Carl Schlegel

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Carl Schlegel
Carl Schlegel Headshot 1898.jpg
Schlegel in 1898
Born(1863-03-29)March 29, 1863
Pfullingen, Germany
DiedJuly 25, 1922(1922-07-25) (aged 59)
New York City, United States

Carl Schlegel (March 29, 1863 - July 25, 1922) was a German-American Presbyterian minister and gay rights activist.

Contents

Life

Schlegel was born in Pfullingen, Germany on March 29, 1863. [1] [2] In 1878, Schlegel moved to the United States. [1] [2] He attended the Bloomfield Theological Seminary, graduating in 1895, and was ordained as a minister in 1896. [1] He began his preaching career in New York City, serving a primarily German-speaking congregation. [1] While he was serving as a minister, he was also a regular participant in meetings of the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee, a German-based organization that was the first gay rights advocacy group in the world. [2] [3] In a 1903 meeting of the group, Schlegel announced his intention to create a New York-based subcommittee and to organize other ministers to advocate for gay rights. [2] In late 1903, Schlegel was arrested in Germany for an unspecified sexual offense. [2] After returning to the United States, Schlegel continued working as a minister until resigning from his church in 1905 and moving to New Orleans. [4]

While Schlegel found a new congregation, he was quickly faced with an investigation by the elders of his new church, who accused him of "Uranism" and of promoting "grossly immoral doctrines." [2] [4] In his defense against the allegations, Schlegel argued that he was not entirely opposed to the church's traditional teaching on same-sex relationships, but believed that the same sex laws should be applied to people of all sexualities equally, arguing that only those who used "compulsion," "offend[ed] publicly," or abused children should be punished. [5] [6] This defense backfired, however, as his position that sex laws should be applied equally to all people was interpreted as a defense of "the lawfulness and naturalness" of same-sex relationships. [7]

He was dismissed by his church in 1907 and was also defrocked. [2] [8] After being dismissed, he returned to New York and became a spiritualist. [2] He died on July 25, 1922 and was buried at the Cemetery of the Evergreens. [2]

Legacy

Schlegel's life was largely unnoticed by historians until 2019, when historian Jonathan Ned Katz uncovered mention of Schlegel's dismissals in the Presbyterian Historical Society's archives. [1] [5]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Katz, Jonathan (2024-08-29). "Carl Schlegel: Early U.S. Gay Activist, 1906-1907". OutHistory . Retrieved 2025-04-28.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Fitzsimons, Tim (2019-07-05). "Historian unearths evidence of one of America's earliest gay rights activists". NBC News . Retrieved 2025-04-28.
  3. ↑ Djajic-Horváth, Aleksandra. "Magnus Hirschfeld". Encyclopedia Britannica . Retrieved 2025-04-28.
  4. 1 2 Watkins, Jerry (2019-12-23). "The Gay South". Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.013.825.
  5. 1 2 White, Mel (2023). Storming the Gate: Fighting Religion-based Oppression with Soul Force. Wipf and Stock. pp. 210–211. ISBN   978-1-6667-4935-9 . Retrieved 2025-05-10.
  6. ↑ Parshall, Allison (2024-01-01). "Asexuality Is Finally Breaking Free from Medical Stigma". Scientific American . Retrieved 2025-05-11.
  7. ↑ Stein, Marc (2023). Rethinking the Gay and Lesbian Movement (2nd ed.). Routledge . Retrieved 2025-05-10.
  8. ↑ Perez, Frank (2022). Political Animal: The Life and times of Stewart Butler. University Press of Mississippi. ISBN   9781496841292 . Retrieved 2025-05-10.
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