It’s this willingness to make a blood sacrifice of minorities in exchange for “normalcy” or prosperity that has observers drawing uncomfortable comparisons between then and now. “Far be it from me to want to turn to fascism,” the councilor said, “but all the same, we have to agree that in some things those regimes have sometimes done good… One day Hitler and Mussolini woke up and said, ‘Honestly, the scandal has gone on long enough’ … And … the inverts … were chased out of Germany and Italy the very next day.” The ascent of Fascism A Parisian town councilor in 1933 called it “a moral crisis” that gay people, known as “inverts” at that time, could be seen in public. In Vienna, lectures of the “Scientific Humanitarian Committee” might be packed with supporters, but one was attacked by young men hurling stink bombs. On the other hand, the greater “out-ness” of gay and trans people provoked their opponents.Ī French reporter, bemoaning the sight of uncloseted LGBTQ people in public, complained, “the contagion … is corrupting every milieu.” The Berlin police grumbled that magazines aimed at gay men – which they called “ obscene press materials” – were proliferating. While these developments didn’t mean the end of centuries of intolerance, the 1920s and early ‘30s certainly looked like the beginning of the end. Most European capitals hosted a branch of the group, which sponsored talks and sought the repeal of Germany’s “Paragraph 175.” Combining with other liberal groups and politicians, it succeeded in influencing a German parliamentary committee to recommend the repeal to the wider government in 1929. Its lead doctor, Magnus Hirschfeld, also consulted on the Lili Elbe sex change.Ĭonnected to this institute was an organization called the “Scientific-Humanitarian Committee.” With the motto “justice through science,” this group of scientists and LGBTQ people promoted equal rights, arguing that LGBTQ people were not aberrations of nature. Partly driving this new era of tolerance were the doctors and scientists who started looking at homosexuality and “transvestism” (a word of that era that encompassed transgender people) as a natural characteristic with which some were born, and not a “derangement.” The story of Lili Elbe and the first modern sex change, made famous in the recent film “The Danish Girl,” reflected these trends.įor example, Berlin opened its Institute for Sexual Research in 1919, the place where the word “transsexual” was coined, and where people could receive counseling and other services. And media entrepreneurs realized there was a middle-class gay and trans readership to whom they could cater. Protests were organized against offensive depictions of LGBTQ people in print or on stage. Even Florence, Italy, had its own gay district, as did many smaller European cities.įilms began depicting sympathetic gay characters. In Paris, certain quarters were renowned for open displays of gay and trans nightlife. Vienna had about a dozen gay cafes, clubs and bookstores. In the 1920s, Berlin had nearly 100 gay and lesbian bars or cafes. The story of how close Germany – and much of Europe – came to liberating its LGBTQ people before violently reversing that trend under new authoritarian regimes is an object lesson showing that the history of LGBTQ rights is not a record of constant progress.
That was just before the Nazis came to power, magnified the anti-gay law, then sought to annihilate gay and transgender Europeans. But there was a serious movement to repeal the law in 1929 as part of a wider LGBTQ rights movement.
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In 2017, Germany’s Cabinet approved a bill that would expunge the convictions of tens of thousands of German men for “homosexual acts” under that country’s anti-gay law known as “ Paragraph 175.” That law dates back to 1871, when modern Germany’s first legal code was created.