexual activy between men was already ma illegal unr Paragraph 175 by the German Empire 1871, Nazi Germany extend the laws durg World War II, which rulted the persecutn and aths of thoands of homosexual cizens.

Dpe the biggt opposn party - that head the ernment om 2005 to 2021 - beg socially nservative on the issu of LGBT rights (CDU/CSU), Germany has equently been seen as one of the most gay-iendly untri the world.

[10][11] Another poll, nducted by the Pew Rearch Center, 2013 dited that 87% of Germans believed that homosexualy should be accepted by society, which was the send hight sre the 39 untri polled, followg Spa (88%). [13] Former Mayor of Berl Kls Wowere is one of the most famo openly gay men Germany, [14] next to the former Mayor of Hamburg, Ole von Bst, the former Feral Mister of Health, Jens Spahn, [15] the ceased former Mister for Foreign Affairs and Vice-Chancellor, Guido Wterwelle, [16] the former Feral Mistry of the Environment, Barbara Hendricks, [17] edians Hape Kerkelg, [18] and Hella von Snen, [19] or polil journalist Anne Will. [20] Found 1981, the Akamie Waldschlösschen, an adult tn nference center near Göttgen, has veloped to a natnal workg hub for LGBTI teachers, lawyers, clergy, gay fathers and gay and lbian stunt groups at German universi.

Other famo gay rights activists clu Rosa von Prnheim, whose film It Is Not the Homosexual Who Is Perverse, But the Society Which He Liv (1971) triggered the morn gay liberatn movement Germany. (Berl) – The German ernment has pledged to do more to uphold the rights of lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, and tersex (LGBTI) people abroad, Human Rights Watch said today.

The adoptn of the LGBTI Incln Strategy is the rult of staed advocy om German civil society groups sce 2012, spearhead by the Lbian and Gay Feratn Germany (Der Lben- und Schwulenverband Dtschland, LSVD), the Hirschfeld-Eddy Foundatn, and the Yogyakarta-Alliance. In Germany, every person is ee to live out their sexual/genr inty, and the law protects lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, transsexual, queer and asexual dividuals, i.

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?

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.

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. 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.

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.

Throughout summer, several ci around Germany are holdg events for Christoper Street Day (CSD) - now part of a global celebratn for gay rights and equaly - cludg Cologne and Berl.

Inspired by the Stonewall rts New York, Bernd Gaiser and the Berl-based gay muny iated the first Pri celebratns Germany 1979. In 1867 Karl Herich Ulrich beme the first self-proclaimed homosexual to speak out publicly for gay rights at the Congrs of German Jurists Munich. Hirschfeld vented the term transvte, zealoly opposed Paragraph 175, and found the Scientific Humanarian Commtee Berl which pneered rearch to transsexualy and stood at the foreont of prott opposg legal discrimatn agast homosexuals.

Whilst homosexualy was not wily accepted socially and was not mon to be openly gay, the arrt-rate unr the terms of Paragraph 175 was low whilst the Empire reigned. The blossomg gay scene helped to further cultivate a culture of prott, wh the first ever gay rights monstratn takg place Berl 1922.