#institute for sexology

[rhube]

Eldorado: Everything the Nazis Hated

Someone recommended the documentary film, Eldorado: Everything the Nazis Hated, from Netflix, in the notes to that post about JKR's holocaust denialism. It is so, so worth watching.

It's about the culture and people of the lgbtq+ communities in pre-WWII Germany - especially those who frequented the Eldorado club and/or were involved in the Institute for Sexology before the rise of Hitler - and what happened to them once the Nazis came to power.

It starts off as a really wonderful celebration of the sanctuary and sense of changing times and possibilities created by these wonderful, vibrant people. It includes footage of the first trans women to undergo gender-affirming surgery - three smiling trans women, in colour, from nearly 100 years ago. In some cases, there are even interviews with people who survived from that time.

Obviously, sadly, unforgiveably, it does not last. And the documentary tells you far more than I have ever heard before about what exactly happened to LGBTQ+ people over that period of time.

This includes not just gay men and trans women, but lesbians, poly, non-binary, and bisexual folk. And how this related to the Nazis' general philosophies.

It is crucial to understand that the reason terfism and fascism are such close buddies is that their gender ideology (hah! They actually have one) centres around a woman's role being to breed a pure, Aryan race. So they must only sleep with their husbands, they must not remove themselves from the breeding pool by sleeping with each other, and similarly men have a duty to sire children (if they are of good breeding stock), so sleeping with other men, spreading their 'seed' indescriminately, or taking on the characteristics associated with women - all that threatens the central Nazi thesis that they must create and protect the 'superior' race.

This is why transphobia is and always will be gender essentialism, sexism, and racism bundled up in a trench coat, waiting to spill out. Because of the Nazi roots.

But don't listen to me. If you have the spoons and it would not be too triggering for you, I really recommend watching it.

One of the interviewees, who was a teenager who was falling in love with another boy as the Nazis came to power, tells the story of how they became separated, and how he eventually learned his first love died of starvation in a concentration camp. I wanted to get the exact quote down, but Netflix started playing up when I paused it, so I will just say that he said the reason he wanted to be interviewed was for his lost love, Lumpi. So that Lumpi would be remembered.

For those of us who are able, I think we have a duty to learn about and remember those wonderful, lively people who went before us, and who were cruelly taken away.

The Nazis wanted to erase lgbtq+ people from history. And we can resist that. We can remember.

Obviously content warnings for Nazis, the holocaust, genocide, death, homophobia, transphobia, and footage from concentration camps. It is handled, in my opinion, very well, but may still be difficult to watch. And many of the interviews are in German, so disabled people like me who struggle with subtitles may find it quite draining. But you can pause and watch in chunks.

[danielgoldhorn]

JK Rowling keeps getting fucking worse. Maybe she should spend less time ranting on Twitter at every little provocation, and more time taking her own advice to not "press send without thinking 'I should maybe check my source for this'"

[crossdreamers]

How JK Rowling and her supporters try to get people forget the Nazi persecution of trans people

Over at YouTube Caelan Conrad talks about the recent controversy surrounding J.K. Rowling and her soft denial of a nazi war crime. Caelan takes a closer look at the Twitter feud and the impact it has on Rowling's reputation.

(Video embedded above)

It seems to us that what JK Rowling and her supporters try to achieve by belittling the Nazi persecution of trans people is that they fear that this fact will make people associate trans people with gay people, Jewish people and others persecuted by the German Nazis.

This will lead people to sympathize with trans people and find transphobes - who repeat arguments made by Nazis - less likable. We would guess that JK and the TERFs fear this truth as it negates their narrative about trans women being oppressors of women and not victims of hate activism themselves.

If you want to learn more about the amazing Berlin queer and transgender culture and the trans research done by Magnus Hirschfeld, read out articles:

How the Nazis destroyed the queer and trans culture of Berlin

Magnus Hirschfeld's Theory of Transgender Intermediaries

Magnus Hirschfeld's Understanding of Transgender People

The Transgender Passports of 1930s Berlin

How Magnus Hirschfeld Shaped the Pro-LGBTQA Struggle

Magnus Hirschfeld and his queer friends in Berlin. Hirschfeld is No. 2 from the right.

[nickysfacts]

It’s important to remember how the Holocaust targeted many groups of people, with LGBTQ+ individuals being one of its first victims.

🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈

[aprofessionalwithoutstandards]

Hear me out... Medic assisting at the Institute of Sexology in the 1920s.......

Girl how old do you think he IS

[coochiequeens]

I'd rather be called a TERF than be someone who is ok with TQ+ organizations dedicated to minors without the commonsense approach of vetting the adults in the organizations or someone who pushes TQ+ studies without caring that the author is a pedo.

By Genevieve Gluck April 16, 2024

A gay couple who co-founded a Swiss LGBTQIA+ youth organization are being investigated by the public prosecutor after sexually exploiting two teenagers who were in their care. The men had created locations for their youth group, Sozialwerk.LGBT+, for children aged 13 and up in the city of Chur and in the municipality of Buchs, Switzerland.

While their identities were concealed by the press in Switzerland, Reduxx is naming the men involved as Holger Niggemann and his husband, Björn.

Holger, 42, is alleged to have had sexual contact with two 17-year-olds who had sought help for bullying with the organization. Holger was a board member of the group at the time, while his husband Björn was the business manager. The two men are said to have had a three-way sexual relationship with one of the teens, a 17-year old boy, according to a report by Tages-Anzeiger.

Numerous documents substantiate what happened in the group, including text messages, emails and voice messages, reports Tages-Anzeiger. Founded in 2020, Sozialwerk.LGBT has received public funding to set up facilities for at-risk youth as young as 13 who believe they are LGBT+.

During an investigation into the allegations, local media spoke to fifteen people close to the group to check the veracity of the allegations. The majority of those who came forward decided to remain anonymous.

One exception is Daniel Huber, a former board member of the association, who, with one other board member, reported the couple to public prosecutor Annina Grob, co-director of Avenir Social, the professional association for social work in Switzerland.

“For us, the behavior of the two is a total abuse of power, and the young people also felt that way. I brought it up again and again,” said Huber, who attended the meetings as a teenager before joining the board in a leadership role. “It is important not to look away from such behavior.”

According to statements from anonymous sources, the Niggemanns also took the 17 year-old boy on vacation to Germany with them.

See rest of article

By Genevieve Gluck April 13, 2024

Reduxx can reveal that a Dutch-American academic with a history of advocating for the normalization of adult-child sexual relationships has had a working relationship with the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH). Theodore Sandfort’s research has been presented at the organization’s symposium as recently as 2016.

Sandfort, a Columbia-affiliated academic and LGBT activist, previously worked with self-declared pedophiles in the Netherlands, documenting adult men’s sexual abuse of boys as evidence to support his theory that adult-child relationships are “predominantly positive.”

Prior to relocating to Columbia University, Sandfort received a PhD in Clinical Psychology from Utrecht University in the Netherlands. He was also the Chairman of the Interfaculty Department of Lesbian and Gay Studies at Utrecht University and Director of the Research Program “Diversity, Lifestyles and Health” at the Netherlands Institute of Social Sexological Research.

A faculty member at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health, Sandfort has also been employed as a Professor of Clinical Sociomedical Sciences, and worked at the university’s HIV Center alongside former WPATH president and Director of the institution’s Gender Identity Program, Walter Bockting. Like Sandfort, Bockting relocated to Columbia University from the Netherlands, having completed his doctoral degree in psychology from the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam.

Bockting and Sandfort also worked together in a professional capacity while acting as members of the editorial board for the academic journal Psychology and Sexuality in 2015.

The following year, in 2016, research co-authored by Sandfort was presented at a WPATH symposium in Amsterdam.

The paper, titled “Gender nonconformity and peer victimization: Sexual attraction and gender differences by age,” focused on the experiences of Dutch same-sex attracted adolescents aged 11 to 18. The study concluded that gender non-conforming youth were bullied by their peers, leading Sandfort and his colleagues to recommend that “key educational messages that address sexual and gender diversity should be delivered during childhood before early adolescence.”

However, Sandfort’s prior work dealt with sympathetic portrayals of pedophilic relationships between adult men and adolescent boys. In recent years, he has also had access to vulnerable youth in New York City’s foster care system, and, in 2020, he was dismissed from this position when his troubling research history dealing with the sexuality of children came to light.

In 1983, Sandfort authored an article for Youth and Society (Jeugd en Samenleving) titled “Erotic moments in working with children,” a small-scale study of sexual desires among five adult group leaders for the children in their care.

The men described deriving sexual pleasure from working with children, specifically when exercising together, bathing the children, or holding them on their laps. One man, identified as “Lex,” spoke of being aroused while “tickling” children aged “2 or 3,” wearing only his underwear, and proceeding to touch the toddlers’ genitals.

See rest of article

[gay-otlc]

Born Wrong

The cisn't Wolfe fic I wrote at 2 am last night! Tagging the tgl mutuals- @solreefs @aphelea @fintan-pyren

Content warning for dysphoria and internalized transphobia

Word count: 1141

AO3

Something went wrong in Wolfe's body. 

Only slightly. Wolfe was close to being perfect, but not close enough. Not enough to belong.

"You were born wrong," Keria had said, attempting to explain why Wolfe didn't have powers like the other children in the Iron Tower.

Wolfe had thought that might be true in more ways than one.

---

Wearing a scholar's robe for the first time should have been significant because it was such an achievement. And yes, Wolfe was proud of becoming a scholar, especially so young. Even so, pride wasn't what brought a smile at every glance in a mirror. No, Wolfe just loved the way it looked. A shallow thought, but true nonetheless.

The fabric draped over Wolfe and elegantly flowed to the floor. In it, Wolfe appeared less like a man and more like a shapeless entity of knowledge.

Being a shapeless entity of knowledge was undeniably preferable.

---

Of course, Wolfe was nothing near glad to have all these scars, but they could be convenient on occasion. At least now, Wolfe had a reason to stare at the mirror with such distaste. Before, doing so hadn't made any sense. It was impossible to explain how the body seemed so wrong, an equation that didn't add up. 

It wasn't that Wolfe thought the body looked bad. Objectively, it looked alright. (Used to look alright.) Santi had certainly enjoyed Wolfe's physical appearance. There was no reason to hate it so much, before.

Now, at least, there was a good reason. One that made sense. Anyone would understand why it was sometimes necessary to refuse to look at Wolfe's reflection. 

That body had never been right, but the scars provided a logical explanation as to why it was wrong. An explanation a bit more reasonable than the fact that it didn't feel as if it was Wolfe's body. 

---

"Scholar? High Commander? I wanted to tell you both something." 

"Go on."

"I wanted you to know that I'm not... quite a woman. Or a man, really. I'm sort of both. I know it doesn't make much sense, but I'm hoping you'll still respect it-"

Wolfe didn't hear the rest of Glain's sentence, too caught up in the realization that it was possible to not be entirely male or female. That it was possible to be initially categorized as something and then defy that categorization. It had never seemed to make sense why Wolfe was supposedly a man, but it didn't seem like Wolfe had a choice in the matter.

Except... maybe...

Santi did not appear to be in a similar state of crisis. He clapped Glain on the back and said "Thanks for telling us. I hope you know Christopher and I support you."

Glain smiled. "Thanks, sir."

Right. Yes. Supporting their child. That was a priority. "Of course we support you. You're our kid," Wolfe added.

"Thanks, sir," Glain repeated.

It probably didn't mean anything that being called sir felt wrong. The same sort of irritation, the knowledge that something is off, as when Wolfe read an essay by an incompetent Scholar whose thesis was blatantly false. A strange feeling, but Wolfe was sure it didn't mean anything.

Probably.

---

"I wonder how Glain knows she's not fully a woman," Wolfe said to Santi, once Glain had left. "I believe him, of course, but I don't understand how someone knows something like that."

Santi shrugged. "I don't know. How do you know you're a man?"

That's a damn good question. I don't. "I'm not sure. How do you?"

"I just sort of... know. Which isn't a good answer. Being a man is just what feels comfortable for me, and being anything else would be uncomfortable. Is that how it feels for you?"

"I suppose." 

Not at all.

---

There didn't seem to be any words to describe what Wolfe was, if feeling like this wasn't how it felt to be a man. Books on gender piled on Wolfe's codex, and some borrowed from the few that Jess and Thomas had printed on the subject. Books Wolfe had definitely borrowed out of intellectual curiosity, and nothing else. (Not a very convincing lie, but believing that was easier than accepting that Wolfe had been born wrong.)

Even other authors did little to help Wolfe find the right words. That was immensely frustrating. Wofle was a scholar, dammit, the words for this should come easily.

There didn't seem to be any words for what Wolfe was. So many words for what Wolfe wasn't; man, woman, a third option, but no words that were right. 

Wolfe didn't seem to be anything at all. 

---

Wolfe swallowed. "Nic?"

"Yeah?"

This is fine. This will go fine. Just tell him. "There's... um... there's something that I want you to know." A pause, as though Santi expected Wolfe to actually say that something. Which would make sense. Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be any good words for this. "Sorry. I- I'm having some difficulty explaining it."

"That's unusual for you."

Deep breaths. Breathing is quite simple. I'm sure I can manage it. "I'm not entirely sure I'm a man," Wolfe blurted. There. It was out.

Santi blinked, and then nodded. "Are you like Glain, then?"

"Not exactly. I'm- well, I'm still figuring it out, but Glain seems to be both genders, and I don't think I'm either. Or anything. I think I'm just a person."

"If that's what feels right to you, than I'm glad you've found what makes you happy." Santi leaned in for a brief kiss. "Could I borrow one of those books about gender you've been reading obsessively? I want to try to understand better."

"Gods, I love you. I'm not sure the books will help you understand me better, because I've read them all and I still don't fully understand myself, but you're welcome to try. That would be great." 

"Which book would you recommend?"

Wolfe launched into a brief summary of each one on the codex, and the ones from Jess and Thomas, explaining the basics and pros and cons of each. Santi watched the lecture with affectionate interest, and it was clear that he loved Wolfe just as much as he had before. 

---

"I think I was born wrong," Wolfe said, interrupting Santi as he read a translation of Geschlechtskunde. "That's the best way I can think to describe it. What I am. I'm just... wrong. I was supposed to be a man, but something went wrong in my body, and I'm... not. I failed to be a proper obscurist, and I failed to be properly male."

Slowly, Santi closed his book. "You didn't fail to be anything, Christopher. The way you are isn't wrong. If you were born with no gender, that was exactly how you were supposed to be born. Amore mio, you are perfect as you are. You were born exactly right."

[endusviolence]

Rowling isn't denying holocaust. She just pointed out that burning of transgender health books is a lie as that form of cosmetic surgery didn't exist. But of course you knew that already, didn't you?

I was thinking I'd probably see one of you! You're wrong :) Let's review the history a bit, shall we?

In this case, what we're talking about is the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft, or in English, The Institute of Sexology. This Institute was founded and headed by a gay Jewish sexologist named Magnus Hirschfeld. It was founded in July of 1919 as the first sexology research clinic in the world, and was run as a private, non-profit clinic. Hirschfeld and the researchers who worked there would give out consultations, medical advice, and even treatments for free to their poorer clientele, as well as give thousands of lectures and build a unique library full of books on gender, sexuality, and eroticism. Of course, being a gay man, Hirschfeld focused a lot on the gay community and proving that homosexuality was natural and could not be "cured".

Hirschfeld was unique in his time because he believed that nobody's gender was either one or the other. Rather, he contended that everyone is a mixture of both male and female, with every individual having their own unique mix of traits.

This leads into the Institute's work with transgender patients. Hirschfeld was actually the one to coin the term "transsexual" in 1923, though this word didn't become popular phrasing until 30 years later when Harry Benjamin began expanding his research (I'll just be shortening it to trans for this brief overview.) For the Institute, their revolutionary work with gay men eventually began to attract other members of the LGBTA+, including of course trans people.

Contrary to what Anon says, sex reassignment surgery was first tested in 1912. It'd already being used on humans throughout Europe during the 1920's by the time a doctor at the Institute named Ludwig Levy-Lenz began performing it on patients in 1931. Hirschfeld was at first opposed, but he came around quickly because it lowered the rate of suicide among their trans patients. Not only was reassignment performed at the Institute, but both facial feminization and facial masculization surgery were also done.

The Institute employed some of these patients, gave them therapy to help with other issues, even gave some of the mentioned surgeries for free to this who could not afford it! They spoke out on their behalf to the public, even getting Berlin police to help them create "transvestite passes" to allow people to dress however they wanted without the threat of being arrested. They worked together to fight the law, including trying to strike down Paragraph 175, which made it illegal to be homosexual. The picture below is from their holiday party, Magnus Hirschfeld being the gentleman on the right with the fabulous mustache. Many of the other people in this photo are transgender.

[Image ID: A black and white photo of a group of people. Some are smiling at the camera, others have serious expressions. Either way, they all seem to be happy. On the right side, an older gentleman in glasses- Magnus Hirschfeld- is sitting. He has short hair and a bushy mustache. He is resting one hand on the shoulder of the person in front of him. His other hand is being held by a person to his left. Another person to his right is holding his shoulder.]

There was always push back against the Institute, especially from conservatives who saw all of this as a bad thing. But conservatism can't stop progress without destroying it. They weren't willing to go that far for a good while. It all ended in March of 1933, when a new Chancellor was elected. The Nazis did not like homosexuals for several reasons. Chief among them, we break the boundaries of "normal" society. Shortly after the election, on May 6th, the book burnings began. The Jewish, gay, and obviously liberal Magnus Hirschfeld and his library of boundary-breaking literature was one of the very first targets. Thankfully, Hirschfeld was spared by virtue of being in Paris at the time (he would die in 1935, before the Nazis were able to invade France). His library wasn't so lucky.

This famous picture of the book burnings was taken after the Institute of Sexology had been raided. That's their books. Literature on so much about sexuality, eroticism, and gender, yes including their new work on trans people. This is the trans community's Alexandria. We're incredibly lucky that enough of it survived for Harry Benjamin and everyone who came after him was able to build on the Institute's work.

[Image ID: A black and white photo of the May Nazi book burning of the Institute of Sexology's library. A soldier, back facing the camera, is throwing a stack of books into the fire. In the background of the right side, a crowd is watching.]

As the Holocaust went on, the homosexuals of Germany became a targeted group. This did include transgender people, no matter what you say. To deny this reality is Holocaust denial. JK Rowling and everyone else who tries to pretend like this isn't reality is participating in that evil. You're agreeing with the Nazis.

But of course, you knew that already, didn't you?

Edit: Added image IDs. I apologize to those using screen readers for forgetting them. Please reblog this version instead.

[neitherthehoneynorthebee]

Absolutely batshit insane that my notes app censors the word "sexology" when using text to speech. Like genuinely what on earth.

[spacelazarwolf]

in honor of that anon who said jews have done nothing for the world, here’s a non exhaustive list of things we’ve done for the world:

arts, fashion, and lifestyle:

jeans - levi strauss

modern bras - ida rosenthal

sewing machines - isaac merritt singer

modern film industry - carl laemmle (universal pictures), adolph zukor (paramount pictures), william fox (fox film forporation), louis b. mayer (mgm - metro-goldwyn-mayer), harry, sam, albert, and jack warners (warner bros.), steven spielberg, mel brooks, marx brothers

operetta - jacques offenbach

comic books - stan lee

graphic novels - will eisner

teddy bears - morris and rose michtom

influential musicians - irving berlin, stephen sondheim, benny goodman, george gershwin, paul simon, itzhak perlman, leonard bernstein, bob dylan, leonard cohen

artists - mark rothko

actors - elizabeth taylor, jerry lewis, barbara streisand

comedians - lenny bruce, joan rivers, jerry seinfeld

authors - judy blume, tony kushner, allen ginsberg, walter mosley

culture:

esperanto - ludwik lazar zamenhof

feminism - betty friedan, gloria steinem, ruth bader ginsberg

queer and trans rights - larry kramer, harvey milk, leslie feinberg, abby stein, kate bornstein, frank kameny, judith butler

international women's day - clara zetkin

principles of journalizm, statue of liberty, and pulitzer prize - joseph pulitzer

"the new colossus" - emma lazarus

universal declaration of human rights - rene samuel cassin

holocaust remembrance and human rights activism - elie wiesel

workers rights - louis brandeis, rose schneiderman

public health care, women's rights, and children's rights - lillian wald

racial equity - rabbi abraham joshua heschel, julius rosenwald, andrew goodman, michael schwerner

political theory - hannah arendt

disability rights - judith heumann

black lives matter slogan and movement - alicia garza

#metoo movement - jodi kantor

institute of sexology - magnus hirschfeld

technology:

word processing computers - evelyn berezin

facebook - mark zuckerberg

console video game system - ralph henry baer

cell phones - amos edward joel jr., martin cooper

3d - leonard lipton

telephone - philipp reis

fax machines - arthur korn

microphone - emile berliner

gramophone - emile berliner

television - boris rosing

barcodes - norman joseph woodland and bernard silver

secret communication system, which is the foundation of the technology used for wifi - hedy lamarr

three laws of robotics - isaac asimov

cybernetics - norbert wiener

helicopters - emile berliner

BASIC (programming language) - john george kemeny

google - sergey mikhaylovich brin and larry page

VCR - jerome lemelson

fax machine - jerome lemelson

telegraph - samuel finley breese morse

morse code - samuel finley breese morse

bulletproof glass - edouard benedictus

electric motor and electroplating - boris semyonovich jacobi

nuclear powered submarine - hyman george rickover

the internet - paul baran

icq instant messenger - arik vardi, yair goldfinger,, sefi vigiser, amnon amir

color photography - leopold godowsky and leopold mannes

world's first computer - herman goldstine

modern computer architecture - john von neumann

bittorrent - bram cohen

voip internet telephony - alon cohen

data archiving - phil katz, eugene roshal, abraham lempel, jacob ziv

nemeth code - abraham nemeth

holography - dennis gabor

laser - theodor maiman

instant photo sharing online - philippe kahn

first automobile - siegfried samuel marcus

electrical maglev road - boris petrovich weinberg

drip irrigation - simcha blass

ballpoint pen and automatic gearbox - laszlo biro

photo booth - anatol marco josepho

medicine:

pacemakers and defibrillators - louise robinovitch

defibrillators - bernard lown

anti-plague and anti-cholera vaccines - vladimir aronovich khavkin

polio vaccine - jonas salk

test for diagnosis of syphilis - august paul von wasserman

test for typhoid fever - ferdinand widal

penicillin - ernst boris chain

pregnancy test - barnhard zondek

antiretroviral drug to treat aids and fight rejection in organ transplants - gertrude elion

discovery of hepatitis c virus - harvey alter

chemotherapy - paul ehrlich

discovery of prions - stanley prusiner

psychoanalysis - sigmund freud

rubber condoms - julius fromm

birth control pill - gregory goodwin pincus

asorbic acid (vitamin c) - tadeusz reichstein

blood groups and rh blood factor - karl landsteiner

acyclovir (treatment for infections caused by herpes virus) - gertrude elion

vitamins - caismir funk

technique for measuring blood insulin levils - rosalyn sussman yalow

antigen for hepatitus - baruch samuel blumberg

a bone fusion technique - gavriil abramovich ilizarov

homeopathy - christian friedrich samuel hahnemann

aspirin - arthur ernst eichengrun

science:

theory of relativity - albert einstein

theory of the electromagnetic field - james maxwell

quantum mechanics - max born, gustav ludwig hertz

quantum theory of gravity - matvei bronstein

microbiology - ferdinand julius cohn

neuropsychology - alexander romanovich luria

counters for x-rays and gamma rays - robert hofstadter

genetic engineering - paul berg

discovery of the antiproton - emilio gino segre

discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation - arno allan penzias

discovery of the accelerating expansion of the universe - adam riess and saul merlmutter

discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity - roger penrose

discovery of a supermassive compact object at the center of the milky way - andrea ghez

modern cosmology and the big bang theory - alexander alexandrovich friedmann

stainless steel - hans goldschmidt

gas powered vehicles

interferometer - albert abraham michelson

discovery of the source of energy production in stars - hans albrecht bethe

proved poincare conjecture - grigori yakovlevich perelman

biochemistry - otto fritz meyerhof

electron-positron collider - bruno touschek

[brandyschillace]

The Forgotten History of the World’s First Transgender Clinic

I finished the first round of edits on my nonfiction history of trans rights today. It will publish with Norton in 2025, but I decided, because I feel so much of my community is here, to provide a bit of the introduction.

[begin sample]

The Institute for Sexual Sciences had offered safe haven to homosexuals and those we today consider transgender for nearly two decades. It had been built on scientific and humanitarian principles established at the end of the 19th century and which blossomed into the sexology of the early 20th. Founded by Magnus Hirschfeld, a Jewish homosexual, the Institute supported tolerance, feminism, diversity, and science. As a result, it became a chief target for Nazi destruction: “It is our pride,” they declared, to strike a blow against the Institute. As for Magnus Hirschfeld, Hitler would label him the “most dangerous Jew in Germany.”6 It was his face Hitler put on his antisemitic propaganda; his likeness that became a target; his bust committed to the flames on the Opernplatz. You have seen the images. You have watched the towering inferno that roared into the night. The burning of Hirschfeld’s library has been immortalized on film reels and in photographs, representative of the Nazi imperative, symbolic of all they would destroy. Yet few remember what they were burning—or why.

Magnus Hirschfeld had built his Institute on powerful ideas, yet in their infancy: that sex and gender characteristics existed upon a vast spectrum, that people could be born this way, and that, as with any other diversity of nature, these identities should be accepted. He would call them Intermediaries.

Intermediaries carried no stigma and no shame; these sexual and Gender nonconformists had a right to live, a right to thrive. They also had a right to joy. Science would lead the way, but this history unfolds as an interwar thriller—patients and physicians risking their lives to be seen and heard even as Hitler began his rise to power. Many weren’t famous; their lives haven’t been celebrated in fiction or film. Born into a late-nineteenth-century world steeped in the “deep anxieties of men about the shifting work, social roles, and power of men over women,” they came into her own just as sexual science entered the crosshairs of prejudice and hate. The Institute’s own community faced abuse, blackmail, and political machinations; they responded with secret publishing campaigns, leaflet drops, pro-homosexual propaganda, and alignments with rebel factions of Berlin’s literati. They also developed groundbreaking gender affirmation surgeries and the first hormone cocktail for supportive gender therapy.

Nothing like the Institute for Sexual Sciences had ever existed before it opened its doors—and despite a hundred years of progress, there has been nothing like it since. Retrieving this tale has been an exercise in pursuing history at its edges and fringes, in ephemera and letters, in medal texts, in translations. Understanding why it became such a target for hatred tells us everything about our present moment, about a world that has not made peace with difference, that still refuses the light of scientific evidence most especially as it concerns sexual and reproductive rights.

[end sample]

I wanted to add a note here: so many people have come together to make this possible. Like Ralf Dose of the Magnus-Hirschfeld-Gesellschaft (Magnus Hirschfeld Archive), Berlin, and Erin Reed, American journalist and transgender rights activist—Katie Sutton, Heike Bauer. I am also deeply indebted to historian, filmmaker and formative theorist Susan Stryker for her feedback, scholarship, and encouragement all along the way. And Laura Helmuth, editor of Scientific American, whose enthusiasm for a short article helped bring the book into being. So many LGBTQ+ historians, archivists, librarians, and activists made the work possible, that its publication testifies to the power of the queer community and its dedication to preserving and celebrating history. But I ALSO want to mention you, folks here on tumblr who have watched and encouraged and supported over the 18 months it took to write it (among other books and projects). @neil-gaiman has been especially wonderful, and @always-coffee too: thank you.

The support of this community has been important as I’ve faced backlash in other quarters. Thank you, all.

NOTE: they are attempting to rebuild the lost library, and you can help: https://magnus-hirschfeld.de/archivzentrum/archive-center/

[whiskeysorrows]

People who morally police literature are the reason why censorship happens

[makingqueerhistory]

So the destruction of the Institute of Sexology is in a lot of people's minds right now, which is fantastic. In a world where more and more books are being banned, thinking and talking about the extremes of this behavior is absolutely necessary. But I would really like to talk about some actionable steps you can take right now to preserve and uplift queer voices.

Request queer books from your local library (here is a massive list of queer books, it is an affiliate link).

Look into indie queer books that are coming out, the publishing industry is messy at the best times, and we are not in the best of times. I follow Queer Book Box to keep updated on recent indie releases, they are also just an all-around great project.

Do some research and see if there is a queer bookstore near you, and support it if you can.

If reading is a part of your social media presence, it might be worth seeing if you can/want to participate in Trans Rights Readathon.

Buy queer books (see massive list above).

Show up to local meetings/elections.

Email your representative to talk about your concerns if queer book banning is happening in your area.

Support queer projects running right now, I may be biased but Making Queer History is worth checking out, and so is Queer Nature and LGBTQ Reads, but also look local. See what is in your area and see what they need.

Follow and uplift queer projects on social media.

Learn and share queer history.

If you create art and are queer, keep doing that, please do not give up or hide away.

Queer history is being made right now. People are going to look at how we as a community responded to our voices being silenced, and I hope this helps you decide how you want to be a part of that story.

[cathkaesque]

On 6 May 1933, the Institute of Sexology, an academic foundation devoted to sexological research and the advocacy of homosexual rights, was broken into and occupied by Nazi-supporting youth. Several days later the entire contents of the library were removed and burned.

[ftmtftm]

Can you make a post going over Serano's theory and the parts of it you don't agree with and why? I'd be interested in your perspective

I kind of have in the past if you dig for it. I think I'd reframe or rework a lot of it now though. I'm also not super interested in fully rehashing it in full at the moment because I'm reaching a point of burnout, but I'll talk about the easy surface level stuff.

My issues with Serano's theories have very little to do with the things she's explicitly written about transmisogyny and trans womanhood in terms of systemic transmisogyny and what that looks like* and it has moreso to do with the way she makes assumptions about the "opposite" experiences trans men "have".

"Have" is in quotes there because reading The Whipping Girl as a trans man it becomes very obvious that - at the time of writing - Serano had little to no interaction with trans men besides maybe two primary sources. Most of what she specifically says about trans male experiences in the book is conjecture and assumptions being made based on how Cis Binary Patriarchy works for cis binary people (when... trans people don't actually fit into Cis Binary Patriarchy on a systemic level, ever).

She opens The Whipping Girl by stating that she will be focusing on transmisogyny and trans womanhood and not focusing on other trans experiences, but she doesn't really actually do that though!!!! I wish she had!! It would have made her work significantly stronger because she had very real important things to say that do hold up and are real and that do matter!!!

However, instead whenever trans men come up, The Whipping Girl makes baseless comparisons that essentially go:

"Trans women experience [ a very real example of systemic transmisogyny ] AND AS SUCH trans men experience the opposite [ insert universalized experiences of one or two trans men that doesn't get examined at all and is given absolutely no nuance and the lack of nuance can be explained away by saying "well she did say she's only writing about trans women, why should she give examining trans men's experiences that much attention" ]".

She could have just stopped and not spoken about trans men at all and retained the scope she initially set for herself at the beginning of the book or she should have more directly acknowledged that her scope was limited and left a door open for others to step in - like she has since done and stated should be done.

It's very frustrating talking about the flaws and blindspots in her work - that she herself currently directly acknowledges - only to be met with "Well you just don't understand her!! You're trying to say she's wrong and that transmisogyny doesn't exist" because... that's not what's being said. That's not the conversation that's being had.

Transmisogyny does exist, but we can talk about it, Patriarchy, and trans oppression in better, more robust ways. That's what Intersectional theory is all about.

*I do take issue with the Whiteness and Binaryness of the way she writes about trans womanhood though. Especially because I think it's very clear that her theory is also heavily impacted by her background as a White biologist. She hasn't done any deconstruction of biology/sexology as racist, intersexist institutions and leaves little room for genuine intersectional thought in her supposedly intersectional theory. I think in many ways Serano is another White Feminist that's appropriated Intersectionality without examining her own Whiteness despite Intersectional theory having direct roots in Black Feminism BUT we can have that conversation after people start treating her like a human being, yk?

[radiofreederry]

Happy birthday, Magnus Hirschfeld! (May 14, 1868)

A pioneering figure in the field of sexology, Magnus Hirschfeld was born in what is now Poland to an Ashkenazi family, the son of renowned physician Hermann Hirschfeld. After earning his medical degree, Hirschfeld spent some time in the United States and involved himself in the gay scene in Chicago, which would spur him to study sexuality and gender. Hirschfeld was struck by the universality of homosexuality and the fact that gay subcultures existed in most major cities, as well as the rate of suicide experienced by his gay patients. Hirschfeld worked tirelessly to normalize homosexuality in German society and foster greater acceptance, through both academic and political means. In the liberal atmosphere of Weimar Berlin, Hirschfeld found some measure of success, as the Social Democratic government of Prussia had no interest in enforcing federal laws against homosexuality. He founded the Institute for Sexual Research and built an immense archive of works relating to sexuality and gender research. Hirschfeld made the Institute his literal home, living there with his partner Karl Giese and his sister. Hirschfeld's fortunes would turn as first conservative Chancellor Franz von Papen seized the government of Prussia and began to crack down on homosexuality, and then the Nazi Party came to power in Germany. As a gay, Jewish socialist, Hirschfeld was a threefold target for the Nazis, and he never returned to Germany, having already been abroad on a speaking tour when the Nazis took power. The Institute was shut down and then ransacked, with its library burned. Hirschfeld would spend the rest of his life in Nice, France, dying in 1935.

“Soon the day will come when science will win victory over error, justice a victory over injustice, and human love a victory over human hatred and ignorance.”