Out East Berl: Lbians and Gays the GDR: Berl Review – The Hollywood Reporter

Contents:

• STANFORD SCHOLAR EXPLOR THE HISTORY OF GAY RIGHTS GERMANY
• THE GAY MEN TURNG TO THE FAR RIGHT GERMANY
• GAY RIGHTS IN GERMANY: MEN CONVICTED UNR NAZI-ERA LAW TO GET GOVERNMENT COMPENSATN
• GAY RIGHTS AROUND THE WORLD: THE BT AND WORST UNTRI FOR EQUALY
• DOCUMENTARY EXPLOR GAY AND LBIAN OPPRSN EAST GERMANY
• OUT EAST BERL: LBIANS AND GAYS THE GDR: BERL REVIEW

STANFORD SCHOLAR EXPLOR THE HISTORY OF GAY RIGHTS GERMANY

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.

“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.

THE GAY MEN TURNG TO THE FAR RIGHT GERMANY

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.

GAY RIGHTS IN GERMANY: MEN CONVICTED UNR NAZI-ERA LAW TO GET GOVERNMENT COMPENSATN

“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. Two surgeri later and fearful of beg attacked aga, the openly gay 52-year-old taxi driver – who don’t want to be intified bee of ncerns of another attack – avoids public spac and always tak pepper spray wh him. Adam* said was dangero to e out as gay his home untry and feared beg forced to an arranged marriage wh a said he was "so lucky" to wed his soulmate, Ray, Manchter and wish everyone uld marry who they love.

GAY RIGHTS AROUND THE WORLD: THE BT AND WORST UNTRI FOR EQUALY

'Authentilly myself'Ray said he had also stggled growg up gay the 1970s and 80s England, which was "tough" said his relig school "dmmed to you, 'you are gog to hell'" Adam returned home to Sdi Arabia, spe beg more than 3, 000 apart and later rtricted by the Covid-19 panmic, they kept touch daily and the romance years ago, Ray proposed on a vio ll and after succsfully applyg for a UK fiancé visa, Adam moved to Manchter December 2022. Adam said he had been aaid to even wear lours his home untry so the first thg he did when he moved was start to "grow my mullet, got my ears pierced and booked appotments for tattoos" relled how, ntrast, one of his gay iends Sdi had been forced to marry a woman, addg: "It has ed not only his life but the life of his wife.

The uple, who live London, said a "really betiful memory" was on the way home when one of their sons shouted out of the black b wdow to Trafalgar Square, "My dads jt got married" and cheered "Yay, gay marriage". 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. The Third Reich’s persecutn of homosexuals was immediate and relentls: Natnal Socialists stormed and stroyed Hirschfeld’s Instute for Sexual Rearch Berl, Nazi newspapers lled for the ath penalty for homosexual acts and all active gay anisatns Germany were clared illegal.

DOCUMENTARY EXPLOR GAY AND LBIAN OPPRSN EAST GERMANY

Acrdg to ttimoni om survivors, persecuted homosexuals were at the bottom of the ncentratn mp hierarchy, receivg particularly btal treatment and equently subjected to horrific medil experiments which ed an excs of male hormon to try and ‘cure’ mat’ homosexualy. This is not to say that lbians lived enviable liv unr the Third Reich; there are rerds of some lbian ncentratn mp mat and the soc-cultural climate of the Third Reich would not have been an easy one for openly gay women.

When the sculpture was created 1968, homosexuals did not fall to the ‘regnised’ persecuted groups meang they were left out of the sculpture which memorated the sufferg of persecuted mori.

Many homosexuals left ncentratn mps only to be seen as mon crimals upon their return to society; many were repeatedly jailed and died before seeg the liberatn of gays or acknowledgement of and pensatn for their sufferg at the hands of both the Natnal Socialists and the post-war German ernments.

OUT EAST BERL: LBIANS AND GAYS THE GDR: BERL REVIEW

Contrary to mon assumptn, was the East German ernment who, spe the strict censorship, rife surveillance amongst cizens and the feared Stasi, were ostensibly more liberal when me to gay rights. The 2013 documentary film, ‘Out East Berl, ’ told the personal histori of 13 openly gay dividuals unr the GDR ernment and the film expos the ls rosy everyday realy for homosexuals East Germany.

The 2017 legalisatn of same-sex marriage Germany had a slightly bter unrtone as the former German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, voted agast the legalisatn a move nsistent wh her stance opposn of gay marriage. Repeated vandalism of the ‘Memorial to Persecuted Homosexuals’ Berl, ongog difficulti terms of adoptn for gay upl and creas attacks agast gay upl Germany should all serve as a remr of the ntued threat to LGBTQ+ dividuals Germany.