“An unnatural sex act committed between persons of male sex or by humans with animals is punishable by imprisonment; the loss of civil rights might also be imposed.”
Imagine that for a second. This was Paragraph 175, written into law by the German “Second Reich” in 1871; the law was later changed semantically, but the message remained the same: Gay men are not welcome here.
This week, thanks to St. Petersburg’s Florida Holocaust Museum’s breathtaking trip down history’s darkest lanes 25 years after the institution was founded, we look into how the pink triangle even happened, how the gay movement was influenced so deeply by the deaths of many. Never again? Indeed. There were dogs, German Shepherds, that ate away the gay in the most unimaginable ways. In no way is this a pretty story to tell, but staff writer Jeremy Williams does a fantastic job of digging in the dirt here, revealing details that even I – a history major – was unaware of.
For some it might be cathartic as a magazine read. For me it was. My grandfather – allegedly – was enlisted in the German Army during that war. The only way I know this – because nobody ever talks about it, that’s how terrible – is that I found an SS pin in his drawer around the time of his death. It shook me to the core, even at the age of 12 when I wasn’t out of the closet. Instead, I found a Nazi pin in his. We share a name. I’ll never forget.
But on the larger scale, these historical events, this framing, these constructs, reverberate through our modern times. We’re still being abused – a transgender person was killed just the day before I wrote this – we’re still being pushed into corners as corpses or enterprising people. It’s not fair, and that’s why we fight.
Most, if not all, of the “lust boys” are gone now. But the scars remain.
“We must exterminate these people (homosexuals) root and branch … We can’t permit such danger to the country; the homosexual must be entirely eliminated,” Nazi Heinrich Himmler notoriously said in the ‘30s.
Paragraph 175 remained on the books until 1969.
“Even after the Nazi defeat in 1945, gay survivors continued to be persecuted,” online writer Peter Tatchell writes. “Men liberated from the concentration camps who had not completed their sentences were re-imprisoned by the victorious Allies. Since they were regarded as criminals, all were denied compensation for their suffering. The German government still refuses to pay reparations. As a further insult, the former SS guards are awarded better pensions. Their work in the concentration camps counts toward their pension entitlement, whereas the time spent in the camps by gay inmates doesn’t.”
They were still arrested. Over and over again.
This is why we need to know our history. It cannot repeat: not under this terrible regime, not under any nation. Our lessons have been learned. We need to continue to act on them.
Wow, that was heavy. But not everything in this glorious issue of Watermark is going to drag you down. From turmoil comes rebirth, and there is a lot that is happening in Florida – speaking of turmoil, suddenly last summer – that should be celebrated. There are people like attorney Barry Miller stepping up the plate to pay it forward with scholarship funds. There are folks like Tim Evanicki at the Parliament House singing their faces off in the face of despair. There are people keeping the dream of Judy Garland alive in the Tampa Bay area. There is still so much to love. And there is still so much love to give.
Somewhere in here you’ll find radio celebrities talking about dating and weed, and that’s all good. We walked for the Hope & Help AIDS Walk in Orlando, brushed elbows-in-suits with the great people of Equality Florida at its St. Pete Gala. We showed our faces. We made it known. We’re loud and we’re proud.
Nothing’s gonna bring us down. Enjoy the issue and enjoy your life. Know more. Love more.
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