The Gay Capal of the Neteenth Century | The New Yorker

Contents:

• GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME
• ‘GREAT FREEDOM’ AND THE LONG SHADOW OF AN ANTI-GAY LAW GERMANY
• ERNST RöHM, THE HIGHT-RANKG GAY NAZI
• THE GREAT GAY-JEWISH POETRY BRAWL OF 1829

GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME

But while the Netherlands, which 2001 beme the first untry to legalize gay marriage, has paved the wave for a queer royal to officially wear the crown, LGBTQ people have long been dog so unofficially. The liph’s sexualy has been the source of some bate: Acrdg to the French medievalist Évariste Lévi-Provençal, the phrase “hubb al-walad, ” found 16th-century historian Ahmed Mohammed al-Maqqari’s pendium "Nafh at-Tib" reference to Al-Hakam II, translat as a “preference for boys, ” though other scholars mata refers to paternal Medieval Europe scholar Francis Prado-Vilar wrote that knowledge of Al-Hakam’s homosexualy the urt of Córdoba “enuraged the ambns of the factns gathered around his much younger brother, Prce al-Mughira. ”“In his youth his lov seem to have been entirely homosexual, ” queer studi scholar Louis Crompton wrote “Male Love and Islamic Law Arab Spa.

)“To the shock of many urtiers, the pair were monstratively affectnate to each other public, spe Jam’ var proclamatns agast homosexualy, ” Daniel Smh wrote “Love Letters of Kgs and Queens.

Frerick the Great of Pssia (1712 - 1786)Even his lifetime, this Pssian royal was wily mored to be a homosexual, though that term wouldn’t be ed till nearly 90 years after his years after the kg’s ath, his physician Johann Ge Rter von Zimmermann published a book which he sperately tried to dispel gossip Frerick had a “Grecian taste love.

‘GREAT FREEDOM’ AND THE LONG SHADOW OF AN ANTI-GAY LAW GERMANY

And rather than let that secret out, Frerick pretend to be gay, “so that he would ntue to appear virile and pable of sexual terurse, albe wh men. But he did ltle to obscure his sexualy: Sanssouci, his palace Potsdam, was filled wh homoerotic art and, across Europe, “l Potsdamists” beme slang for kg allegedly pursued the Veian philosopher Franc Algarotti and even famed French philosopher Voltaire, who lived wh him at Sanssouci, though ’s not certa if eher relatnship was Voltaire’s ath 1778, a mancript of his memoir tailg Frerick’s homosexual tennci tail was stolen and published the Netherlands.

”The archde spent the rt of his life secln at Klsheim Palace near Salzburg, where he died at the age of 76 1919, three years after his brother’s ath and one year after the Atro-Hungarian Empire was dissolved after the end of World War II of Buganda (1868 - 1903)Discsn of Uganda’s treatment of homosexualy ually settl on Print Yoweri Meveni’s “Kill the Gays” bill, but this 19th century kabaka, or kg, of Buganda allegedly had sexual relatnships wh men along wh his 16 1886, Mwanga II orred the btal torture and aths of dozens of urtiers and pag, wh many burned alive. “I hear there was homosexualy Mwanga’s palace, ” Meveni told a crowd of thoands on Martyr Day 2010, the Atlantic reported. Although the kg was secretly gay, he had no choice but to marry—and this particular hurdle beme all the more prsg 1867.

ERNST RöHM, THE HIGHT-RANKG GAY NAZI

But before we talk about LGBTQ+ kgs and queens, let's start wh the history of sexual terms heterosexual and homosexual didn't exist until the 1860s. 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.

THE GREAT GAY-JEWISH POETRY BRAWL OF 1829

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