Laurie Marhoefer

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Laurie Marhoefer is a historian of queer and trans politics who is employed as the Jon Bridgman Endowed Professor of History at the University of Washington. [1] In January 2021, together with Jennifer V. Evans, they facilitated the Jack and Anita Hess Research Seminar at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum on LGBTQ+ histories of the Holocaust. [2]

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Before 1933, male homosexual acts were illegal in Germany under Paragraph 175 of the German Criminal Code. The law was not consistently enforced, however, and a thriving gay culture existed in major German cities. After the Nazi takeover in 1933, the first homosexual movement's infrastructure of clubs, organizations, and publications was shut down. After the Röhm purge in 1934, persecuting homosexuals became a priority of the Nazi police state. A 1935 revision of Paragraph 175 made it easier to bring criminal charges for homosexual acts, leading to a large increase in arrests and convictions. Persecution peaked in the years prior to World War II and was extended to areas annexed by Germany, including Austria, the Czech lands, and Alsace–Lorraine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pink triangle</span> Nazi concentration camp badge, later international symbol of gay pride and the gay rights movements

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The Memorial to the First Homosexual Emancipation Movement is a memorial in the neighbourhood of Moabit in Berlin, Germany. Unveiled on 7 September 2017, the memorial is located opposite the Federal Chancellery on the Spree and commemorates the first homosexual movement, which was destroyed in 1933 by the Nazis, and especially the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee founded in 1897 to oppose the criminalization of homosexuality in Germany. The Scientific-Humanitarian Committee's headquarters were located on the other bank of the Spree near the Federal Chancellery. The riverbank where the memorial is located has been named the Magnus-Hirschfeld-Ufer since 2008. The memorial includes an information panel that has been in place since 2011 and discusses the movement with portraits of Anita Augspurg (1857–1943), Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (1825–1895) and Magnus Hirschfeld (1868–1935).

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The Röhm scandal resulted from the public disclosure of Nazi politician Ernst Röhm's homosexuality by anti-Nazis in 1931 and 1932. As a result of the scandal, Röhm became the first known homosexual politician.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Li Shiu Tong</span> Chinese-Canadian LGBTQ activist (1907–1993)

Li Shiu Tong was a Hong Kong Chinese (British) medical student, sexologist, and LGBTQ activist in the early twentieth century, known as the companion of German sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld.

In Nazi Germany, transgender people had a variety of experiences depending on whether they were considered "Aryan" or capable of useful work. According to the Museum of Jewish Heritage, the Nazi German government "brutally targeted the trans community, deporting many trans people to concentration camps and wiping out vibrant community structures."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paragraph 183</span> Provision of the German Criminal Code regarding public indecency and cross-dressing

Paragraph 183 is a public indecency law of the German Criminal Code, which prohibits "sexual self-determination" and public exhibitionism. From its adoption in 1871, at an increasing rate during the rise of the Nazis, and until as late as the mid-20th century, the law was used to enforce penalties for cross-dressing and homosexual acts. As of 2021, the law's scope is limited to indecent exposure.

References

  1. "Laurie Marhoefer | Department of History | University of Washington". history.washington.edu. Retrieved 30 December 2021.
  2. Jack and Anita Hess Research Seminar https://www.ushmm.org/research/opportunities-for-academics/faculty-seminars/hess/2021
  3. Søland, Birgitte (2018). "Gender, Sexuality, and the City in the Early Twentieth Century". Journal of Women's History. 30 (3): 188–196. doi:10.1353/jowh.2018.0037. ISSN   1527-2036. S2CID   149667976.
  4. Griffiths, Craig (November 2016). "Review of Beachy, Robert, Gay Berlin: Birthplace of a Modern Identity and Marhoefer, Laurie, Sex and the Weimar Republic: German Homosexual Emancipation and the Rise of the Nazis". H-Histsex, H-Review.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  5. Oosterhuis, Harry (2017). "Sex and the Weimar Republic: German Homosexual Emancipation and the Rise of the Nazis by Laurie Marhoefer (review)". University of Toronto Quarterly. 86 (3): 226–228. doi:10.3138/utq.86.3.226. ISSN   1712-5278.
  6. Giles, Geoffrey J. (2016). "Sex in the Weimar Republic: German Homosexual Emancipation and the Rise of the Nazis by Laurie Marhoefer". Canadian Journal of History. 51 (3): 606–608. doi:10.3138/cjh.ach.51.3.rev21. S2CID   152266851.
  7. Leng, Kirsten (2016). "Sex and the Weimar Republic: German Homosexual Emancipation and the Rise of the Nazis". German History. 34 (3): 500–502. doi:10.1093/gerhis/ghw049.
  8. Wackerfuss, Andrew (2017). "Laurie Marhoefer. Sex and the Weimar Republic: German Homosexual Emancipation and the Rise of the Nazis". The American Historical Review. 122 (1): 268–270. doi:10.1093/ahr/122.1.268a.
  9. Beachy, Robert (2017). "Sex and the Weimar Republic: German Homosexual Emancipation and the Rise of the Nazis . By Laurie Marhoefer. German and European Studies. Edited by Rebecca Wittmann.Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2015. Pp. xvi+340. $85.00 (cloth); $32.95 (paper)". The Journal of Modern History. 89 (4): 990–992. doi:10.1086/694376.