Gay Liberatn Behd the Iron Curta - Boston Review

Contents:

• PK PISTOLS: LGBT GUN OWNERS UNE ARMG GAY COMMUNY
• THREAD: GAY COMMUNIST GUN CLUB
• GAY COMMUNIST GUN CLUB
• GAY, GUN LOVG MI ONLY.
• ALL MEM › GAY COMMUNIST GUN CLUB
• GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME
• GAY LIBERATN BEHD THE IRON CURTA
• GAY COMMUNITY GUN CLUB
• A DOUBLE DEFEAT: CATASTROPHE FOR GAY EMANCIPATN GERMANY AND THE USSR
• SNL TRANSCRIPTS: JOHN LARROQUETTE: 10/22/88: GAY COMMUNIST GUN CLUB

PK PISTOLS: LGBT GUN OWNERS UNE ARMG GAY COMMUNY

We'd love to talk guns wh you, but unls you took the next logil step of beg gay and Communist, I don't see much chance. The NRA has certaly supported pro-gun legislatn, but if you look at their rerd at promotg Communism or gayns, 's actually not that good. Bob: And, I uld be wrong on this - the Natnal Gay Alliance has yet to sponsor one bare butt safari.

John: So, jo next week on the "Gay Communist Gun Club", when we'll be takg flowers om our munal garn, makg different flower arrangements, and then blastg them apart wh shotguns! Of the new clubs that ma an appearance the top 40 of this year’s Fundg Poll, the Gay Communist Gun Club (GCGC) is certaly the most nspicuoly tled. As he se , “For those who e om muni like [his], muni that are heavily, heavily policed, heavily transphobic, homophobic and thgs of that nature, ” knowg self fense should be seen not as a luxury but rather “as a way to survive.

Members of the Gay Communist Gun Club will have the opportuny to get registered wh the Socialist Rifle Associatn, take urs gun safety and trag, and go on sponsored trips to gun rang. If you’re terted jog the Gay Communist Gun Club or otherwise learng more about , you n ntact Rollo Brandon (), Nick Egan (), or Gerardo Velasquez () through Facebook or their emails. Well, I jt thought about that sk after (how many) weeks of seg gay them beg the top polics and issu tagory.

THREAD: GAY COMMUNIST GUN CLUB

Meet natnal gay group dited to fightg homophobia wh firepower – and why they thk gay rights and gun rights are a natural f. But I felt nfint my teacher, Jeff Bloovman, a Philalphia gun stctor and a member of the Pk Pistols, an LGBT group based around the belief that guns n go a long way batg homophobia. A small, loosely anized group of a few dozen chapters sttered across the stat and Canada, cludg Toronto, San Francis and Charlton, South Carola, the Pk Pistols’ membership has climbed om around 1, 500 earlier this month to about 6, 500 sce the June day Omar Mateen attacked the Pulse nightclub, turng the dance floor to a killg field and crashg together two culture war battlegrounds that rarely nverge: gays and guns.

GAY COMMUNIST GUN CLUB

While the majory of LGBT people seem to be llg for more regulatn, Pk Pistols and their alli are hunkerg down and takg up arms, bandg together unr the group’s motto, a nontatnal warng to potential gay-bashers: “Pick on someone your own liber. The Pk Pistols formed around 2000, after gay journalist Jonathan Rch – still outraged by Matthew Shepard’s 1998 murr, and knowg gay men who stopped attacks wh guns – published an article on Salon.

“[Gays] should set up Pk Pistols task forc, sponsor shootg urs and help homosexuals get licensed to rry, ” he wrote, notg that they should do a way to garner as much publicy as possible. “Pk pistols, ” he wrote, “would do far more for the self-teem of the next generatn of gay men and women than any number of hate-crime laws or anti-discrimatn statut.

Rch went on: “If beme wily known that homosexuals rry guns and know how to e them, not many bullets would need to be fired.

GAY, GUN LOVG MI ONLY.

In fact, not all that many gay people would need to rry guns, as long as gay-bashers uldn’t tell which on did.

ALL MEM › GAY COMMUNIST GUN CLUB

As Rch has nced, same-sex marriage, the end of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and other ton have empowered LGBT people, but remas that anti-gay attacks, like anti-Amerin attacks, n be vised upon at anytime. (Rch even ed the word “low-level terrorism” to scribe homophobic attacks like the one that end Matthew Shepherd’s life. ) LGBT people know that each new space needs to be navigated litely, lt our mere existence enrage some homophobe.

Now, wh Omar Mateen, Amerins are all too aware how anti-gay vlence n explo randomly, terrifygly, and sr more than jt LGBT people. 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.

GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME

Among the terms were “gleichgchlechtlich” (“same-sex oriented”) and “homosexuell” (“homosexual”).

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.

GAY LIBERATN BEHD THE IRON CURTA

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.

GAY COMMUNITY GUN CLUB

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. However, ci like Berl and Hamburg, some tablished gay bars were able to rema open until the mid-1930s.

Nohels, the Nazi closur and creased police surveillance ma far more difficult for gay men to nnect wh each other.

Another early actn unrtaken by the Nazi regime was the elimatn of gay newspapers, journals, and publishg ho. In a further latn, the Nazis ed new laws and police practic to arrt and ta whout trial a limed number of gay men begng late 1933 and early 1934.

A DOUBLE DEFEAT: CATASTROPHE FOR GAY EMANCIPATN GERMANY AND THE USSR

Those arrted clud a number of gay men, some of whom were imprisoned the regime’s early ncentratn mps. Three events the years 1934–1936 radilized the Nazi regime’s mpaign agast homosexualy and led to more systematic opprsn of gay men. Fally, 1936 SS lear and Chief of the German Police Herich Himmler tablished the Reich Central Office for the Combatg of Homosexualy and Abortn (Reichszentrale zur Bekämpfung r Homosexualät und r Abtreibung).

The notorly homophobic Himmler saw both homosexualy and abortn as threats to the German birth rate and th to the fate of the German people. By the end of 1936, ndns were place for the Nazi regime to tensify s mpaign agast homosexualy.

In the Nazis’ unrstandg, the men were “homosexual” (“homosexuell”) offenrs and th crimals and enemi of the state. In the mid- to late 1930s, the police raid bars and other meetg plac that they believed to be popular wh gay men.

SNL TRANSCRIPTS: JOHN LARROQUETTE: 10/22/88: GAY COMMUNIST GUN CLUB

The language people ed nunciatns mak clear that the Germans tend to agree wh Nazi attus towards homosexualy.