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Introduction :: About Me :: My Role as Director ::
UA LGBTQ Climate/ Data :: UA LGBTQ Events for Spring 2008 :: LGBTQ Graduation Event :: Holocaust Memorial Speech ::
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Speech for Holocaust Memorial
written and delivered by Cathy Busha on March 26,2008
Thank you for attending today, and thank you to the organizers for this powerful event of remembrance. Remembrance is an act of love…
I was asked to speak to you today about the discrimination the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning community faces. Before I do that, however, I’d like to talk about the Nazi Persecution of the LGBT community during the Holocaust, because it is still a largely untold story. Then, instead of talking about the violence, harassment and discrimination the LGBTQ and Allied community still faces each day, I’d like to focus on our strength and resiliency as a community.
I’m a social worker, and firmly believe in strength-based work. What strength-based means is that instead of focusing on what is hard and difficult, we should also look at what is good and right. And there is so much that is very good and right and strong and beautiful about the LGBTQ and Allied community.
But first….today, it feels important – even vital - to acknowledge and remember that after World War I, in the period known as the Weimar Republic, gays and lesbians in Germany, especially in Berlin, enjoyed more freedom and acceptance than anywhere else in the world. There was a large, vibrant, visible gay and lesbian community in Germany—visible in the arts, in education, in politics and in German social life.
However, upon the democratic election of Adolf Hitler, gay men and, to a lesser extent, lesbians, were two of several groups targeted by the Nazi Party. Beginning in 1933, gay organizations were banned, scholarly books about gays and lesbians, and sexuality in general, were burned, and gays within the Nazi Party itself were murdered. The Gestapo compiled lists of gays and lesbians, and they were compelled to sexually conform to the German norm. An estimated 1.2 million men were out as gay in Germany in 1928. Between 1933 and 1945, an estimated 100,000 men were arrested for being “homosexuals”, and of these, some 50,000 officially were sentenced.
Their crime? Being gay.
Most of these men spent time in regular prisons, and an estimated 5,000 to 15,000 of the total sentenced were incarcerated in concentration camps. Gays in camps were treated in an unusually cruel manner by their captors, and were also persecuted by their fellow inmates. This torment often included sexual violence.
After the war, the arrest and maltreatment of gays in concentration camps went unacknowledged by most countries, with the Allies refusing to liberate those men who were incarcerated for homosexuality, instead leaving them in the camps.
To repeat – When World War II ended, the Allies – including the United States - refused to liberate men who were incarcerated for homosexuality, and instead left them in the camps.
Men who wore the pink triangle were taken from the concentration camps to the German jails because, even with the fall of the reich and liberation of the camps by the Allies, homosexuality was still against German law. East Germany abolished Paragraph 175 – the German law that outlawed homosexuality - entirely in 1988. West Germany finally revoked Paragraph 175 in 1994, after German reunification. In 2002, the German government apologized to the LGBT community.
Now you may be horrified to hear that some form of Paragraph 175, the law that made it illegal to be gay or lesbian, was on the books in Germany until 1994.
But keep in mind that on September 17, 1998 John Lawrence and Tyron Garner were having consensual sex in Lawrence's apartment in the suburbs of Houston, Texas at 11 p.m. After an anonymous call from a neighbor, a sheriff's deputy entered the unlocked apartment, with his weapon drawn, and arrested the two men.
Their crime?
Lawrence and Garner were charged with violating Texas's "Homosexual Conduct" law. They were arrested and held overnight in jail for having consensual sex in the privacy of their own home, in 1998 – 10 years ago. The law designated it as a Class C misdemeanor when someone "engages in deviant sexual intercourse with another individual of the same sex.”
They later posted $200 bail, and then fought their case all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States. In the 6-3 ruling, the Supreme Court Justices struck down the law that had criminalized consensual sex between gays and lesbians in Texas, thus finally decriminalizing homosexuality in the United States—the year was 2003. That was 5 years ago.
So now I turn to the resiliency of the LGBTQ and Allied community.
Resiliency is the ability to spring back from and successfully adapt to adversity. You’ve already heard a few examples from our LGBTQ and Allied history that demonstrates our resiliency as a community.
Here are some more to think about…
Though we are rarely taught about our LGBTQ heroes in our history and literature classes – heroes like James Baldwin, Walt Whitman, Rachel Carson – we continue to study history and literature, and make our own.
Though we are sometimes kicked out of our places of worship for loving someone of the same sex, we continue to seek and build spiritual and religious community.
Though we are subjected to hearing — everyday — phrases like, “that’s so gay” or “homo” we continue to attend classes, excel, and graduate.
Though our relationships receive little institutional support from our government, places of worship, or families of origin, we continue to flirt, openly hold hands, fall in love and thrive.
Though our families of origin sometimes disown us when we come out or are ‘outed’ to them, we continue to believe in family—we build families of choice, have and adopt children, and get involved with our community.
Though we are dehumanized and called “it” and “freak” when we express our authentic gender, we continue to come out as trans and be fully who we are.
And despite – or perhaps because of – the adversity we face as members of the LGBTQ and Allied community, we continue to come out – to live and love openly and honestly – to no longer hide in closets or apologize for who we are.
So I leave you today with some calls to action. If you haven’t yet, please come out.
If you are not a member of the LGBTQ community, please come out as a straight ally – we need you. We need you to stop saying things like, “that’s so gay” and stop others when you hear them say it.
We need you to interrupt gay jokes when you hear them and say, “that’s not cool.” We need you to research politicians and ballot initiatives and vote for ones that are supportive of the LGBTQ community. We need you to not tolerate us or merely accept us, but celebrate us—because it is right and good and moral to live an authentic, honest life.
And for those of you who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or questioning – we need you to come out, too…to live openly and honestly…and be proud of who you are.
You may be afraid, afraid your family and friends and colleagues and students will reject or not respect you. Afraid you’ll be harassed. Afraid you’ll be hurt, I lived in a deep closet for several years so I understand intimately the fears of coming out.
But friends, if I can go from deep in the closet to the first Director of LGBTQ Affairs in just over 10 years, you can come out, too. It is wonderfully liberating to be “out.”
Now, I wish I could offer you a guarantee that nothing bad will happen if you do come out…I can’t. But what I can offer you today is hope and love and gratitude for the beautiful being you are…wherever you are in your coming out process…and I leave you with the profoundly beautiful words of Audre Lorde…
And when the sun rises we are afraid
it might not remain
when the sun sets we are afraid
it might not rise in the morning
when our stomachs are full we are afraid
of indigestion
when our stomachs are empty we are afraid
we may never eat again
when we are loved we are afraid
love will vanish
when we are alone we are afraid
love will never return
and when we speak we are afraid
our words will not be heard
nor welcomed
but when we are silent
we are still afraid
So it is better to speak
remembering
we were never meant to survive
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