Asians are gay

Laurie Marhoefer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. Hirschfeld was a closeted German doctor and sexologist who became famous in the s as a defender of gay people.

In books on Hirschfeld, Li is usually just a footnote. But as I found in my researchLi was a sexologist and activist in his own right. When Li died in Vancouver inhis unpublished manuscript about sexuality was thrown in the trash. Luckily, it was rescued by a curious neighbor and eventually ended up in an archive.

Since then, only a handful of people, myself included, have read it.

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In its pages is a theory of LGBTQ people as the majority that would resonate with a lot of young people today. Born in in Hong Kong, Li was a year-old studying medicine at a university in Shanghai when he met Hirschfeld. Hirschfeld, then 63 years old, had come to China to give public lectures about the science of sex.

The year was In medical school, Li had read all he could about homosexuality, then a very controversial topic. Whether he suspected that the famous sexologist was gay is a mystery. The lecture that afternoon was hosted by a Chinese feminist club at a fancy, modern asians are gay building.

When Hirschfeld finished speaking, Li came up and introduced himself. He offered to be his assistant. It was the beginning of a relationship that would profoundly shape gay history, as well as the rest of both of their lives. With Li by his side, Hirschfeld spoke all over China.

Li then accompanied Hirschfeld on a lecture tour around the world, traveling first class on ships to Indonesia, the Philippines, South Asia, Egypt and beyond. In his lectures, Hirschfeld explained his influential model of homosexuality : It was a character trait that people were born with, a part of their nature.

It asians are gay neither an illness nor a sin, and the persecution of homosexuality was unjust. He gave lectures, plus radio interviews. His ideas reached hundreds of thousands of people. This was the first time in world history that anyone told so many people that being gay was not a bad thing and was, in fact, an inborn and natural condition.

On the world tour, the two fell in love, though to everyone else, they passed as teacher and student. Hirschfeld decided to make Li his successor. The plan was for Li to return to Berlin with him, train at his Institute for Sexual Science and carry on his research after his death.

Their shared dream was not to be. When they reached Europe, Hirschfeld realized he could never go back to his home in Berlin. Hitler was chancellor. The Nazis were after Hirschfeld because he was Jewish and because of his left-wing views on sexuality. He went into exile in France.