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BUT

Did any of you actually bother to read beyond the mere legal status? Did you think to question whether 'legal status = sentiment in the population' is true? Did you check whether there was a big, free queer community in the GDR that made releasing such a film in a politically very fraught time a safe endeavour?

The GDR was no less homophobic than the FRG. Homosexuality was considered part of Western hedonism and treated with contempt. Sure, it was legal, but we're talking about a dictatorship under the direct control of the USSR. If they want you gone, they'll have you gone. And being accused of homosexuality? Still a very good way to discredit political opposition.

Now, you might think, Comrade, they legalised homosexuality! Why would they do that if they hated the gays? Easy. Because they always had to oppose the West. So when the West prosecuted gay people, the GDR decided to grant them a modicum of rights.

Yes, Coming Out was a brave film. It took the director seven years to get it approved. Only the head of the DEFA leaving made it possible for it to get the approval. The fact that it premiered on the day of the opening of the borders? Pure coincidence. Nobody knew the border would open that night. Nobody knew the GDR would collapse in the following year. They released this film knowing full well that, depending on the audience reaction, they might get blacklisted or even exiled for it. Look up other GDR artists and what happened when they became too "Western" in their art.

This was the first time that state "supported" gay people. In the years before, when the first gay salons formed again after roughly forty years of no large gay communities at all, they were sponsored by the church which was in direct opposition to the government. Possibly the most important Eastern German gay activist was studying to become a Lutheran priest. He was barred from taking the vows because he was gay, but the church allowed him to start a reading circle in Leipzig and later Magdeburg, which became invaluable meeting places and the first step towards recovery for the queer community. That man? He's also a big reason for why §175 finally fell after far too many decades because he kept working as an activist and formed the now biggest organisation of queer people in Germany.

Anyway. Are some of those Letterboxd reviews clumsy? Yes. Do you sound any better claiming that the GDR was a haven for gay people? Hah. Hell no.

lol

What a classic bit of orientalist bullshit

Oh you’re telling me that the easterners are actually all a bunch of drones controlled by the scary totalitarian literally 1984 government? Wow very original

The idea that any country that you don’t like is coincidentally only able to do good things to try and trick westerners is so incredibly arrogant and self centred.

You have a child’s understanding of the world. Some countries are good so therefore when they do bad it’s a mistake or foreign influence or whatever and other countries are bad and everything they do is bad even when it seems good because it’s just a trick.and surely it’s just a coincidence that the good countries are all USA allies and the bad countries are all USA enemies, what are the odds of that!