Ellis, Havelock (1859–1939)

Henry Havelock Ellis was a pioneer of sexology, the scientific study of human sexuality. As he details in his memoir My Life (1939), he grew up in South London, England, and had an open marriage with Edith Ellis (née Lees) (1861–1916), who was a lesbian. Ellis is best known for his seven-volume series, Studies in the Psychology of Sex (1897–1928). The earliest of these volumes, a study of (mostly male) same-sex behaviors entitled Sexual Inversion (inversion being Ellis’s preferred term for "homosexuality," a term he disliked) appended writings by poet and sexologist J. A. Symonds (1840–1893). The book was banned in Britain on grounds of obscenity, forcing Ellis to publish all further writings in the United States. Ellis was an early theorist of what he termed "erotism," developing influential concepts and theories regarding auto-erotism, sadism, masochism, and fetishism. Ellis participated, with Richard von Krafft-Ebing (1840–1902) and Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), in the burgeoning study of non-normative sexual practices, which he grouped under the umbrella term "erotic symbolism" (Ellis cited in Schaffner: 99). Suggesting that "abnormal" expressions of sexuality were congenital and harmless, Ellis advocated for the reform of laws that criminalized acts of "inversion" (homosexual acts) in public and private. A proponent of eugenics, Ellis also shared a long-standing friendship with American contraceptive-rights leader Margaret Sanger.

Crosby, Harry (1898–1929)

Harry Crosby, wealthy nephew of J. P. Morgan, was a notorious rebel in moneyed Bostonian circles, an expatriate in Paris during the 1920s, and partner to the equally legendary Caresse Crosby, with whom he spent eight years living in an open marriage. History has overlooked the Crosbys for being dilettantish or the product of sensationalizing hearsay rather than serious literary endeavor. Such a critical paucity is misleading, however. The Crosbys set up the Black Sun Press, famous for its deluxe publication of early portions of James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake among other titles, with various editions illustrated by Max Ernst. The Black Sun Press was privately funded by the Crosbys, and became, according to Sy Kahn, ‘one of the most adventurous publishers of the decade’ (1970: 45). Harry Crosby was devoted to modernist poetry and literary innovation. A significant correspondent and reader of Hart Crane’s ongoing works, Crosby was also a silent benefactor to Maria Jolas and Eugene Jolas’s Little Magazine transition. Crosby funded the magazine with a regular $100 for the editors to support the best new poets of the day.

Brik, Osip (1888–1945)

Osip Maksimovich (Meerovich) Brik (Осип Максимович Брик) was a prominent Soviet poet and critic, editor of Left Front of the Arts (LEF) and a founding member of OPOYAZ (Society for the Study of Poetic Language). His role in Soviet Constructivism and Futurism emerges neatly in Alexander Rodchenko’s famous photomontage of the critic. Replacing the left lens of Brik’s glasses with the letters ‘ЛЕФ’ (in reference to Левый фронт искусств, or LEF, the magazine that Brik ran with the poet Vladimir Mayakovsky from 1923–25), Rodchenko underscores three fundamental elements of Brik’s persona: the emphasis on the photograph as construction underscores Brik’s interest, following Roman Jakobson, in the cultural product’s materiality (Fer 124); the image captures Brik’s LEF-tinted world view (abandon handicraft for industrial process; eschew genius for collectivity; forego fiction); and, being known more for Rodchenko’s artistry than for Brik’s visage, it captures Brik’s deference to artists and writers – most notoriously to Mayakovsky. Brik celebrated Mayakovsky’s work in his essays and also shared his wife, Lilya Yuryevna Brik, née Kagan, with whom Brik had an open marriage, with the poet. The three cohabited from 1919. Though certain biographical elements of Brik’s personal history remain controversial, it is known that Brik came from a Moscow merchant family, studied law and, with his wife, worked for the Cheka (the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution, Profiteering and Corruption), a forerunner of the KGB, for at least part of the 1920s (Kurchanova 54). After LEF, Brik became involved with Novyi LEF (1927–28; ‘New LEF’), though not as an editor, directed INKhUK (the Institute of Artistic Culture) and helped organize VKhUTEMAS (The All-State Artistic-Technical Workshops). He consistently emphasized the importance of the cultural product’s materiality, but shifted from supporting artistic freedom to arguing that art must serve the state (Kurchanova 73).

When, if not Now? An Update on Civil Partnership in Germany

Following the article “Marriage, Same-Sex Partnership, and the German Constitution,” which was published in theGerman Law Journalin 2012 (seeAnne Sanders,Marriage, Same Sex Partnership and the Constitution, 13 German L.J. 911 [2012]), this article provides an update on recent developments in relation to same sex partnerships in Germany. The focus of this Article is case law of the German Constitutional Court from 2002 through today, but it also discusses other court decisions in relation to the rights of same sex parents. The Article concludes with an examination of a recent draft law which—if successful—will open marriage to same sex couples. While its chances for success are extremely slim, this Article argues that same sex marriage will eventually be introduced in Germany.