Davis' Apology Sheds No Light on Sterilizations in California
Lack of an inquiry into the state's ambitious eugenics effort and its 20,000 victims angers some historians and disabled advocates.
By Aaron Zitner
Times Staff Writer
Copyright 2003 Los Angeles Times
March 16, 2003
WASHINGTON -- To make amends for a state program that sterilized 7,600 people against their will, North Carolina's governor created a panel last year to probe the history of the effort, interview survivors and consider reparations.
In Oregon, then-Gov. John Kitzhaber last year apologized in person to some of the 2,600 people sterilized there, and he created an annual Human Rights Day to commemorate the state's mistake. On the day Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner apologized, Jesse Meadows and other victims unveiled a roadside marker.
"It felt pretty good to be there, even though it was so late," said Meadows, 80.
Some historians and advocates for the disabled had a mixed reaction to the apology issued Tuesday by Gov. Gray Davis for California's policy, the most aggressive in the nation, which sterilized an estimated 20,000 mentally disabled people and others from 1909 through the 1960s.
http://www.geocities.com/madelinefelkins/CAeugenics.htmHitler started with the Gays:
Paragraph 175 (1999)
There is an ethereal, poetic, bold and unforgettable moment in "Paragraph 175" where a concentration camp survivor, one who seems to be getting a bit slow and senile in his old age, talks briefly of "The Singing Forest." This is his heart- stopping and devastating description of the sounds prisoners made while being tortured in the camps. It is a harrowing and indescribable moment in film. Truly a lucid yet expressive instant in cinema that will overwhelm the viewer with an emotional reaction of deep sorrow and heart-wrenching empathy. It is not that the incident being related is a fresh insight to the horrors that occurred at concentration camps. So much has been related that we understand the repugnance of it all. Rather, it is a bold and vivid moment because the teller of the story is so unique. Through an aged and slowed existence, a memory, the sorrowful beauty of that memory, and the poignant recollection of the teller, glides through to light on our consciousness on wings of gossamer. It becomes they saddest of songs, the most beautiful of poems, the most honest of moments. It transcends. It is light.
The title of "Paragraph 175" refers to the law in Nazi Germany that made homosexuality an illegal act. Although this film barely scratches the surface on the story of homosexuals in concentration camps in WWII, it does open a door to a deep and troubling history that we, as gay men and lesbians, must explore and remember. Sidelined with a hatred equal to, albeit nowhere near as rampant as, the persecution of Jews, homosexuals were considered criminals and antisocials who were not welcome in the Third Reich's new world order. Many of them perished in the camps.
Here, a researcher, Dr. Klaus Muller, takes on the monumental task of trying to interview the surviving men and women who were persecuted in Nazi Germany under "Paragraph 175." This is an extremely difficult and arduous task because not only are the subjects considerably old, they are from a different time, a vastly different generation, where discussions of such things do not come easily. This is in addition to the troubling and difficult notion of having these wonderful older gentleman and ladies dredge up severely painful and complex emotional memories that they would much rather be allowed to forget. It adds up to an almost insurmountable obstacle for a historian.
This film, with it's wonderful insight to the history of Berlin in the 20's, the rise of Hitler and the onset of WWII, somehow does find it easy to capture some moments of these octogenarians discussing their playful dalliances and early love affairs. There is even some knowledge and memories imparted of the early "athletic" clubs and "naturists" movements of pre-Hitler Germany. But when it comes time to discuss the moments and memories of surviving the most horrific of crimes against man, these wonderful, brave, and beautiful people cannot seem to find the words to truly express themselves. Sadly, there is a sense of shame which is obvious in their failed recollections. And while we, as modern gay men and lesbians, certainly understand these feelings, we cannot begin to truly comprehend them. Nor can we find the words to somehow make them magically go away.
http://www.filethirteen.com/reviews/paragraph175/paragraph175.htmSeeing the posts here about the promotion of death for what sometimes amounts to thought crimes, we are not not far removed from Hitler. Give it time. Maybe you will be on the list eventually.