One hundred years ago, gay men lived their lives in the shadows. Homosexual relations between consenting adults were illegal in most nations, including every state of the United States. The medical community considered homosexuality to be a mental illness, possibly even a disease. Social condemnation was prevalent, from the media to the churches to the government.

There were pockets of acceptance in various corners of the cities, but, for the most part, gay men met each other surreptitiously, and only the most resolute men were able to fashion a life that satisfied their needs. From this darkness emerged a young German immigrant who attempted to change the social and legal outlook for homosexuals; although he failed, his effort provided a distant beacon for activists in later decades.

The Man

Born Heinrich Josef Dittmar in 1892 in Passau, Bavaria, in the German Empire, he immigrated to Chicago with his family in 1913, where he changed his name to Henry Gerber. My research is conflicting on the following: some sources say he was incarcerated in a mental institution for homosexuality in 1917, while others state he was incarcerated as an enemy alien after the US declared war on Germany in April of that year. Either way, we know that he served in the US Army after 1918, stationed in Coblenz during the Occupation of the Rhineland following the end of the First World War.

In the late 19th century, Germany had seen the birth of the homosexual rights movement, and by the time Gerber was serving in Coblenz, there were various personalities coalesced around competing organizations based in Berlin: the Wissenschaftlich-humanitäres Komitee (Scientific-Humanitarian Committee), headed by Magnus Hirschfeld, and the Deutscher Freundschaftsverband (German Friendship Association), which changed its name to Bund für Menschenrecht (Society for Human Rights) in 1923, and which was loosely inspired by gay firebrand Adolf Brand.

The two movements had differing views on male homosexuality: Hirschfeld’s thesis was that gay men were “born in the wrong body” whereas Brand and his followers believed that male homosexuality was the ultimate form of masculinity. Recounting his experiences decades later for the homophile newsletter ONE, Gerber reported that he “subscribed to German homophile magazines” and often traveled to Berlin to visit their offices.

Returning to Chicago after his military service was completed, Gerber found work at the US Post Office and began developing his idea to start a gay rights organization. Finding support among the gay men of Chicago proved to be difficult. His friends told him it was “rash” and “futile” to attempt such an endeavor; few other contacts were supportive. In the ONE article, Gerber bitterly states:

“The average homosexual, I found, was ignorant concerning himself. Others were fearful. Still others were frantic and depraved. Some were blasé. Many homosexuals told me that their search for forbidden fruit was the real spice of life. With this argument, they rejected our aims.”

The Society for Human Rights

In the end, Gerber was able to corral a few men to help him, among them an itinerant African American preacher, John Graves, who agreed to be the president of the new organization, and Al Meininger, whom Gerber later described as “an indigent laundry queen, was to be the vice-president; Gerber would be the secretary for the new organization called the Society for Human Rights (echoing the Bund für Menschenrecht). Gerber would also edit and publish the group’s periodical, Friendship and Freedom.

In their application to be chartered by the state of Illinois, Gerber described the organization as follows:

“To promote and to protect the interests of people who by reasons of mental and physical abnormalities are abused and hindered in the legal pursuit of happiness which is guaranteed them by the Declaration of Independence, and to combat the public prejudices against them by dissemination of facts according to modern science among individuals of a mature age. The Society stands only for law and order; it is in harmony with all general laws insofar as they protect the rights of others and does not recommend any acts in violation of present laws nor advocate any matter inimical to the public welfare.”

As a result of this vague declaration, the Society for Human Rights was successfully chartered in Illinois in December 1924.

Only two issues (now lost) of Friendship and Freedom, the first homosexual rights periodical in US history, were issued before the Society fell apart. In developing the organization, Gerber and his cohorts had agreed that only homosexual men would be allowed, no bisexuals. Unbeknownst to Gerber and the others, Meininger was married with two children; his wife discovered what was happening and contacted the authorities. In July 1925, Meininger was arrested in flagrante delicto with a young man; later that night, the homes of Gerber and Graves were raided, and they were arrested as well. However, no warrant had been issued for the raids, and this, combined with some financial lubricant, resulted in the men being released and the charges dismissed.

Gerber was fired from the Post Office and, now penniless and embittered by the experience, he relocated to New York, where he rejoined the US Army, serving as a proofreader on Governor’s Island, retiring in 1945 with an Honorable Discharge. He ran a pen-pal club in the 1930s that, while not explicitly oriented to the homosexual population, did manage to connect many gay men; under a pseudonym, he wrote a defense of homosexuality for the magazine Modern Thinker. After his retirement, he communicated with the leaders of the post-war homophile organizations such as the Mattachine Society. From the mid-1960s, he lived in a veteran’s home in Washington, DC, dying of pneumonia on December 31, 1972, at the age of eighty. He was posthumously inducted into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame in 1992, and the home where he lived when he ran the Society for Human Rights was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2015; additionally, the Gerber/Hart Library in Chicago is partially named in his honor.

Gerber was perhaps not the ideal candidate to lead a gay rights movement, then or now: an introvert, cynical, militantly atheist, irascible, utterly lacking the diplomatic skills that would allow him to make the necessary connections for the development of such a movement, he alienated and intimidated others. But Gerber and his Society for Human Rights provided inspiration for later activists to follow, and many of the issues Gerber grappled with are still present in the male homosexual population today.

Sources:

Vern L. Bullogh, editor, Before Stonewall: Activists for Gay and Lesbian Rights in Historical Context, Harrington Park Press, 2002. Before Stonewall – Google Books

St. Sukie De La Croix, Chicago Whispers: A History of LGBT Chicago Before Stonewall, University of Wisconsin Press, 2012. Henry Gerber, “The Society for Human Rights – 1925,” ONE, Vol 10, No. 9, pp 5-11, 1962. ONE Magazine : ONE, Inc. : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

John Loughery, The Other Side of Silence: Men’s Lives and Gay Identities: A Twentieth Century History, Henry Holt and Company, 1998. Henry Gerber House: Chicago Landmarks – Landmark Details

Joseph Jones

Mr. Jones is a contributing writer for the Gay Male Journal, focusing on Homosexual Male history. He has a History degree from the University of South Florida and currently resides in Tennessee.

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