Racism and the Making of Gay Rights: A Sexologist, His Student, and the Empire of Queer Love

“Marhoefer's achievement in Racism and the Making of Gay Rights is not just to place Li back into the lecture halls and the steamships of their shared journey, but also to brilliantly reframe Hirschfeld as a man of his era, a man who developed and popularized the concept of ‘homosexuality’ in a world that was shaped by the fact of empire … This book should be required reading for anybody with a professional, political, or personal interest in the ‘homosexual.’” Lauren Stokes, Northwestern University, Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences

"This beautifully crafted narrative weaves together the story of the relationship of Magnus Hirschfeld and Li Shui Tong with a brilliant analysis of Hirschfeld’s complex but ultimately racist thinking about homosexuality, race, and empire. It’s hard to do justice to the power of this book. Let me just say that once you open it, you’ll have trouble tearing yourself away, and not only because you’ll want to know what happened to Li’s manuscript."

Leila J. Rupp, Professor of Feminist Studies, University of California Santa Barbara

"Fascinating, important, pioneering! Homophobia and queer liberation, racism and anti-racism, sexism and anti-sexism, colonialism and anti-colonialism – they’re all profoundly entangled in Marhoefer’s lively, original study of Magnus Hirschfeld’s life and times."

Jonathan Ned Katz, author of The Daring Life and Dangerous Times of Eve Adams

"Racism and the Making of Gay Rights decentres Magnus Hirschfeld, long revered as a ‘founding father’ of gay liberation, by revealing the racist and imperialist investments behind his overfocus on white, cisgendered men, a still-too-common feature of queer representation. Crucially, Laurie Marhoefer introduces the possibility of a better, queerer liberation in the thought of Hirschfeld’s Chinese research assistant and perhaps lover, Li Shiu Tong. This is queer history for a better future."

Angela Zimmerman, Professor of History, George Washington University and author of Alabama in Africa: Booker T. Washington, the German Empire, and the Globalization of the New South

"In this stunning new analysis of Magnus Hirschfeld's writing and legacy, Laurie Marhoefer asks what might have been had the sexological giant opened himself up to the anti-racist arguments in his midst. We will be sorting these questions for years to come. A trenchant critique of the myths surrounding Magnus Hirschfeld, asking us to wrestle with the implications of a queer life built on anti-black racism and empire."

Jennifer Evans, Professor of History, Carleton University

"This is the book that German history and queer history need right now. Racism and the Making of Gay Rights will be a hugely important intervention."

Katie Sutton, Associate Professor of German and Gender Studies, Australian National University