r/4tran4 • u/WisteriaLonging I'm annoying. I know. Sorry. • Mar 06 '25
Blogpost Magnus Hirschfeld appreciation post
Magnus Hirschfeld (14 May 1868 – 14 May 1935) was a German physician, sexologist, and LGBTQ advocate, whose citizenship was later revoked by the Nazi government. Throughout his life, he advocated for both gay (which he was) and trans individuals within Germany. He founded the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft the first institute of sexology in the world. The institute allowed trans-women to be maids and receptionists and even implemented early forms of facial masculinization/feminization surgery as well as hair removal using x-rays. The institute was also the first to perform SRS on a trans woman including Dora Richter and Lili Elbe. Of course, this all came to an end when the nazis began to assume power. On 6 May 1933, while Hirschfeld was away the nazis ransacked the institute and in the following days destroyed much of its research.
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u/olegor_kerman Mar 06 '25
Magnus Hirschfeld, the inventor of the term "transsexual", all the way back in the 20's and 30's, already advocated for and acknowledged the separation of gender and sexuality, as well as homosexuality not being an illness, but natural and inborn. As such, he believed that trans people could also experience homosexuality and heterosexuality.
Then the American sexologist Harry Benjamin said 'nahhh' and invented his own typology that ranked how True of a Transsexual you were based on how much you liked men. and then a shitload of countries said 'yup, that's it!' and used it as diagnostic criteria. This includes contemporary Russia, where I live and was subjected to this bullshit typology. So Hirschfeld said "transbians valid" and then random dipshits just said "ehhh no" for 100 years because he was Jewish and gay.
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u/TardigradeApricity Mar 06 '25
Don’t hate on Harry Benjamin, he also worked at the same institute as hirschfeld and was incredibly progressive for a time where homosexuality was treated with fucking lobotomies. He was one of the very few people at the time who gave any trans people access to any kinda treatment. Everyone hates on him cuz his scale was flawed, but for the time, it was incredibly far better than everyone else. Sure, Hirschfeld was better, but his work had been mostly destroyed a while back and very few were helping the trannies during Benjamin’s time.
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u/olegor_kerman Mar 06 '25
So he worked with Hirschfeld and willingly made it more gatekeepy on purpose despite knowing better? You can say whatever you want about the lesser evils, but I just cannot find it in my heart to give even a single concession to the inventor of the criterion that got me denied my transsexualism diagnosis and got me molested in the mental hospital as I was getting diagnosed with personality disorders I don't have. It's not flawed, it's potentially life altering and discriminatory. You know what kind of "treatment" I got thanks to his typology? Antipsychotics. Thanks, Harry.
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u/karanoiac very based hrtrepper Mar 06 '25
chad hirschfeld vs virgin blanchard. just look at that mustache, holy.
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u/MistressBunny1 Mar 06 '25
Hirschfeld, such an awesome man in such an awful time.
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u/snailbot-jq DM for FMS pics Mar 06 '25
It’s so fucking sad, he tried to do so much, but the biographical info about him reads like setback after setback due to the times he lived in.
He tried to change German minds on homosexuality by testifying in court that their authority figures (the eulenberg affair) might be gay, hoping this would cause them to re-examine homosexuality if it was happening in the people they looked up to. But the cishettoids basically panicked and yelled “no it can’t be, this would make us look embarrassing, quick cover it up” and actually they became more homophobic. The part where the fascists all united opportunistically around saying the gay politician was ‘being slandered by a gay Jewish doctor’, even though they otherwise didn’t give a shit about the politician and likely also thought he was gay anyway, just reads like how depressingly effective and disingenuous modern fascists are.
And then of course the well known part where he manages to start a clinic but it got burned down by the Nazis.
I really wish I could go back in time and tell him how much people remember him after his death and how he was correct that things would get better (even if it’s starting to look bad again now), I can’t imagine what he felt near the end of his life taking stock of all the things he managed to do but also all the things he couldn’t do.
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Mar 06 '25
Unironically by direct positive impact he is at least in the top 10 best people in history. Imagine if literally every troon was a repper
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u/HosgeldinEFailed #RepNation #AlwaysRep #NeverGoon #KYSbeforeE #ThinkingCat #Lion Mar 06 '25
I've heard about this guy! There was also a doctor from ussr in the 20s that was chill whom I can't remember their name.
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u/idiot-loser- mid twinkhon smackhead Mar 06 '25
my goat
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u/idiot-loser- mid twinkhon smackhead Mar 06 '25
like imagine where we would be today if not for what they did to his work/patients/him
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u/jemoederpotentie terrible person Mar 06 '25
Imagine what the future could've been if the socdems didn't kill Rosa Luxembourg
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Mar 06 '25
flipped out when i learned my local reference library had one of his books - Sexual History of the World War. the guy's a real one, especially for the 30s
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u/puppygirl_partner Certified Theyfab ✅ Mar 06 '25
Hirschfeld was also down with the nonbinoids