Rsia's LGBT 'Concentratn Camps': Prisons For Gay Men In Chechnya, Reports Say

Contents:

• WERE GAY CONCENTRATN CAMP PRISONERS 'PUT BACK PRISON' AFTER WORLD WAR II?
• RSIA'S LGBT 'CONCENTRATN CAMPS': PRISONS FOR GAY MEN IN CHECHNYA, REPORTS SAY
• THE PK TRIANGLE: FROM NAZI LABEL TO SYMBOL OF GAY PRI
• ALLEGED GAY 'CONCENTRATN CAMPS' IN CHECHNYA SPARK GLOBAL OUTRAGE
• GAY CONCENTRATN CAMPS: SILENCE = DEATH
• GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME
• FIL CASTRO’S HORRIFIC RERD ON GAY RIGHTSPINKWASHCONCENTRATN MPS FOR GAYS. POLIL PRISONS WHERE THEY WERE TREATED LIKE ‘BEASTS.’ LISTEN UP, LIBERALS: BEFORE YOU CELEBRATE CASTRO, REMEMBER HIS VICTIMS.JAM KIRCHICKUPDATED APR. 13, 2017 2:17PM EDT PHOTO ILLTRATN BY ELIZABETH BROCKWAY/THE DAILY BEASTFIL CASTRO WAS MANY THGS: A REVOLUTNARY, A MUNIST, A GARLO ORATOR. AMID THE FAWNG ENIA RELEASED UPON HIS LONG-OVERDUE ATH AT THE AGE OF 90, SHOULD NEVER BE FOTTEN THAT HE WAS ALSO AN OPPRSOR, TORTURER, AND MURRER OF GAY PEOPLE. “WE WOULD NEVER E TO BELIEVE THAT A HOMOSEXUAL ULD EMBODY THE NDNS AND REQUIREMENTS OF NDUCT THAT WOULD ENABLE TO NSIR HIM A TE REVOLUTNARY, A TE MUNIST ANT,” CASTRO TOLD AN TERVIEWER 1965. “A VIATN OF THAT NATURE CLASH WH THE NCEPT WE HAVE OF WHAT A ANT MUNIST SHOULD BE.” IN THE EY OF CASTRO AND HIS REVOLUTNARY RA CHE GUEVARA—WHO EQUENTLY REFERRED TO GAY MEN AS MARIN, “FAGGOTS”—HOMOSEXUALY WAS HERENTLY UNTERREVOLUTNARY, A BOURGEOIS NCE. TO A TRADNAL LAT AMERIN MACHISMO THAT VIEWED GAYNS PEJORATIVELY, THEY MARRIED AN IOLOGIL FIXATN TREATG AS POLILLY UNSIRABLE. IT WASN’T LONG AFTER CASTRO ME TO POWER THAT POLICE BEGAN ROUNDG UP GAY MEN. IN 1965, THE REGIME TABLISHED PRISON WORK MPS KNOWN AS MILARY UNS TO AID PRODUCTN (UMAP), TO WHICH POSED HOMOSEXUALS, JEHOVAH’S WNS, AND OTHER “UNSIRABLE” ELEMENTS. ALERT TO THIS NEWS, THE MATTACHE SOCIETY—ONE OF THE EARLIT GAY RIGHTS ANIZATNS THE UNED STAT—HELD MONSTRATNS OUTSI THE UNED NATNS AND THE WHE HOE SUCCSIVELY OVER TWO DAYS. FOUR YEARS BEFORE THE WORLD-FAMO STONEWALL RTS, THE WERE TWO OF THE FIRST GAY RIGHTS PROTTS HELD THE UNED STAT. THAT SAME YEAR, ALLEN GSBERG WAS EXPELLED OM CUBA FOR SPREADG MORS THAT RL CASTRO—FIL’S BROTHER AND SUCCSOR AS PRINT—WAS GAY AND CLAIMG THAT GUEVARA WAS “CUTE.” PUTTG GAYS TO NCENTRATN MPS IS NOT THE ONLY PRACTICE CASTRO BORROWED OM THE NAZIS. DURG THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS, ACRDG TO RECENTLY RELEASED GERMAN TELLIGENCE FIL, THIS SO-LLED ANTI-FASCIST ATTEMPTED TO HIRE FORMER SS OFFICERS TO STCT HIS ARMY. THOUGH THE CUBAN REGIME CLOSED DOWN THE UMAPS THE LATE 1960S, NTUED TO REPRS GAY MEN AS IOLOGILLY SUBVERSIVE ELEMENTS. OPENLY HOMOSEXUAL PEOPLE WERE PREVENTED OM JOG THE COMMUNIST PARTY AND FIRED OM THEIR JOBS. ONE OF THE UNTRY’S MOST DISTGUISHED WRERS, REALDO ARENAS, REUNTED THE PRISON EXPERIENCE HE AND UNTLS OTHER GAY MEN ENDURED HIS MEMOIR BEFORE NIGHT FALLS. “IT WAS A SWELTERG PLACE WHOUT A BATHROOM,” HE WROTE. “GAYS WERE NOT TREATED LIKE HUMAN BEGS, THEY WERE TREATED LIKE BEASTS. THEY WERE THE LAST ON TO E OUT FOR MEALS, SO WE SAW THEM WALK BY, AND THE MOST SIGNIFINT CINT WAS AN EXCE TO BEAT THEM MERCILSLY.” GAYS PRISED A SIGNIFINT PORTN OF THE 125,000 CUBANS (“WORMS,” FIL CASTRO’S WORDS) PERMTED TO LEAVE THE ISLAND FOR THE UNED STAT AS PART OF THE 1980 MARIEL BOATLIFT. (THE 1984 DOCUMENTARY IMPROPER CONDUCT, WHICH TELLS THE STORI OF GAY AND STRAIGHT MARIELOS, REMAS ONE OF THE STARKT DICTMENTS OF THE CASTRO REGIME.) WHEN THE HUMAN IMMUNOFICIENCY VIS H THE ISLAND’S GAY MUNY THE MID-1980S, THE REGIME’S RPONSE WAS TO QUARANTE ALL HIV-POSIVE PEOPLE SANARIUMS, REFERRED TO AS “PRETTY PRISONS” BY THE FOUNR OF THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATN’S GLOBAL PROGRAM FOR AIDS. NO DOUBT ATTUNED TO THE WAY WHICH GAY RIGHTS HAS BEE CENTRAL TO THE AGENDA OF A GLOBAL LEFT CREASGLY SENSIVE TO THE CLAIMS OF INTY POLICS, THE CUBAN REGIME RECENT YEARS HAS TRIED TO FASHN SELF AS BEG THE VANGUARD OF HOMOSEXUAL LIBERATN. IN 2010, FIL CASTRO BELATEDLY ADMTED THAT HIS REVOLUTN’S TREATMENT OF GAYS NSTUTED “A GREAT JTICE.” IT WAS, HOWEVER, A S OF OMISSN RATHER THAN MISSN, TRANSPIRG ONLY BEE HE WAS DISTRACTED, TOO BY FIGHTG OFF YANKEE IMPERIALISTS TO PREVENT THE ATROCI BEG MTED HIS REVOLUTN’S NAME. TODAY, FIL’S NIECE (RL’S DGHTER) MARIELA CASTRO HAS EMERGED AS AN LGBT ACTIVIST, HELMG AN ANIZATN LLED THE CUBAN NATNAL CENTER FOR SEX EDUTN. COCINTALLY, SHE IS THE FOC OF A DOCUMENTARY, MARIELA’S MARCH: CUBA’S LGBT REVOLUTN, PREMIERG MONDAY NIGHT ON HBO. MARIELA HAS BEEN LD BY MANY THE WT AS A FORCE FOR PROGRSIVE CHANGE, AND HER CISN TO PH FOR ACCEPTANCE OF LGBTS MAY BE HELPG ON THE MARGS. BUT NO MATTER HOW MUCH LIFE FOR GAY CUBANS MIGHT HAVE IMPROVED OM THE DAYS OF FORCED LABOR MPS, ’S ALL OCCURRG WH THE NTEXT OF A TOTALARIAN SOCIETY WHOSE CIZENS NNOT VOTE, ARE NIED BASIC EEDOMS LIKE THE RIGHT TO SPEAK OR PROTT EELY, AND NNOT FORM ANIZATNS PENNT OF THE ERNMENT. INED, TELLS YOU EVERYTHG YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT NTEMPORARY CUBA THAT THE UNTRY’S MOST VISIBLE LGBT ACTIVIST IS THE STRAIGHT DGHTER OF RL CASTRO. MARIELA IS A HARD-RE MUNIST WHO SKIRTS AROUND HER FAY’S HORRIFIC RERD OF OPPRSG LGBT PEOPLE, AND HER ERSATZ GAY RIGHTS CSA REEKS OF BEG A VANY PROJECT AND PERSONALY CULT.SOME WTERN PROGRSIV NOHELS FALL FOR THIS PKWASHG CHARA. TAKE CANADIAN PRIME MISTER JT T, A VOL ADVOTE FOR LGBT RIGHTS HIS OWN UNTRY, WHO RELEASED A FULSOME STATEMENT UPON FIL CASTRO’S ATH. WHILE ALLOWG THAT THE CEASED TYRANT WAS A “NTROVERSIAL FIGURE,” THE DPH PRETTY BOY ENTHED, “I KNOW MY FATHER WAS VERY PROUD TO LL HIM A IEND AND I HAD THE OPPORTUNY TO MEET FIL WHEN MY FATHER PASSED JO THE PEOPLE OF CUBA TODAY MOURNG THE LOSS OF THIS REMARKABLE LEAR.”THE ATH OF FIL CASTRO IS REASON TO CELEBRATE. BUT TE EEDOM FOR CUBAN GAYS WILL REMA ELIVE AS LONG AS POLIL EEDOM IS NIED TO ALL CUBANS. JAM KIRCHICK

WERE GAY CONCENTRATN CAMP PRISONERS 'PUT BACK PRISON' AFTER WORLD WAR II?

On October 1, 1944, the first of two sets of medil experiments volvg stratn are performed on homosexuals at the Buchenwald ncentratn mp, near Weimar, Germany. Euthanasia was also performed regularly on Jews, Romani people and mentally ill MORE: The Pk Triangle: From Nazi Label to Symbol of Gay PriAmong the celt of Buchenwald’s overseers was the famo Ilsa Koch, wife of SS mandant Karl Koch and known as the “Wch of Buchenwald. Due to limed rearch fundg, the high ath rate of gay men the mps, and the stigma attached to homosexualy, the victims are often fotten by the world.

This clud more than 100 gay and lbian bars and f, songs and films, and Magn Hirschfeld’s Instut für Sexualwissenschaft (the Instute for Sexual Science), which ntaed thoands of books and journals on sexualy and genr. Some Nazis believed that the majory of, if not all, homosexuals were Jewish bee many of the proment advot of gay rights and equaly were (cludg Hirschfeld as well as progrsive psychiatrists, physicians, lawyers and jurists). More than 100, 000 men intified as homosexual were arrted and many sent to ncentratn mps at Buchenwald, Dach, Sachsenhsen, Mthsen and Achwz, where between 5, 000 and 15, 000 of them died.

RSIA'S LGBT 'CONCENTRATN CAMPS': PRISONS FOR GAY MEN IN CHECHNYA, REPORTS SAY

Heger relled that gay men had to sleep wh their hands above their blankets, and if they didn’t they were taken outsi and had buckets of water thrown at them. The post was acpanied by a picture of a pk triangle -- the symbol officials Nazi Germany ed to intify and ostracize gay ncentratn mp prisoners -- and a quote drawn om the webse for The Pk Triangle of San Francis, an annual event rememberg those victimized unr Nazi le:.

Between 1933 and 1945, an timated 100, 000 men were arrted for vlatg Nazi Germany's law agast homosexualy, and of the, approximately 50, 000 were sentenced to prison.

THE PK TRIANGLE: FROM NAZI LABEL TO SYMBOL OF GAY PRI

The men arrted for beg gay were targeted unr a revised versn of a 19th century statute, Paragraph 175, which was expand to tegorize homosexualy as a crime of "cency. And their alli feated the Nazi regime, the law remaed effect after World War II, as the Holot Memorial mm's exhib on the regime's anti-gay persecutn stat:. The Nazi versn of Paragraph 175 remaed on the books of the Feral Republic of Germany (Wt Germany) until the law was revised 1969 to crimalize homosexual relatns between men over the age of 21.

On 22 March 2017, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her bet approved a bill that overturned nvictns for gay men which had rried out unr Paragraph 175 between 1949 and 1969 and also provid pensatn for survivg victims. The pk triangle symbol has sce evolved to an important remr for the gay, lbian, bisexual and transgenr muny of the ntug homophobia and humany agast them and other reprsed mori around the world. Adolf Hler’s regime overturned all prev attempts Germany to crimalize same-sex acts, to challenge bigoted stereotyp about homosexualy, and to create tablishments where the men uld live and socialize openly.

Although the Third Reich was one of the most heartlsly homophobic regim morn history, practilly no first-hand acunts of Nazi vlence agast gay men existed eher Wt or East Germany before the early 1970s. ” That same year, the Soviet zone of occupatn (later the German Democratic Republic), Rudolf Klimmer appealed to the Organizatn of Those Persecuted by the Nazi Regime to offer regnn of gay men as victims of Natnal Socialist terror. Acrdg to Erik Jensen, gays and lbians “not only met silence the postwar perd regardg the Nazi persecutn of homosexuals, but they also faced the pernic myth that homosexuals themselv formed the backbone of the Nazi movement.

ALLEGED GAY 'CONCENTRATN CAMPS' IN CHECHNYA SPARK GLOBAL OUTRAGE

Calls for gay and lbian liberatn the palist mocraci the late 1960s and early ‘70s did fally create a more open atmosphere for the history of the opprsn of gays and lbians the Third Reich to emerge. Two years later filmmaker Rosa von Prnheim released Nicht r Homosexuelle ist pervers, sonrn die Suatn, r er lebt (The Homosexual is not Perverse, But, Rather, the Suatn Which He Liv. ) Prnheim (born Holger Radke 1942) had actually taken the name “Rosa” (German for Pk) to draw attentn to the Pk Triangle, the intifitn badge assigned by the SS to homosexuals the ncentratn mps.

Kohout went on to scribe the btal regime of forced labor and systematic vlence he and other gay men forced to wear the Pk Triangle experienced there.

Long margalized, this history is more important than ever— Germany and beyond—as homophobia still pos a fundamental threat to human eedom and equaly.

GAY CONCENTRATN CAMPS: SILENCE = DEATH

We sat down wh Sir John Dermot Turg, Alan Turg’s nephew and thor of a new book on Bletchley Park, to discs his uncle’s role pivotal role puter science and his persecutn for beg gay the 1950s. Comg out of the 1920’s which was a more open time for homosexuals the Weimar Republic, that gave way to the btaly of the 1930’s and the Holot to e. Homosexualy and the Holot – BiblgraphyGays, the Holot, and the Pk Triangle“Crimals were marked wh green verted triangl, polil prisoners wh red, “asocials” (cludg Roma, nonnformists, vagrants, and other groups) wh black or— the se of Roma some mps—brown triangl.

…Very ltle has been wrten about the tens of thoands of homosexuals who were the damnest of the damned, the outsts among the outsts the ncentratn are really only timat of figur. After the prison sentenc most homosexuals were tomatilly shipped to ncentratn 1935, a new law legalized the `pulsory sterilizatn (often fact stratn) of homosexuals. Along wh epileptics, schizophrenics and other `generat’, they were beg homosexualy was still so wispread that 1942 the ath penalty was imposed for the army and the ncentratn mps, some pk triangl beme ncub of male Kapos or other men supervisory posns among the mat.

They were seldom lled other nam than arse-hol, shty queers or were allowed to talk only to each other, they had to sleep wh the lights on and wh hands above their people were not child molters; those were nsired profsnal crimals, green men wh pk triangl were given the harst jobs and were beg nstantly abed for their admted sexual preference, nsirable numbers of `normal’ men engaged homosexual acts wh impuny _ that was an emergency double standard was an addnal psychologil burn for the pk SS nsired great sport to tnt and torture the mp manr at Flossenburg often orred them flogged; as the victims were screamg, he `was pantg wh excement, and masturbated wildly his troers until he me, ’ unperturbed by the hundreds of onlookers.

GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME

Eyewns tell of homosexuals beg tortured to ath by ticklg, by havg their tticl immersed alternately to hot and icy water, by havg a broomstick phed to their an. Himmler, who wanted to eradite homosexuals `root and branch’, had the ia to `cure’ them by mandatory viss to the mp brothel at Ravensbck women provid the servic wh ltle succs. LOC 82-12018, ISBN 0-313-23457-4Related ArticlHomosexualy and the Holot – BiblgraphyTriangl and Tribulatns: The Polics of Nazi SymbolsReturn to Wns.

The allegatns me after a few eyewns and survivors said terviews wh the Rsian publitn that they were arrted and taed at one of the secret prisons Argun, a town the Chechen Republic, 100 gay men have been reportedly taed and at least three killed the past week Chechnya by the police. The "ncentratn mps" are beg ed to force homosexuals to m that they would leave the republic, acrdg to Novaya Is Vlence Agast LGBT Communy Increasg Unr Tmp Admistratn?

The officials Chechnya started torturg the homosexuals after a Rsia-based NGO for LGBT rights — — applied for a gay rights march the pal of Grozny, reports said. Meanwhile, Chechen’s Print Ramzan Kadyrov, who is a key ally of Rsian Print Vladimir Put, has been acced of settg up the mps to torture gay people. Very ltle has been wrten about the tens of thoands of homosexuals who were the damnest of the damned, the outsts among the outsts the ncentratn mps.

FIL CASTRO’S HORRIFIC RERD ON GAY RIGHTSPINKWASHCONCENTRATN MPS FOR GAYS. POLIL PRISONS WHERE THEY WERE TREATED LIKE ‘BEASTS.’ LISTEN UP, LIBERALS: BEFORE YOU CELEBRATE CASTRO, REMEMBER HIS VICTIMS.JAM KIRCHICKUPDATED APR. 13, 2017 2:17PM EDT PHOTO ILLTRATN BY ELIZABETH BROCKWAY/THE DAILY BEASTFIL CASTRO WAS MANY THGS: A REVOLUTNARY, A MUNIST, A GARLO ORATOR. AMID THE FAWNG ENIA RELEASED UPON HIS LONG-OVERDUE ATH AT THE AGE OF 90, SHOULD NEVER BE FOTTEN THAT HE WAS ALSO AN OPPRSOR, TORTURER, AND MURRER OF GAY PEOPLE. “WE WOULD NEVER E TO BELIEVE THAT A HOMOSEXUAL ULD EMBODY THE NDNS AND REQUIREMENTS OF NDUCT THAT WOULD ENABLE TO NSIR HIM A TE REVOLUTNARY, A TE MUNIST ANT,” CASTRO TOLD AN TERVIEWER 1965. “A VIATN OF THAT NATURE CLASH WH THE NCEPT WE HAVE OF WHAT A ANT MUNIST SHOULD BE.” IN THE EY OF CASTRO AND HIS REVOLUTNARY RA CHE GUEVARA—WHO EQUENTLY REFERRED TO GAY MEN AS MARIN, “FAGGOTS”—HOMOSEXUALY WAS HERENTLY UNTERREVOLUTNARY, A BOURGEOIS NCE. TO A TRADNAL LAT AMERIN MACHISMO THAT VIEWED GAYNS PEJORATIVELY, THEY MARRIED AN IOLOGIL FIXATN TREATG AS POLILLY UNSIRABLE. IT WASN’T LONG AFTER CASTRO ME TO POWER THAT POLICE BEGAN ROUNDG UP GAY MEN. IN 1965, THE REGIME TABLISHED PRISON WORK MPS KNOWN AS MILARY UNS TO AID PRODUCTN (UMAP), TO WHICH POSED HOMOSEXUALS, JEHOVAH’S WNS, AND OTHER “UNSIRABLE” ELEMENTS. ALERT TO THIS NEWS, THE MATTACHE SOCIETY—ONE OF THE EARLIT GAY RIGHTS ANIZATNS THE UNED STAT—HELD MONSTRATNS OUTSI THE UNED NATNS AND THE WHE HOE SUCCSIVELY OVER TWO DAYS. FOUR YEARS BEFORE THE WORLD-FAMO STONEWALL RTS, THE WERE TWO OF THE FIRST GAY RIGHTS PROTTS HELD THE UNED STAT. THAT SAME YEAR, ALLEN GSBERG WAS EXPELLED OM CUBA FOR SPREADG MORS THAT RL CASTRO—FIL’S BROTHER AND SUCCSOR AS PRINT—WAS GAY AND CLAIMG THAT GUEVARA WAS “CUTE.” PUTTG GAYS TO NCENTRATN MPS IS NOT THE ONLY PRACTICE CASTRO BORROWED OM THE NAZIS. DURG THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS, ACRDG TO RECENTLY RELEASED GERMAN TELLIGENCE FIL, THIS SO-LLED ANTI-FASCIST ATTEMPTED TO HIRE FORMER SS OFFICERS TO STCT HIS ARMY. THOUGH THE CUBAN REGIME CLOSED DOWN THE UMAPS THE LATE 1960S, NTUED TO REPRS GAY MEN AS IOLOGILLY SUBVERSIVE ELEMENTS. OPENLY HOMOSEXUAL PEOPLE WERE PREVENTED OM JOG THE COMMUNIST PARTY AND FIRED OM THEIR JOBS. ONE OF THE UNTRY’S MOST DISTGUISHED WRERS, REALDO ARENAS, REUNTED THE PRISON EXPERIENCE HE AND UNTLS OTHER GAY MEN ENDURED HIS MEMOIR BEFORE NIGHT FALLS. “IT WAS A SWELTERG PLACE WHOUT A BATHROOM,” HE WROTE. “GAYS WERE NOT TREATED LIKE HUMAN BEGS, THEY WERE TREATED LIKE BEASTS. THEY WERE THE LAST ON TO E OUT FOR MEALS, SO WE SAW THEM WALK BY, AND THE MOST SIGNIFINT CINT WAS AN EXCE TO BEAT THEM MERCILSLY.” GAYS PRISED A SIGNIFINT PORTN OF THE 125,000 CUBANS (“WORMS,” FIL CASTRO’S WORDS) PERMTED TO LEAVE THE ISLAND FOR THE UNED STAT AS PART OF THE 1980 MARIEL BOATLIFT. (THE 1984 DOCUMENTARY IMPROPER CONDUCT, WHICH TELLS THE STORI OF GAY AND STRAIGHT MARIELOS, REMAS ONE OF THE STARKT DICTMENTS OF THE CASTRO REGIME.) WHEN THE HUMAN IMMUNOFICIENCY VIS H THE ISLAND’S GAY MUNY THE MID-1980S, THE REGIME’S RPONSE WAS TO QUARANTE ALL HIV-POSIVE PEOPLE SANARIUMS, REFERRED TO AS “PRETTY PRISONS” BY THE FOUNR OF THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATN’S GLOBAL PROGRAM FOR AIDS. NO DOUBT ATTUNED TO THE WAY WHICH GAY RIGHTS HAS BEE CENTRAL TO THE AGENDA OF A GLOBAL LEFT CREASGLY SENSIVE TO THE CLAIMS OF INTY POLICS, THE CUBAN REGIME RECENT YEARS HAS TRIED TO FASHN SELF AS BEG THE VANGUARD OF HOMOSEXUAL LIBERATN. IN 2010, FIL CASTRO BELATEDLY ADMTED THAT HIS REVOLUTN’S TREATMENT OF GAYS NSTUTED “A GREAT JTICE.” IT WAS, HOWEVER, A S OF OMISSN RATHER THAN MISSN, TRANSPIRG ONLY BEE HE WAS DISTRACTED, TOO BY FIGHTG OFF YANKEE IMPERIALISTS TO PREVENT THE ATROCI BEG MTED HIS REVOLUTN’S NAME. TODAY, FIL’S NIECE (RL’S DGHTER) MARIELA CASTRO HAS EMERGED AS AN LGBT ACTIVIST, HELMG AN ANIZATN LLED THE CUBAN NATNAL CENTER FOR SEX EDUTN. COCINTALLY, SHE IS THE FOC OF A DOCUMENTARY, MARIELA’S MARCH: CUBA’S LGBT REVOLUTN, PREMIERG MONDAY NIGHT ON HBO. MARIELA HAS BEEN LD BY MANY THE WT AS A FORCE FOR PROGRSIVE CHANGE, AND HER CISN TO PH FOR ACCEPTANCE OF LGBTS MAY BE HELPG ON THE MARGS. BUT NO MATTER HOW MUCH LIFE FOR GAY CUBANS MIGHT HAVE IMPROVED OM THE DAYS OF FORCED LABOR MPS, ’S ALL OCCURRG WH THE NTEXT OF A TOTALARIAN SOCIETY WHOSE CIZENS NNOT VOTE, ARE NIED BASIC EEDOMS LIKE THE RIGHT TO SPEAK OR PROTT EELY, AND NNOT FORM ANIZATNS PENNT OF THE ERNMENT. INED, TELLS YOU EVERYTHG YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT NTEMPORARY CUBA THAT THE UNTRY’S MOST VISIBLE LGBT ACTIVIST IS THE STRAIGHT DGHTER OF RL CASTRO. MARIELA IS A HARD-RE MUNIST WHO SKIRTS AROUND HER FAY’S HORRIFIC RERD OF OPPRSG LGBT PEOPLE, AND HER ERSATZ GAY RIGHTS CSA REEKS OF BEG A VANY PROJECT AND PERSONALY CULT.SOME WTERN PROGRSIV NOHELS FALL FOR THIS PKWASHG CHARA. TAKE CANADIAN PRIME MISTER JT T, A VOL ADVOTE FOR LGBT RIGHTS HIS OWN UNTRY, WHO RELEASED A FULSOME STATEMENT UPON FIL CASTRO’S ATH. WHILE ALLOWG THAT THE CEASED TYRANT WAS A “NTROVERSIAL FIGURE,” THE DPH PRETTY BOY ENTHED, “I KNOW MY FATHER WAS VERY PROUD TO LL HIM A IEND AND I HAD THE OPPORTUNY TO MEET FIL WHEN MY FATHER PASSED JO THE PEOPLE OF CUBA TODAY MOURNG THE LOSS OF THIS REMARKABLE LEAR.”THE ATH OF FIL CASTRO IS REASON TO CELEBRATE. BUT TE EEDOM FOR CUBAN GAYS WILL REMA ELIVE AS LONG AS POLIL EEDOM IS NIED TO ALL CUBANS. JAM KIRCHICK

While men wh pk triangl were given the harst jobs and were beg nstantly abed for their admted sexual preference, nsirable numbers of "normal" mat and guards engaged homosexual acts wh impuny - that was an emergency outlet. In fact, the wir ployment of labor the war dtry brought some relief to this type of prisoner too - for the labor shortage ma necsary to draw skills om the ranks of such people, although January of 1944 the homosexuals, wh very few exceptns, were still gog to the Dora murr mp, where many of them met their ath.

From 1938 onwards, the SS ed the gays of Sachsenhsen ncentratn mp specifilly for the most dangero and exhstg works the clker factory for the productn of bricks. Ngg's acunt is somethg of a rary: the few homosexuals who managed to survive ternment have tend to hi the fact, largely bee homosexualy ntued to be a crime postwar Wt Germany.

He did not que approve of the whippgs, but uld not figure out what else to do wh the Strichjungen - the htlers and most "obv" gay men who were round up the cy streets and shipped to the mps:. Gay men were given the opportuny to unrgo "renunciatn tts" unr Himmler's orrs, but even if the gay men "passed" the tt and succeed beg aroed by the prostut provid for them, they were not released.

It is very clear om his acunt that homosexuals nstuted a signifint proportn of the mat: his ments imply that there were nearly as many homosexuals Dach as there were Jews, which would have been about 12% of the prison populatn 1936. This do not clu those homosexuals who arrived at the mps by tra and proceed directly to the gas chambers, nor do clu the SS gay men who were brought to the mps and "shot while attemptg to pe. Prisoners lackg self-rtrat, cludg even many polil prisoners, created abomable ndns, first by homosexualy, then after the arrival of the youths by perasty.

Josef Kohout, a survivor who reunted his story the first book-length ttimony of a homosexual the Nazi ncentratn mps, published 1972, scrib the slave labor at the Klkerwerk, a clay quarry and brick-works affiliated wh the Sachsenhsen ncentratn mp early 1940:. "This clay-p, known among prisoners as the ath-p, was both famed and feared by all prisoners all other ncentratn mps, as a factory of human stctn, and up until 1942 was the Achwz for homosexuals.

Bee their subculture and anizatns had been wantonly stroyed, no group solidary veloped si the every ntact outsi was regard as spic, homosexuals did not even dare speak to one another si (as numero survivors have reported terviews). Maybe dividual, polilly unted homosexuals who were only terted immediate gratifitn did not regnize the signifince of the year 1933, but for homosexuals who were also polilly active, who had fend the Weimar Republic, and who had tried to fortall the Nazi threat, 1933 ially signified a rercg of our ristance. Pierre Seel, a French homosexual survivor who remaed silent about his experienc for forty years, tells of the work schle at the ncentratn mp of Schirmeck-Vorbrüch the French provce of Alsace which was annexed by the Nazis::.