Racism and the Making of Gay Rights: A Sexologist, His Student, and the Empire of Queer Love

335 Pages·2022·5.977 MB·English

by  Laurie Marhoefer

Praise for Racism and the Making of Gay Rights
“This beautifully crafted narrative weaves together the story of the rela-
tionship of Magnus Hirschfeld and Li Shiu Tong with a brilliant analysis of
Hirschfeld’s complex but ultimately racist thinking about homosexuality,
race, and empire. It’s hard to do justice to the power of this book. Let me
just say that once you open it, you’ll have trouble tearing yourself away, and
not only because you’ll want to know what happened to Li’s manuscript.”
Leila J. Rupp, Professor of Feminist Studies,
University of California Santa Barbara
“Fascinating, important, pioneering! Homophobia and queer libera-
tion, racism and anti-racism, sexism and anti-sexism, colonialism and
anti-colonialism – they’re all profoundly entangled in Marhoefer’s lively,
original study of Magnus Hirschfeld’s life and times.”
Jonathan Ned Katz, author of
The Daring Life and Dangerous Times of Eve Adams
“Racism and the Making of Gay Rights decentres Magnus Hirschfeld, long
revered as a ‘founding father’ of gay liberation, by revealing the racist
and imperialist investments behind his overfocus on white, cisgendered
men, a still-too-common feature of queer representation. Crucially, Lau-
rie Marhoefer introduces the possibility of a better, queerer liberation in
the thought of Hirschfeld’s Chinese research assistant and perhaps lover,
Li Shiu Tong. This is queer history for a better future.”
Angela Zimmerman, Professor of History, George Washington
University and author of Alabama in Africa: Booker T. Washington,
the German Empire, and the Globalization of the New South
“In this stunning new analysis of Magnus Hirschfeld’s writing and legacy,
Laurie Marhoefer asks what might have been had the sexological giant
opened himself up to the anti-racist arguments in his midst. We will be
sorting these questions for years to come. A trenchant critique of the
myths surrounding Magnus Hirschfeld, asking us to wrestle with the im-
plications of a queer life built on anti-black racism and empire. “
Jennifer Evans, Professor of History, Carleton University
“This is the book that German history and queer history need right now.
Racism and the Making of Gay Rights will be a hugely important intervention.”
Katie Sutton, Associate Professor of German and Gender
Studies, Australian National University
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Racism and the Making
of Gay Rights
A Sexologist, His Student, and the
Empire of Queer Love
LAURIE MARHOEFER
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS
Toronto Buffalo London
© University of Toronto Press 2022
Toronto Buffalo London
utorontopress.com
Printed in the U.S.A.
ISBN 978-1-4875-0581-3 (cloth) ISBN 978-1-4875-3275-8 (EPUB)
ISBN 978-1-4875-2397-8 (paper) ISBN 978-1-4875-3274-1 (PDF)
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Title: Racism and the making of gay rights : a sexologist, his student, and the
empire of queer love / Laurie Marhoefer.
Names: Marhoefer, Laurie, author.
Description: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20220130795 | Canadiana (ebook) 20220134073 |
ISBN 9781487505813 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781487523978 (softcover) |
ISBN 9781487532758 (EPUB) | ISBN 9781487532741 (PDF)
Subjects: LCSH: Hirschfeld, Magnus, 1868–1935. | LCSH: Li, Shiu Tong. |
LCSH: Gay rights – History – 20th century. | LCSH: Racism – History –
20th century. | LCSH: Sexual minorities – Social conditions – 20th century. |
LCSH: Minorities – Social conditions – 20th century. | LCSH: Sexual minorities –
Identity. | LCSH: Gay men – Biography.
Classification: LCC HQ76.5 .M37 2022 | DDC 306.76/6–dc23
We wish to acknowledge the land on which the University of Toronto Press
operates. This land is the traditional territory of the Wendat, the Anishnaabeg,
the Haudenosaunee, the Métis, and the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation.
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial support of the
Government of Canada, the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Ontario Arts
Council, an agency of the Government of Ontario, for its publishing activities.
To Hattie. Now we can say mosquito pants.
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Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Introduction 3
Manila, Philippines, July 1931
1 “Einstein of Sex”: Magnus Hirschfeld at the End of the First Century
of Gay Rights 22
North Atlantic Ocean, November 1930
2 The Empire of Queer Love 41
3 Hirschfeld and Li Shiu Tong Meet: Feminism and Queer Attraction
at the China United Apartments 55
International Settlement, Shanghai, May 1931
4 The Fight against Sexual Oppression Is a Fight against Empire 67
Jawaharlal Nehru’s House, Allahabad, India, October 1931
5 Was the Homosexual White? Analogy and the Making of the Sexual
Minority 79
6 Magnus Hirschfeld’s Theory of the Races 88
7 Tea with Langston Hughes: Hirschfeld’s Anti-Blackness and Queer
Black New York 98
Manhattan, Winter of 1930
8 Making Jews White 113
Tel Aviv, Palestine, Winter of 1932
9 Magnus Hirschfeld’s Queer Eugenics 129
Berlin, Germany; Manila, Philippines; Pasadena, California, United
States; and Bondowoso, East Java, Indonesia
10 “And What about Women?” 146
viii Contents
11 The Exile 153
Athens to Nice, 1932–1935
12 Li Shiu Tong’s Queer Masculinities 167
Hotel Baur au Lac, Zurich, Late 1930s
13 Li Shiu Tong’s Defiant Sexology 181
Vancouver, British Columbia, 1974–1993
Conclusion: Li Shiu Tong’s Berlin and Magnus Hirschfeld’s
America 193
Acknowledgments 205
Notes 209
Bibliography 267
Index 303
Illustrations
Map 1. Hirschfeld and Li’s World Journey, 1930–2 x–xi
Map 2. The Exile: Hirschfeld’s Itinerant Life in Europe,
1932–5 xii
Figure 1. Li and Hirschfeld at the 1932 meeting of the World League
for Sex Reform in Brno, Czechoslovakia xiii
Figure 2. Drawing of Li xiv
Figure 3. Hirschfeld lecturing in 1931 at the University of Tokyo xv
Figure 4. Members of the Chinese Women’s Club and other
audience members for Hirschfeld’s lecture xv
Figure 5. Li, Hirschfeld, and sailors, Peking, 1931 xvi
Figure 6. Chinese students with Hirschfeld after one of his lectures,
1931 xvii
Figure 7. Hirschfeld as the sexologist doing research, on Java,
1932 xviii
Figure 8. Otto Scherer, with his wife and children, Philippines,
1932 125
Figure 9. Hirschfeld in a casual, feminine moment 125
Figure 10. The 1933 Voilà magazine cover photo 126
Figure 11. Li and Karl Giese on the grounds of the Institute for
Sexual Science, Berlin, 1932 127
Figure 12. Hirschfeld and Li walking together in Vichy, 1934 127
Figure 13. Two photos of Li 128