Legal aid for Montserrat Varela against Kellermann

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Crowdfunding Montserrat Varela

Current status: 8.600,- EUR

Thank you and keep up the good work!
Sta­tus: 8/4/2013 | 1:00 PM

With this crowd­fun­ding, Monts­er­rat Vare­la, a pro­fes­sio­nal trans­la­tor (Twit­ter hand­le https://twitter.com/MontserratVaNo) asks you for sup­port in defen­ding hers­elf against a cri­mi­nal com­plaint for insult under Sec­tion 185 of the Ger­man Cri­mi­nal Code (  https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/englisch_stgb/englisch_stgb.html#p1891  ). She was repor­ted by Geor­gi­ne Kel­ler­mann (Twit­ter hand­le https://twitter.com/GeorgineKellerm) for a tweet in Spa­nish in which she refer­red to Kel­ler­mann as „trans­vest­i­do.“

The amount sought for her legal defen­se is EUR 10,000.

Tax-deductible donation to:

Frau­en­hel­din­nen e.V.
Betreff: Rechts­hil­fe für Monts­er­rat Vare­la
Glad­ba­cher Bank
IBAN: DE02 3106 0181 5311 3990 06
BIC: GENODED1GBM

Pay­pal account: konto@frauenheldinnen.de

If you would like a dona­ti­on receipt, plea­se wri­te your address in the sub­ject line. Thank you very much!

EPC QR code for SEPA payment

Sim­ply scan with the ban­king app.

Why this crowdfunding?

On Janu­ary 27, 2023, I pos­ted the thread lin­ked below on Twit­ter in Spa­nish:

Link to the thread

[The Tweet con­ta­ins a pho­to of the press state­ment by the “Anti­dis­kri­mi­nie­rungs­stel­le des Bun­des” i.e. Fede­ral Anti-Dis­cri­mi­na­ti­on Agen­cy ( https://www.antidiskriminierungsstelle.de/SharedDocs/downloads/DE/publikationen/Flyer/die_antidiskriminierungsstelle_stellt_sich_vor_englisch_barrierefrei.html  ), link to the Press state­ment in Ger­man: https://www.antidiskriminierungsstelle.de/SharedDocs/aktuelles/DE/2023/20230126_gedenken_bt.html ]

Trans­la­ti­on of the the Spa­nish Tweet:
Today is the day of the libe­ra­ti­on of Ausch­witz. Yesterday’s press state­ment does not men­ti­on Jews, it cen­ters a group of per­sons who were not part of the “End­lö­sung” pro­gram that began in 1942
Were homo­se­xu­als per­se­cu­ted? Yes.
How? [arrow to thread below]
#Ausch­witz #WeRe­mem­ber

The 2023 com­me­mo­ra­ti­on of the Ausch­witz libe­ra­ti­on by the Ger­man Bun­des­tag (Fede­ral Par­lia­ment) no lon­ger cen­te­red Jewish peo­p­le, the main vic­tims of the Holo­caust, but the group of peo­p­le the fede­ral govern­ment resp. Ms Ata­man (anti-dis­cri­mi­na­ti­on ombuds­wo­man) calls “que­er peo­p­le”.

In my view, the deno­mi­na­ti­on “que­er” con­sti­tu­tes a his­to­ri­cal revi­sio­nism of this epoch in 20th cen­tu­ry Ger­man histo­ry.

My point is: at that time there was no queer theory.

Que­er theo­ry emer­ged pri­ma­ri­ly in the USA from the 1990s onwards and has gra­du­al­ly spread throug­hout the Wes­tern world. The term „que­er peo­p­le“ in today’s sen­se was not known back then.

Among the peo­p­le per­se­cu­ted by the Nazis at that time were homo­se­xu­al men under § 175 StGB [Cri­mi­nal Code] and les­bi­an women, who were arres­ted and some­ti­mes depor­ted as so-cal­led „Aso­zia­le“ (“anti­so­cials”).

What exis­ted in tho­se days was so-cal­led „trans­ves­tism“, which was emer­ging as a rese­arch topic. This term or rather the term „trans­ves­ti­te“ was coin­ed by Magnus Hirsch­feld in 1910 in his rese­arch work „Trans­ves­ti­tes: The Ero­tic Dri­ve to Cross-Dress“ (link to the digi­ti­zed book).

In this rese­arch paper, Hirsch­feld explai­ned that the­re was no ine­vi­ta­ble con­nec­tion bet­ween homo­se­xua­li­ty and trans­ves­tism. In this rese­arch paper, Hirsch­feld explai­ned that the­re was no ine­vi­ta­ble con­nec­tion bet­ween homo­se­xua­li­ty and trans­ves­tism. This enab­led him to have poli­ce in Ber­lin start issuing trans­ves­ti­te cer­ti­fi­ca­tes, known col­lo­qui­al­ly as „Trans­ves­ti­ten­schein“, for the indi­vi­du­als in ques­ti­on. Later, other cities fol­lo­wed.

This cer­ti­fi­ca­te pro­tec­ted peo­p­le who dres­sed as the „oppo­si­te sex“ from per­se­cu­ti­on by the poli­ce. The bene­fi­ci­a­ries of this regu­la­ti­on were pri­ma­ri­ly men. This prac­ti­ce did not chan­ge after the Nazi take­over of power; accor­ding to Rai­ner Herrn, Zeit­schrift für Sexu­al­for­schung Jf. 26 (2013) 4, pp. 330–37, it was true that „as long as trans peo­p­le were able to refu­te the ’sus­pi­ci­on of homo­se­xua­li­ty‘ rai­sed against them, the­re is no evi­dence in any spe­ci­fic case for their pro­se­cu­ti­on.“

Accor­ding to the­se cri­te­ria, a hete­ro­se­xu­al, mar­rid man who secret­ly or publicly wore women’s clot­hing, shoes, under­wear, make­up, nail polish, etc., would not have had to fear any pro­se­cu­ti­on at that time, becau­se he could have refu­ted the accu­sa­ti­on of homo­se­xua­li­ty and obtai­ned a so-cal­led trans­ves­ti­te cer­ti­fi­ca­te.

I men­tio­ned G. Kel­ler­mann in my thread as an exam­p­le of a „trans­ves­ti­te“ becau­se G. Kel­ler­mann had been invi­ted to the com­me­mo­ra­ti­on cerem­o­ny for the vic­tims of Ausch­witz in the Ger­man Bun­des­tag (Fede­ral Par­lia­ment). The core state­ment of my Janu­ary thread was the his­to­ri­cal­ly cor­rect posi­ti­on that a per­son like G. Kel­ler­mann would not have been sub­jec­ted to pro­se­cu­ti­on under the con­di­ti­ons of the time and would not have been a vic­tim of Ausch­witz.

Kellermann’s very own public state­ments reve­al a life as “Georg Kel­ler­mann” until the age of 62, while secret­ly wea­ring women’s clo­thes. Thus, G. Kel­ler­mann (accor­ding to Hirschfeld’s defi­ni­ti­on) could have obtai­ned said cer­ti­fi­ca­te as a „trans­ves­ti­te“ and would not have had to fear cri­mi­nal pro­se­cu­ti­on. Modi­fi­ca­ti­ons of the per­so­nal or legal sta­tus on G. Kellermann’s birth cer­ti­fi­ca­te does not chan­ge any aspect of this.

Charge and impending punishment

Kel­ler­mann repor­ted me for using the „trans­ves­ti­te“ word. This char­ge may lead to cri­mi­nal pro­cee­dings. In case of a con­vic­tion accor­ding to § 185 StGB, I will be threa­ten­ed with a fine or a pri­son sen­tence of up to one year. I won’t eva­de this tri­al – I con­ti­nue to stand by my state­ments.

I con­sider this char­ge to be yet ano­ther attempt to inti­mi­da­te and silence women who take a stand against que­er and trans pro­pa­gan­da.

Legal defense

I have hired a lawy­er fami­li­ar with this sub­ject mat­ter to defend me.

In order to under­go the­se legal pro­cee­dings finan­ci­al­ly, I am depen­dent on dona­ti­ons.

Dona­ti­on limit: 10,000 EUR

Accor­ding to my lawyer’s esti­ma­tes, the­se pro­cee­dings are likely to cost 10,000 EUR. Expe­ri­en­ces made by women like Marie-Lui­se Vollbrecht or Rona Duwe con­firm this.

Should the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Munich deci­de to drop the inves­ti­ga­ti­ons, and should the dona­ti­ons recei­ved exceed the cos­ts, the sur­plus amount will be dona­ted to the legal aid fund of the non-pro­fit asso­cia­ti­on Frau­en­hel­din­nen e.V. (lit. asso­cia­ti­on for women’s hero­i­nes). This legal aid fund pro­vi­des legal defen­se for women.

I am not the first woman to be hit with char­ges by trans acti­vists and I will not be the last. Trans acti­vists will con­ti­nue to try to silence our voices. This mustn’t hap­pen. That’s what the asso­cia­ti­on Frau­en­hel­din­nen e.V. is for.

Let’s fight tog­e­ther for our human rights as women, for free­dom of expres­si­on and for demo­cra­cy.

Thank you for your sup­port!

 

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