While the Jewish population was fully integrated into society during the First Czechoslovak Republic, the Roma and LGBT people did not have an easy existence even then. Despite subscribing to democratic principles, there was persecution of minorities in the newly established state.
Homosexuality was punishable throughout the entire duration of Czechoslovakia (1918-1938). Since Czechoslovakia adopted the dual code from Austria-Hungary, which was divided on citizenship, the judiciary, the electoral and legal systems, Czechia and Slovakia also approached the criminalization of homosexuality in different ways. In Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia, the Austrian Penal Law of 1852, which defined homosexual relations as a crime with a penalty of between one and five years, remained in force.
In Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia, the Hungarian Penal Law of 1878 continued to apply, which punished only intercourse between men with imprisonment of up to one year. Female homosexuality was not punished. The establishment of democratic Czechoslovakia thus did not bring any significant breakthrough for the homosexual minority.
A similar situation prevailed in some of the successor states (e.g. Austria, Hungary, Croatia). An exception was made for those Austro-Hungarian territories that joined existing state formations after the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. For example, in Poland or Romania, homosexual intercourse was not criminalized.
In spite of the above-mentioned legislative limitations, in the environment of the First Czechoslovak Republic, the preconditions were created for the opening of a debate on the decriminalisation of homosexuality, especially in the environment of academic theorists (medicine, law), but also in the environment of the LGBT community itself. Neighbouring Germany, then as the democratic Weimar Republic (1918-1933), also had a great influence.
During this period, a movement for gay emancipation was established in Czechoslovakia, which benefited from the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of the press, the right of association and the right of assembly. This movement was represented by associations (the Czechoslovak League for Sexual Reform and Friendship) and the press. In the early 1930s, the first press organ of the people of the "sexual minority" was published in Czechoslovakia - Hlas sexuální menšiny (Voice of the Sexual Minority, 1931-1932).
This social magazine with various columns (political, literary) was committed to the abolition of the unjust article that punished homosexuals (many were easily blackmailable) and the elimination of prejudices about people of homosexual orientation. The magazine included an advertising section that facilitated dating and activism within the community. The magazine was also circulated and distributed in Slovakia.
Representatives of professional circles and activists in Czechoslovakia, also through magazines, articles and activities, tried to facilitate the everyday life of the homosexual community,...
The tradition of the Voice of the Sexual Minority was continued by the magazine Nový hlas (New Voice) (1932-1934), which also published a German-language supplement after 1933 (following the ban on the homosexual press in Germany). In 1936-1937, the publication of the Voice was briefly resumed, but due to economic problems the magazine ceased publication. In Brno, one issue of Kamarád (Friend) was published in 1932, founded and edited by the Slovak painter Štefan Leonard Kostelníček (1900-1949).
Representatives of professional circles and activists in Czechoslovakia, also through magazines, articles and activities, tried to facilitate the everyday life of the homosexual community, to enable them to contact their partners safely, to meet in restaurants and bars, to create social networks (legal, social, medical services).
Most homosexuals who chose to live their orientation openly sought the anonymous environment of big cities, where they had the possibility to get acquainted more easily with an appropriate partner. In the First Republic period, homosexual networks and communities are documented in Prague, Brno, Plzeň and, indirectly, Bratislava, as well as in the German industrial cities in the north of the republic. It can be assumed that these communities lived basically with the knowledge and tolerance of the police, although several cases of persecution and trials in which charges of "fornication against nature" were brought are known.
Regardless of social status, education or income, active participation in the homosexual community automatically meant for each individual a crossing of a kind of imaginary boundary between the world of citizens who lived an orderly life and a world that could easily lead them into the underworld and criminal elements (extortion, violent crime).
Contemporary court records even show a higher rate of legal sanction for homosexuality in democratic Czechoslovakia, although the penalties themselves were lower. At the same time, the accused had to deal with a tarnished reputation that accompanied him throughout his life. There was no significant change, so political democratisation did not automatically mean a change in the status of the LGBT minority. Sexual activity continued to be legally sanctioned, politically, culturally and socially largely rejected.
In the environment of conservative Slovakia, the homosexual community could only sustain itself within a large urban centre such as Bratislava. The declaration of autonomy in the autumn of 1938 and the subsequent declaration of the Slovak state in March 1939 severed most contacts with the Czech environment. This probably eliminated the possibilities of developing social contacts within the Czech-Slovak homosexual community. Religion played a very important role in Slovak society and strongly influenced the view of the LGBT minority and its criminalisation. Also in this period we can encounter accusations of individuals of "fornication against nature" as well as trials of individual defendants.
the Nazis generally considered LGBT people, like Jews, to be inferior and therefore to be wanted.
Despite the fact that for the Nazi regime in Germany homosexuality represented one of the greatest dangers to the German nation and its racial purity, systematic action against the LGBT minority did not take place in Slovakia between 1939 and 1945, according to the available information. However, it is highly unlikely that tolerance or respect for human rights was the reason. What the real reasons were we can only assume. They were probably a combination of trying to taboo the subject and the fact that the LGBT community was almost invisible in Slovakia, unlike in Germany.
However, the Nazis generally considered LGBT people, like Jews, to be inferior and therefore to be wanted. In the concentration camps, homosexuals were a specific category of prisoners who were obliged to wear the pink triangle marking. They were at the bottom of the social hierarchy within camp life (of the 5,000-15,000 homosexuals deported, almost 60% perished). Nazi Germany did not care in principle about preserving the "racial" purity of other peoples, so they had no principled reason to protect them from moral "decay." Nor did they therefore enforce or demand similar treatment of the homosexual community in occupied countries or satellite states.
In the environment of the wartime Slovak Republic, we can only record individual cases of punishment of homosexuals, which, however, did not receive any significant media coverage in the press. We have insufficient sources to study homosexual relations in specific social communities (the church, the HM youth organization, the Hlinka Guard), since such relations would have involved key organs of the regime; any hints of them remained taboo. The regime tried to eliminate any information about homosexuality.
all chapters
Remembering the HolocaustHungary
Return and emigrationHungary
LMBTQHungary
History of the HolocaustHungary
Fascist ideologyHungary
The HolocaustHungary
The HolocaustSlovakia
Slovak StateSlovakia
IdeologySlovakia
PersecutionSlovakia
AntisemitismSlovakia
AryanisationSlovakia
PorajmosSlovakia
PorajmosHungary
LGBT minoritySlovakia
First transportSlovakia
DeportationsSlovakia
Life in the campSlovakia
Slovak National UprisingSlovakia
HomecomingSlovakia
EmigrationSlovakia
