Ghost of a flea

First they came for the Jews

I was recently taken to task for comparing the plight of gay men in Nazi Germany to the threat to same-sex marriage in Canada. My comparison was oblique, a reference to a rather famous call for sympathy at the fate of our fellow citizens. I believe the latter comparison was appropriate as I see considerable hostility to gay people in Canada and, arguably worse, a widespread indifference to equality before the law. An attitude that seems to say, "if the Conservatives are to deny gay marriage and if I am not gay then what difference does it make to me?" My favourite variation on this theme is to the effect that "marriage" is only a word and that civil unions are just as good. And yet so many Conservatives will go to the barricades in defense of a word.

Nevertheless, the reference, no matter how oblique and no matter how appropriate to the rhetorical point I was trying to make, was over the top. I do not believe a vote for the Conservative party is necessarily intended to be a vote against gay people. There are plenty of reasonable people with good intentions who will be voting for the Conservatives (and certainly voting against the Liberals). It is not a vote I could cast but I can see how other people with a different judgement of the facts would make a different calculation. It is true that I will have to hold my nose to vote NDP and unless and until I can vote for myself as a Rhino candidate I am always going to have to compromise something.

There is another issue I would like to raise against my reference to Martin Niem�ller. His famous doggerel starts, "First they came for the Jews". In point of fact, in February 1933 the Nazis shut down every gay bar and gay club in Germany ten days before their call for a boycott of Jewish owned businesses. I do not believe it is unfair to speculate at the reason we never say, "First they came for the gays".

In 1935, the Nazis extended paragraph 175 of the criminal code of 1871 that applied to gay men (itself an imposition of Prussian law on the rest of Germany). This was the legislation under which gay men were sent to the concentration camps. And it was under this law that gay men were to remain in the camps after the end of the War. Jews, gypsies and political prisoners were to be liberated by the Allied advance but the Victory whose anniversary I am celebrating this weekend did not apply equally to everyone. Paragraph 175 was to remain on the books in West Germany until the late 1960s while gay men who attempted to claim status as victims of the Nazis in East Germany were prosecuted for fraud. Some victory. Some liberation. It would not be until the year 2000 that the Bundestag would offer an apology.

I think it is perfectly reasonable for me to point to this history in saying gay men are often the first and last people all too many folks believe can be discriminated against with a clear conscience. I read a comment to another blog just the other day that claimed gay men seeking equality before the law were the * cause * of discrimation against gay men. Well, we hear that sort of talk about the victims of 9/11 or the people of Israel every day. The difference is that conservatives are often the first people to express outrage at such talk and are all too often silent when the same talk is levelled at gay people. Weimar Germany was by all reports a great place to be gay. Hey, I've seen Cabaret. We deny same-sex marriage, and with it equality before the law, at our peril.

Posted by Ghost of a flea at May 4, 2005 06:11 PM

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Comments

Posted by: Alan at May 4, 2005 04:18 PM

Posted by: urthshu at May 4, 2005 09:41 PM