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The Nazi Party itself was zealously anti-gay. There were even right-wing, explicitly racist gay rights activists. Others were middle-of-the-road, calling for the end of Germany’s law against sodomy, but otherwise content with the status quo. One prominent leader of a gay rights group was also an important player in Berlin’s communist party.
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But beyond that narrow common ground, they were a political hodgepodge. All were in favor of greater legal and social tolerance for same-sex relationships. The movement included people who called themselves “transvestites.” Were they alive today, many would probably use the term transgender.įrom the beginning, gay and transgender activists split into a dizzying array of factions. It boomed after World War I and flourished in the 1920s under the democracy that existed before the Nazis took over. For more than 100 years, political groups have been fighting on behalf of same-sex desires, gender nonconformity and transition from one gender to the other-although the terms “gay rights” and “trans rights” are relatively recent inventions.īy the late 1800s, a movement that called itself “homosexual emancipation” formed in Germany. Gay and trans rights movements are quite old. And some of them hate what pride is all about. These traditions have not always gotten along. My research, together with that of James Steakley, Katie Sutton, Robert Beachy and many others, shows that there are several traditions of gay and trans activism. I am a historian of queer and trans politics. One reason is that gay and trans rights doesn’t describe a single, unitary political movement.
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And pride marches, the LGBTQ political rallies that take the form of exuberant, outrageous parades, often meet hostile counter-demonstrators.īut such expressions of pride have faced another sort of opposition: from within the queer and trans communities themselves. Few countries around the world have robust protections for gay and transgender rights. But for many people in North America, parts of Europe, Latin America and elsewhere, attending the local pride march has become an unremarkable ritual of summer. In some- like Moscow-they are even banned. In many cities, pride marches are controversial. This month, hundreds of thousands of people around the world will join gay pride marches in cities big and small.