History Professor Jennifer Evans published an article in the Berlin newspaper Der Tagesspiegel today, on the multidimensionality of Germany’s queer movement. It takes on recent claims that identity politics, intersectionality and critical race theory are undermining the hard-fought gains by LGBTQI* communities.Fun fact: although the article is about the German queer movement, there’s a nice little Canadian moment. Evans shows how the German gay, lesbian, trans* movement in Germany was also surprisingly transnational, even during the Cold War. She traces the movements of American scholar James Steakley who lived in Toronto for a year writing for articles for the Body Politic before traveling to East and West Berlin where he was part of gay rights movements on either side of the Berlin Wall.
A short excerpt is posted below with the full article available in German online.
“There is a lot of energy spent right now arguing that leftists, feminists, trans and queer of colour activists are silencing debate. A more productive use of our time would be to recall that queer history was always a multidimensional history of activism and alliances.”