NYC-based writer, organizer, and PhD candidate at UC Santa Cruz. A queer trans woman with a tenderness for cats, Michel Foucault, and political theory. She/her. www.elierlick.com
Zionism has such little organic support that groups like Shirion pay protesters to infiltrate and disrupt Palestinian liberation groups. As a Jew, I've seen 0 instances of antisemitism from my colleagues fighting to end the invasion of Gaza. However, there are a handful of provocateurs, like the paid Shirion protesters, who aim to delegitimize our activism. Confusing antizionism with antisemitism is antisemitic itself (not all Jews support the colonization of Palestine).
Yesterday the infamous far-right Rabbi Shmuley Boteach harassed protesters at Columbia. He only went after smaller women, trans folks, and disabled people. Very in character for a zionist to harass those who can't fight back while he spits, yells, and sticks cameras on them. Here he is harassing 15-year-old Ayyub for Instagram likes.
Everyone should follow what's happening at Columbia right now. This is the largest protest there since 1968, and the admin just stripped several students of healthcare and housing.
The NYPD arrested over 108 students camping on the South Lawn yesterday. Now, thousands have joined the demonstration. As Israel prepares to commit genocide, Palestinian and Jewish students are taking the lead in protesting institutional complicity around the world.
There's a myth repeated by both the left and right that we don't have records of what Nazis destroyed in the book burnings. Historians know some but not all of the literature. Much of it discussed queer/trans issues. Here are some examples of what Nazis didn't want you to know:
Among the most impactful transgender books Nazis burned was Magnus Hirschfeld's 1910 Die Transvestiten. The book focused on the history and politics of transgender people. Thankfully, it was a bestseller and original copies existed outside Germany. transreads.org/dietransvestiten2/
Some texts were permanently lost during Nazi book burnings. The Institute for Sexual Science held singular copies of trans medical records and surgical techniques. Nazis famously destroyed Karl Baer's files. Baer was among the first trans/intersex people to get medical treatment. His 1907 autobiography, Memoirs of a Man's Maiden Years, thankfully survived. It is available in English at transreads.org/a-mans-maiden-years
We will never recover many texts Nazis destroyed. Felix Abraham, Richard Muhsam, & Ludwig Levy-Lenz's now-lost writings on gender-affirming medicine would have helped drastically improve care. Some of their research survived, but we do not know the extent of their lost techniques.
Nazis burned Magnus Hirschfeld's 5-volume Geschlechtskunde ("Sex Studies"). It included lengthy descriptions of the history, politics, and treatment of queer/trans people. A few copies still exist, including this gorgeous print of the illustrated Volume 4 I saw in the New York Public Library archives.
Nazis didn't only destroy books but also films, photographs, and 3D ephemera like sculptures. They burned copies of many important queer/trans films, including Different from the Others (now partially restored) and an adaptation of Karl Baer's autobiography, A Man’s Girlhood (fully lost).
Destroying literature, film, and culture is the foundation of fascism. If you wonder what you would have done in 1933, now is the time to prove you would have acted. It never ends with books.
JK Rowling decided to continue denying Nazi persecution of trans people, so I updated the list to 55 names I could personally confirm the status of. Added some new colorized photos, too! This is only a fraction of 160+ known trans individuals located by activist Jako Wende, which itself is a fraction of the true scope of anti-trans persecution during the Third Reich. Check it out: http://elierlick.com/transholocaust/
It should be a bigger scandal that J.K. Rowling is threatening to sue small accounts for accurately calling her a Holocaust denier. So glad the Streisand effect exists. Now we can all rebuke her reprehensible views more than ever.
In 1966, marginalized youth of the Tenderloin were tired of being arrested in “street sweeps” by police. Together, they organized a “street sweep” protest of their own through the organization Vanguard. They cleaned up their neighborhood with brooms while picketing. The group advocated for “the drug addicts, pillheads, teenage hustlers, lesbians, and homosexuals” whose neighborhood wasn’t taken care of by the city.
Together, they held their protest to national media attention. They gained hundreds of new subscribers to Vanguard Magazine and countless new members. Keep in mind that crossdressing was illegal in San Francisco until 1974. Sodomy laws were on the books until 1975. The protest could have led to any of them being imprisoned indefinitely. Instead, they were able to create a vibrant queer and trans community years before Stonewall.
The Cass Review demanded clinicians perform child abuse (placebo HRT and conversion therapy) for acceptable studies on transgender children. As someone studying trans research (who was also a trans kid), I'm disgusted. We must reject all calls for abuse in gender medicine. We have 100+ years showing that HRT works!
If your review cites Lisa Littman & Kenneth Zucker as legitimate sources in 2024, you have no authority to speak about trans issues OR evidence-based medicine. Their studies have been so thoroughly debunked that they're a great example of using weak evidence to draw conclusions.
The U.S. produces far more resources, including homes, than it needs. Capitalists have to blame other groups for our woes. Otherwise, we'll realize only they exploit the artificial scarcity we're living through.