Front cover of booklet written by Karl-Maria Kertbeny. Partial translation of title: [Hungarian poet] Petofi’s Death Thirty Years Ago in 1849 . . . Historical-Literary Data and Discoveries Compiled by K. M. Kertbeny, 1880.

Translation of title and authorship: "Inclusa." Anthropological Studies on Man [to] Man Sexual Love. Second Text on Man [to] Man Love. Natural Science Part. Evidence, that for a Class of Genetically Male [literally: Man-Built] Individuals Sexual Love towards Men Is Sexually Innate. . . . by Numa Numantius. Karl Ulrichs published this pamphlet anonymously under the pen name, "Numa Numantius." The title page further states, "Self-Published [by] author. In Commission with Heinrich Matthes in Leipzig. 1864."

Title translation: "Vindicta." Struggle for Freedom from Persecution. Perpetrations of criminal law [literally: criminalistic perpetrations ] and Legislative Proposals. Demand for a Revision of the Existing Criminal Laws. Urning Daily Chronicle. Third Text on Man [to] Man Love. The author is given as "Numa Numantius," Karl Ulrichs' nom de plume. The pamphlet was published in 1865.

Translation of title: "Formatrix." Anthropological Studies on Urning Love. Fourth Text. Natural Science Part B. Intended Only for Researchers. Presentation of the Sexual Nature of Urnings in Their Particulars. Key to the Riddle of Uranism and the Urning Varieties. The text was written by Numa Numantius (Karl Ulrichs), 1865.    

Title translation: "Gladius Furens." The Natural Mystery of Urning Love and the Error as Legislator. A Provacation to the German Jurists' Day. As Continuation of the Writings of Numa Numantius: Sixth Text. For this publication, the author states his real name, Karl Heinrich Ulrichs. The pamphlet was published in 1868.

 Viennese writer Karl-Maria Kertbeny coined the word “Homosexualität” (“homosexuality”).[1] He debuted it publicly in his 1869 pamphlet calling for homosexual emancipation. He first used it in an 1868 private letter to a German journalist named Ulrichs. He also coined the word “Heterosexualität” (heterosexuality).[2]

Karl Heinrich Ulrichs dared to “come out” publicly. “With [his] breast pounding,” he did it before an audience of German jurists in 1867.[3] In mid-century he published pamphlets defending what he termed “Urning” (or in English, “Uranian”) love, a concept inspired by Plato's Symposium.[4][5] The first booklet was called Vindex, meaning in Latin "defender," published in 1864.[6] (Images of four subsequent booklets–Inclusa (1864), Vindicta (1865), Formatrix (1865), and Gladius Furens (1868)–are shown to the left on this exhibit page.)

Ulrichs denounced “despotic majorities” who oppress minorities.[7] Jailed for his homosexual-rights activism, he declared, “I am an insurgent. I rebel against the existing situation, because I hold it to be a condition of injustice . . . I call for the recognition of Urning love . . . from public opinion and from the state.”[8]

Sources

1. Rictor Norton, The Myth of the Modern Homosexual: Queer History and the Search for Cultural Unity (Washington: Cassell, 1997), 67.

2. Norton, 67.

3. Hubert Kennedy, Ulrichs: The Life and Works of Karl Heinrich Ulrichs: Pioneer of the Modern Gay Movement (Boston: Alyson, 1988), 107.

4. Norton, 65.

5. Norton, 66.

6. Kennedy, 56.

7. Kennedy, 172.

8. Kennedy, 70.