Gay Voices from East Germany

by Jurgen Lemke (editor)

EnglishOriginal German

197 pages, Hardcover

First published February 22, 1991

Reviews

[Charlie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Coincidentally, I finished this on the anniversary of the Berlin wall’s destruction (and the release of the only gay GDR film, Coming Out)! There seems to be a dearth of published first-hand accounts of queer life in the GDR (at least in English), especially from those who never brushed up against the law, so this collection is particularly interesting and useful. The intro + translators’ notes also offer a peek into the formulation of gay male identity in the US at the time of publication - there’s an intriguing effort to identify common gay male experiences that exist across cultures.