Pride Month, and other Haibun - 6. Three Points in History

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Three Points in History

Haibun

A few months ago, Lyssa, a good friend of mine, asked if I was familiar with Das lila Lied, the Gay Rights anthem from the 1920s.

Needless to say, I wasn’t, and she introduced me to a protest song for the ages.

They like to say we ‘reclaim’ it,

That we take History and make it ‘gay’;

But they only say it because

They know what crimes they’ve inflicted on us.

◇ ◇ ◇

The power of The Lavender Song set me on a mission to make a performance translation. What I’d hoped to be quick work took me weeks and weeks of effort. And all that time, the intimate contact with the struggles and determination of Gay people right after World War 1 put me in mind of how oppression can seemingly come out of nowhere; of how we all must be attentive when it comes to matters of our civil liberties.

While struggling with a singable version of the song, History itself overfolded on my work and connected three points like the familiar symbol.

Faded or vibrant,

Seen in museum or street,

Pink Triangles have power.

◇ ◇ ◇

The first point goes back to 1869. The newly dominant Prussia, leading the way to a unified Germany, was considering amending its laws and sweeping away the freedoms Gay people had enjoyed under the Napoleonic Code. The seven decades of 19th century integration into the larger German society was threatened with ‘criminalization.’ Dark days for sure.

But into the debate, a single voice gave birth to the Gay Liberation movement. A Hungarian doctor named Karl-Maria Kertbeny began to publish open letters refuting the State’s illegal claim to regulate who people are born to love. The man asked:

“Would imprisonment

Be an appropriate treatment

For such inborn conditions

As blue eyes?”

 

And:

“If such persons belong in jail,

Then everything we’ve been taught

About History is nothing

But lies and embellishment.”

◇ ◇ ◇

But tragically, no amount of clear thinking and honesty could stop the new wave of homophobic gay-baiting. Germany fell in 1871, and Britain played copycat with its ‘Law Reforms’ of the 1880s.

Gay men then could be imprisoned for as little as looking at each other or holding hands – three years at hard labor in the British Empire, which naturally was equivalent to a slow-but-sure death penalty.

So men in such places longed for the freedoms Walt Whitman wrote so causally about in the 1850s and ‘60s. They also began to feel pity for the so-called ‘normal’ who kowtowed to an oppressive society with drab conformity, fearing their own liberties would be snatched from them next.

Edward Carpenter, a poetic follower of Whitman, asked:

These populations –

So puny, white-faced, machine made,

Turned out of factories, out of offices, out of drawing-rooms, by thousands all alike –

Huddled, stitched up in clothes, fearing a chill, a drop of rain, looking timidly at sea and sky as at strange monsters, or running back so quick to their suburban runs and barrows,

Dapper, libidinous, cute, with washed-out small eyes –

What are these?

Are they men and women?

Each denying himself, hiding himself?

Are they men and women?

So timorous, like hares – a breath of propriety or custom, a draught of wind, the mere threat of pain and danger?

◇ ◇ ◇

However, after World War 1 and the mass mobilization of Gay men from isolation to brothers in arms, they could not tolerate being a party to their own subjugation anymore. In Germany, the Gay Rights movement spread to thousands of open members in more than thirty cities. Publications spread the good news into every rural hamlet, and abroad to Britain and America too.

By 1920, an anthem was needed. Mischa Spoliansky and Kurt Schwabach supplied it. The 1921 recording sold thousands of copies. The strength of the musical refrain is that it’s an actual march – a protest march.

Verse 1:

 

What'd you expect? War of cultures,

everyone disgraced by it,

shown disrespect, torn by vultures,

locked by their own kind to it,

category, or coterie,

slammed by the law just for it,

told how to feel, told it's not real,

told to just grin and bear it?

 

But never mind, for we're proud,

and enjoy being loud!

Chorus:

 

We're in the Life, marching to our own drum,

while they plod by, lockstep to appease,

ignoring the world's wonders for scum,

stuck in a sty of banalities.

We're so lucky, our feelings walk with rights

and never have to act that dumb,

for we love the thrill of purple nights –

In the Life, marching to our drum.

Verse 2:

 

Then let us be, keep your moral flame,

on yourself just use it;

we, you hear me, were born the same,

so go agonize about it.

But anyhow, string us up now

and you'll come to regret it;

we're brave and will dance on your grave,

'cause soon, you hear, it'll be worth it.

 

When we've taken our rights like all the others,

we'll end our pain like true sisters and brothers!

Chorus:

 

We're in the Life, marching to our own drum,

while they plod by, lockstep to appease,

ignoring the world's wonders for scum,

stuck in a sty of banalities.

We're so lucky, our feelings walk with rights

and never have to act that dumb,

for we love the thrill of purple nights –

In the Life, marching to our drum.

◇ ◇ ◇

The third point in history occurred while I was working on Das lila Lied.

On June 3rd, 2018, the German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier made a public apology, in the name of German History itself, for ever persecuting Gay people. Period. Before the Nazis; under the Nazis; after the Nazis. It was wrong, period.

He said:

“The dignity of man is inviolable,

But your country has kept

You waiting for too long.

Therefore, I ask forgiveness today –

For all the suffering and injustice,

And for the long silence that followed.”

◇ ◇ ◇

Three points – from Kertbeny, to The Lavender Song, to an official asking of pardon. From 1869 to 2018 to come to the same agreement of points, that there is no reason to be afraid of something so natural as who you love.

~

References:

For performance videos of Das lila Lied, see the following links:

– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjvp06ibH3A

– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBnH52XfUkY

For insight into the Gay Rights movement in the German-speaking world, see:

– The Early Rights Movement by John Lauritsen and David Thorstad, 1974 New York.

– Pink Triangles and Gay Images by J. Michael Clark, Ph.D, 1987 Arlington, Texas.

For the unprecedented action taken by Bundespräsident Steinmeier, see the following news links:

– http://www.mannschaft.com/2018/06/denkmal-fuer-homosexuelle-ns-opfer/

– https://www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/queerspiegel/festakt-in-berlin-steinmeier-bittet-um-entschuldigung-fuer-verfolgung-homosexueller/22637178.html

– https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/steinmeier-entschuldigung-homosexuelle-101.html

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