Carl Schlegel
Carl Schlegel | |
|---|---|
 Schlegel in 1898 | |
| Born | March 29, 1863 Pfullingen, Germany |
| Died | July 25, 1922 (aged 59) New York City, United States |
Carl Schlegel (March 29, 1863 - July 25, 1922) was a German-American Presbyterian minister and gay rights activist.
Life
[edit]Schlegel was born in Pfullingen, Germany on March 29, 1863.[1][2] In 1878, Schlegel moved to the United States.[1][2] He attended the Bloomfield Theological Seminary, graduating in 1895, and was ordained as a minister in 1896.[1] He began his preaching career in New York City, serving a primarily German-speaking congregation.[1] While he was serving as a minister, he was also a regular participant in meetings of the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee, a German-based organization that was the first gay rights advocacy group in the world.[2][3] In a 1903 meeting of the group, Schlegel announced his intention to create a New York-based subcommittee and to organize other ministers to advocate for gay rights.[2] In late 1903, Schlegel was arrested in Germany for an unspecified sexual offense.[2] After returning to the United States, Schlegel continued working as a minister until resigning from his church in 1905 and moving to New Orleans.[4]
While Schlegel found a new congregation, he was quickly faced with an investigation by the elders of his new church, who accused him of "Uranism" and of promoting "grossly immoral doctrines."[2][4] In his defense against the allegations, Schlegel argued that he was not entirely opposed to the church's traditional teaching on same-sex relationships, but believed that the same sex laws should be applied to people of all sexualities equally, arguing that only those who used "compulsion," "offend[ed] publicly," or abused children should be punished.[5][6] This defense backfired, however, as his position that sex laws should be applied equally to all people was interpreted as a defense of "the lawfulness and naturalness" of same-sex relationships.[7]
He was dismissed by his church in 1907 and was also defrocked.[2][8] After being dismissed, he returned to New York and became a spiritualist.[2] He died on July 25, 1922 and was buried at the Cemetery of the Evergreens.[2]
Legacy
[edit]Schlegel's life was largely unnoticed by historians until 2019, when historian Jonathan Ned Katz uncovered mention of Schlegel's dismissals in the Presbyterian Historical Society's archives.[1][5]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e Katz, Jonathan (2024-08-29). "Carl Schlegel: Early U.S. Gay Activist, 1906-1907". OutHistory. Retrieved 2025-04-28.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Fitzsimons, Tim (2019-07-05). "Historian unearths evidence of one of America's earliest gay rights activists". NBC News. Retrieved 2025-04-28.
- ^ Djajic-Horváth, Aleksandra. "Magnus Hirschfeld". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2025-04-28.
- ^ a b Watkins, Jerry (2019-12-23). "The Gay South". Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.013.825.
- ^ a b White, Mel (2023). Storming the Gate: Fighting Religion-based Oppression with Soul Force. Wipf and Stock. pp. 210–211. ISBN 978-1-6667-4935-9. Retrieved 2025-05-10.
- ^ Parshall, Allison (2024-01-01). "Asexuality Is Finally Breaking Free from Medical Stigma". Scientific American. Retrieved 2025-05-11.
- ^ Stein, Marc (2023). Rethinking the Gay and Lesbian Movement (2nd ed.). Routledge. Retrieved 2025-05-10.
- ^ Perez, Frank (2022). Political Animal: The Life and times of Stewart Butler. University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 9781496841292. Retrieved 2025-05-10.