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Aug 20, 2021Liked by Jules Gill-Peterson

Great article, Jules! Have to check out Babylon Berlin.

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I'm just reading "Queer." by Benno Gammerl, a historians attempt to give an overview about queer history in Germany. What *is* very evident when one looks at the past 100 years is that our current situation and discourse looks *very* familiar, including the factions of the queer rights movement and there was definitely a huge setback after WW2 in Germany which lasted at least until the 60s-70s.

Hirschfeld definitely was an important figure in that time in the pursuit of gay and gender non-conforming rights but he also had some questionable views. AFAIK he was not quite immune to the eugenicist and racist views of the time.

I don't know the origin, but I guess "History does not repeat but it rhymes" is good to apply here. A major difference today is that we do no longer have §175. Police cannot arrest you for being gay. But German authorities do deport queer people to countries where they will suffer torture or worse.

If you look at the UK or look at the "Deutscher Ärztetag", we are not very far from families with trans children being persecuted, reported to the authorities, etc. Outright fascists as in "Nazi parties" not even necessarily needed. German CDU might be on board with this and is likely to be elected.

Many gay people were surprised at how fast they were persecuted when the fascists took over. I guess it is not the worst idea to learn from that and prepare. Without taking at as a given and without unnecessary doomerism. Fighting and preventing this is still the preferred outcome.

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