Making Queer History has a vague title because it has a rather vague purpose. What defines us is our focus not only on the past, but toward the future. I will use modern terminology when discussing the modern day. By contrast, there were practically no such journals published anywhere else in the world until after Geschlecht , or The Third Sex , a magazine for and partially authored by transvestites. The immediate precursor to Das 3.
These magazines, geared towards gay men, lesbians, and transvestites alike, allowed for the creation of communities and helped people find safe places to seek medical treatment, get clothing, etc.
Radszuweit died in April and his lover, Martin Butzko-Radszuweit who he adopted as his son , took over the press. He was in charge until the publishing house was destroyed by Nazis. Martin Radszuweit was the publisher of the press for the fifth and final issue of Das 3. The fifth is the only issue that has been, in some shape, translated into English. The fifth issue was translated by the author of this article as a scholarly project and it is, as yet, unavailable to the public.
Geschlecht were transvestites, a significant number were. None of these people have proved to be traceable through online research. It is unlikely that names they are writing under would be on their legal documentation in any significant way, making them even harder to locate. The queer community gravitates, not unreasonably, to people with large or at least decent sized historical records, like Oscar Wilde, Marsha P. Johnson, Sappho, or Harvey Milk. But a post from this project's Tumblr got me thinking beyond that.
To me, this magazine feels like discovering some of those previously forgotten queer people. People who lived their everyday lives in the social moment of early s Germany, thinking about things like grocery shopping, writing poetry, etc. Both of these women were transvestites. Uncovering these small moments that came so close to being lost feels indescribably important.
