“We’re Tired of Gay Propaganda” /

Contents:

• “WE’RE TIRED OF GAY PROPAGANDA”
• THE 50 GAYT ADS EVER

“WE’RE TIRED OF GAY PROPAGANDA”

It is unclear how many of the men publicly or privately intified as gay or were part of gay muni and works that had been tablished Germany before the Nazi rise to power. It is important to note that not all of the men arrted and nvicted unr Paragraph 175 intified as gay.

However, the Nazi mpaign agast homosexualy and the regime’s zealo enforcement of Paragraph 175 ma life Nazi Germany dangero for gay men.

Already the mid- to late-neteenth century, there were ditns of nascent and growg gay muni Germany. Among the terms were “gleichgchlechtlich” (“same-sex oriented”) and “homosexuell” (“homosexual”).

THE 50 GAYT ADS EVER

The latter term dated to 1869, when a pamphlet advotg for crimalizatn of sexual relatns between men ed the term “Homosexualät” (“homosexualy”).

The newer slang word “schwul” (often translated to English as “gay”) was also creasgly popular among certa groups. In ntrast, the work of gay men that veloped around thor Adolf Brand and his anizatn Gemeschaft r Eigenen (The Communy of Kdred Spirs) took a different approach. It was the relatively eeg atmosphere of the Weimar Republic that gay muni and works grew and veloped unprecented ways.

Some joed “iendship leagu” (Frndschaftsverbän), groups that polilly and socially anized gay men, lbian women, and others. Gay newspapers and journals, such as Die Frndschaft (Friendship) and Der Eigene (translated varly, but this ntext implyg “his own man”), ntributed to the growth of gay works. They actively tried to build a sense of muny among gay men, and clud personal ads and rmatn about gay meetg plac.

Part of this nmnatn was a rejectn of the era’s open exprsns of sexualy, cludg the visibily of gay muni.

However, Röhm’s posn the Nazi learship did not temper the movement’s nmnatn of homosexualy and gay muni. Shortly thereafter, they sought to dismantle the visible gay cultur and works that had veloped durg the Weimar Republic.