Magnus Hirschfeld

Jim Burroway, over at Box Turtle Bulletin, reminds us that today, 14th May, is a day of significance to LGBT folks. It marks the day, in 1868 when Magnus Hirschfeld was born; the day, in 1897, when Hirschfeld founded the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee; and the day, in 1935, when Hirschfeld died.

 

As Burroway says, Hirschfeld organised "the Scientific Humanitarian Committee for the expressed purpose of advocating for the repeal of Paragraph 175, the German statute which criminalized sodomy. Paragraph 175 was the law that the Nazi’s would later use to send upwards of 15,000 gay men to concentration camps. The Scientific Humanitarian Committee is the first documented formal group to advocate for the civil rights of gays and lesbians".