A review by marcyewebb
Gay Berlin: Birthplace of a Modern Identity by Robert Beachy

4.0

A fascinating look at pre-Stonewall queer prehistory, through early attempts at reform and an emerging understanding of sexuality and gender identity, split in a debate between bisexuality and homosexuality, drag performances, the relaxation of censorship laws and Weimar cinema, and gender reassignment surgery, though simultaneously as a movement built upon problematic elements: conflating sexuality and gender, idolising the adult abuse of teenagers and children, accepting anti-Semitism and Nazi ideologies, misogny in the face of feminism, and a culture of prostitution and drug abuse