- Born
- 28 August 1825Westerfeld near Aurich, Germany
- Died
- 14 July 1895L’Aquila, Italy · aged 69
Karl Heinrich Ulrichs
In 1867 he stood before a congress of jurists and demanded an end to laws against love between men – often called the first public coming out.
Karl Heinrich Ulrichs grew up in the Kingdom of Hanover, the son of an architect, and studied law. In 1854 he lost his post in the civil service because of rumours about his relationships with men. In 1862 he told his family that he was attracted to men.
From 1864 he published a series of pamphlets in which he argued that love between men was innate and natural. He called men who loved men “Urnings”, a term taken from Plato’s “Symposium”, and demanded that they be treated equally before the law.
On 29 August 1867 he spoke at the Congress of German Jurists in Munich and called for the repeal of laws against sex between men. He was shouted down before he could finish. This speech is often regarded as the first public coming out in modern history. When Prussia annexed Hanover, he was imprisoned several times for his political views, and his writings were banned.
In 1880 he emigrated to Italy and settled in L’Aquila, where he published a magazine in Latin. He died there in 1895, aged 69. Today he is regarded as a founder of the gay rights movement; streets and squares in several German cities are named after him.