Karl Ulrichs (1825 - 1895)

Sun Aug 28, 1825

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Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, born on this day in 1825, was a German lawyer, journalist, political activist, and pioneering sexologist who scandalously came out publicly as gay in mid-19th century Germany.

In 1857, Ulrichs was fired from his job as an administrative lawyer for the district court of Hildesheim when his homosexuality was discovered. A few years later, he began publishing under his real name (sometimes cited as the first public “coming out” in modern Western society) and wrote a statement of legal and moral support for a man arrested for homosexual offenses.

On August 29th, 1867 Ulrichs became the first homosexual to speak out publicly in defense of homosexuality when he pleaded at the Congress of German Jurists in Munich for a resolution urging the repeal of anti-homosexual laws. Although he was shouted down and no reform was passed, two years later the Austrian writer Karl-Maria Kertbeny coined the word “homosexual”, and from the 1870s the subject of sexual orientation in the modern sense began to be widely discussed.

In Ulrichs’ memory, the International Lesbian and Gay Law Association presents a Karl Heinrich Ulrichs Award for distinguished contributions to the advancement of sexual equality.

“Until my dying day I will look back with pride that I found the courage to come face to face in battle against the spectre which for time immemorial has been injecting poison into me and into men of my nature. Many have been driven to suicide because all their happiness in life was tainted. Indeed, I am proud that I found the courage to deal the initial blow to the hydra of public contempt.”

- Karl Ulrichs