Literally the first books the Nazis burned: the collection of the Institute of Sex Research, including a bunch of stuff about transgender people.
Look at those hypocrites getting one last look before they burn the lot.
“I’m outraged by all these books, but I’m just going to read a few of them.”
Did any survive? Are there known lost works?
Even if some parts survived, a lot of what was burnt was scientific research, and that meant that our knowledge in that area has just been irrevocably set back. We know far more now than what was burned, so on the scientific side, it was a setback more than something that was lost forever, but if this didn’t happen, I have no doubt that we would know far more than we do now.
For an example of the kind of research that was being done, Dora Richter is the first known person to undergo complete male-to-female gender-affirming surgery while under the care of Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institute for Sexual Research
An example of modern research that I feel would have been likely to happen earlier if we hadn’t lost so much scientific and medical knowledge is this cool research from 2022, which was the first known count of nerve fibres in the human clitoris. The number found was significantly higher than previous studies, which were based on livestock tissue samples. This is one of my favourite pieces of research in recent years, because it was only possible due to tissue samples donated by trans men undergoing phalloplasty surgery.
That’s one of the tragic parts of the Nazi book burning, and also the modern day transphobia we’re seeing everywhere. Working to better understand and support trans people improves not just the lives of trans people, but everyone. For my part, as a cis woman, I’ve found that my own understanding of gender and comfort existing as a woman has been immeasurably improved by being in community with trans folk.
Thank you for this wonderful writeup, and sharing your knowledge in this area. A large barrier for people trying to learn about this stuff is that it was so verboten to mention for so many years, that there are effectively no introductory texts on the topic. (There are a ton of videos, but a ten-minute clipshow referencing a book someone liked isn’t as comprehensive as a well resourced popsci book.)
Explanation: Of course, in reality, while transgender is a modern category, phenomena which we would regard, in the modern day, as fitting into this category are widespread throughout recorded history, despite the disinterest of chuds in acknowledging the historical record.
Chuds do the same with homosexuality, except when used to demonize someone.
“Grant’s bond with Scott persisted even after he married Virginia Cherrill in 1934. Cherrill allegedly left Grant because she felt like the third wheel in his relationship with Scott, according to some stories.”
Just two very straight bachelors living together to help pay rent, obviously
The sacrifices we, very straight men have to make in order to survive this economy 🥵🥵🥵
Very straight, yes
I remember everyone being shocked that Rock Hudson got AIDS early in the epidemic.
“He’s GAY?!”
My brain is fried I think, I read your comment as “except when used to demonize sodomy”. I guess it would still work, but man…
“He who goes up the pooper is unclean!”
It was literally much of the research that Nazi Germany burned early on. How can it have only just come to exist if 1920s and 30s Germany were burning research on it? Not that it started there, either.
The fascists like them young and dumb.
It feels like it’s almost designed to make you feel crazy explaining the history you’ve found in the scorch marks in the records. But when you know what you’re looking for you see that people like you lived long ago in different lives but similar ones.
Remember, one of if not the first target of Nazi book burnings was the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft, which was targeted by the far right from the early 1920s. See some parallels to nowadays?
Me in 2015: “Boy oh boy, I sure am glad I’m not living in the collapse of a fragile democracy like Weimar Germany!”
Me today:
I wish Hollering Elk would bring their stuff to Lemmy. I miss their art style.
Just gonna leave this here for any interested parties.
My only gripe is with historians in the meme part
It should be
“Bigotted conservative officials making records of the events or destroying evidence once in power”
Historians have their problems especially previous generations, but they’re only as good as surviving evidence.
Well, it’s joking that we historians now have to destroy all those records to make the chud’s claims true, not that historians are involved in systematically destroying records of trans folk.
Real and sad.
Boy I love being in a dying empire.
1930s Berlin had a thriving trans subculture largely forgotten about since the Nazis worked their hardest to scrub it from the collective memory.
Meanwhile trans people crave that connection to their past so much i know some who were learning cuneiform
Robbing people of their history is a crime that is greatly overlooked. People who can easily see themselves in the past often think little of it; people who cannot see themselves in the past often feel it acutely.
Nerds are delightful. One of the things that keeps me going when I feel low is looking at how many people are passionate to learn more about so much cool stuff. It feels like a small act of resistance that has the power to be much larger.
best part is if we turn to cultures where it wasn’t explicitly repessed we see it all around the world.
The problem is retrieving, archiving, and translating it all! The guys, gals, and enby pals who do that work are preserving history for countless generations to come. 🙏
Most European libraries, public and private, have been extensively archived; many non-European libraries, particularly older private libraries, still have massive catalogs that we glimpse only dimly for lack of specialists to record and examine them. And that’s not even getting into the oral histories that anthropologists preserve.
Indigineous and South Asian philosophy (kama sutra) both discuss gender fluidity. These are not new concepts, likely just significantly suppressed in the West.
Hey it was also family members too, didn’t Anne Frank’s dad censor her diary when she uses wlw language and talks abt crushes. Shitless cowards who spit on the memory of courageous, and often, minorities. If you have queer smut post it to the internet before your grandkids erase it.
How many people in history never expressed their trans nature due to stigma? How many did express it and it was suppressed by others at the time due to stigma? How many did express it and historians have since downplayed it due to stigma? For that matter, how many simply lived as their true gender and were just accepted for it and never had anything written about them being any different from other men and women as a result? How many lived perfectly normal lives as the gender they identified as and simply weren’t notable people in history? We’re talking like 1.3 in 1000 people being trans, non-bianry, etc., and most people probably couldn’t name 100-200 notable people from before 1900. The likelihood that any of them were trans is already low then (~10%-20%), and then lower still given the aforementioned caveats. So absence of their examples from history is not really example of their absense from history.
there have been hemaphrodites, gays, bisexual. its only when the christians came along that make it all wierd and icky. they are responsible fo homophobia in the other religions too.
Islam and Judaism both have deep-rooted homophobia, and homophobia in many smaller religions is non-negligible.
Christianity is a major contributor, but it’s not the only one.
God please become real in life of my friend pugjesus. Open his eyes to the things he promotes, and how it ultimately hurts people. I pray you touch his heart and show him love.
Okay mom, let’s get you back to your Bible Study.
Though it’s a conservative ideology, this is accurate.
