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DDR OUT OF THE CLOSET
With the recent publication of Reiner Werner's book "Homosexualitat: Herausforderung an Wissen und Toleranz" (Homosexuality: Challenge to Knowledge and Tolerance), East Germany would seem to be at an historic crossroads. Homosexual offences were removed from criminal law in 1968, but nonetheless since then public discussion of homosexuality has been sparse. The only organised gay groups have been formed under the protection of the East German evangelical church.
Reiner Werner is professor of forensic psychology at Berlin's Humboldt University and member of the board of editors of the paper Deine Gesundheit (Your Health). The latter has begun to publish in its question and answer page letters from homosexuals (four of which are quoted here) and Reiner Werner has transcribed dozens of them in his book.
The appearance of this book is welcomed and its contents praised, but at the same time the inclusion in it of two articles by other authors would seem to be inconsistent with Werner’s enlightened doctrines: one by Gunther Domer, a biologist who has developed a theory concerning "the weak immunity connected with homosexuality" and the other by Helga Horz which deals with ethical questions and which warns against the organisation of gays and the politicisation of homosexuality.