The 6th of May

To me, the 6th of May will always be a day of conflicting emotions.

On the 6th of May 1933, the Nazis raided and destroyed the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft in Berlin, a home of pioneering queer and trans research, medicine, art, and culture. Four days later, they burned its entire collection—including countless irreplacable items and over a decade of research into the same gender affirming care that today’s fascists now claim is “new”. When the Allies finally came promising liberation, they did not liberate my queer siblings.

They left them to rot.

“A Story of Trans Genocide, Now and Then, in a Single Photo”

On the 6th of May 2001, I took my first breath.

On the 6th of May 2025, as I watch my country’s politicians clamber over each other in a race to see who can destroy my remaining human rights the quickest, more than ever I think of 1933, and not of 2001.

First they came for the queers—
            and the world soon forgot, for we were too hated to be in the poem.