In books on Hirschfeld, Li is usually just a footnote.īut as I found in my research, Li was a sexologist and activist in his own right. He was a closeted German doctor and sexologist who became famous in the 1930s as a defender of gay people. Much has been written about Li’s older boyfriend, Magnus Hirschfeld. You probably don’t know the name, but he was at the center of the first wave of gay politics. Historians are rediscovering one of the most important LGBTQ activists of the early 20th century-an Asian Canadian named Li Shiu Tong.
