GLR January-February 2026

consistently presents Hirschfeld as a heroic defender of homo sexual, trans, Jewish, and women’s rights. § F OR A LESS HAGIOGRAPHIC and more academic take, readers can turn to Laurie Marhoefer’s Racism and the Making of Gay Rights. Marhoefer is a true specialist in the early 20th-century German history of sexuality. She brings scholarly familiarity with primary and secondary sources in English and German. Most interestingly, she delves into archival material on Li Shiu

many secular Jews who felt thoroughly assimilated into the Ger man bourgeoisie, he refused to be “othered” by Nazi hooligans. (Sigmund Freud, similarly, was so sure he was above Nazi per secution that he resisted entreaties to leave Vienna until after Hitler annexed Austria in 1938.) Hirschfeld’s religion was science. Scientific knowledge and rationality, he believed, would sweep away the ignorance and prejudice that were the source of racism, homophobia, sexism, and anti-Semitism. His motto and that of the Scientific-human itarian Committee was “ Per scientiam ad justitiam” (through

Tong, Hirschfeld’s “translator,” “Chinese pupil,” and probable lover for the last five years of his life in exile. Her writing is as accessible as her critique is unsparing. She holds Hirschfeld up to a presentist level of political scrutiny. On all the issues for which Brook pres ents Hirschfeld as radical—race, feminism, colonialism, and Jewish identity—Marhoe

science to justice). He had it engraved on his tomb. Marthoefer’s broader point is that his confidence in the enlightening force of sci ence was misplaced. Even today, biological research on the basis of sexual orientation or the preponderance of medical support for gender-affirming care does not appease anti LGBT forces. In addition to her incisive critique of

Hirschfeld believed that scien ti fic knowledge would sweep away the ignorance that was the source of racism, homophobia, sexism, and an ti Semi ti sm.

fer finds him lacking. Not only is he a white, bourgeois man of the 19th century, but in his publications and correspondence he conveys his sexism and a sense of German cultural superiority. While critical of the racism he encountered in the U.S. and else where, he remained sure of the higher cultural evolution of Eu ropean men. For similar reasons, Marhoefer criticizes him for portraying Jews as civilized white Europeans while dismissing anti-Semitic racism as merely unscientific, religious irrational ity. Hirschfeld’s favorite holiday was Christmas, and, like so

Hirschfeld, Marhoefer excavates the truly forgotten life and work of Li. When he met Hirschfeld in Shanghai, Li was a 24 year-old medical student from a wealthy Hong Kong family. It must have been mutual love at first sight, as Li abandoned his medical studies and family to accompany the senior sexologist on his remaining world travels throughout East Asia, India, the Middle East, and back to Europe. For his part, Hirschfeld was so entranced by the charms and intellect of Li that he anointed him as his successor to the important scientific mission of the

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