Schwules Museum presents “The History of Sneaking”, a 3 part lecture series on Intersex Histories

To duck, to hide, to evade, to conceal, to sneak: To navigate this world while intersex.

In the early 1800s a belief took hold in the medical profession: That the intersex body – a body biologically situated beyond the medically established binary of male or female – is a body who conceals a truth only doctors can uncover. In the attempt to identify whether a body can be neither male nor female, the diagnostic efforts of medical personal led to the pathologisation of inter* bodies until today.

Inter* life and activists had significant influence on the making and deconstruction of sex as we believe to know it today. From strategies to navigate the construction of sex in the 19th century to surviving totalitarianism and creating movements persisting today, four researchers, artists and activists present the results of their attempts to retrace inter* histories, (re)telling biographies, resistance and means of survival.

Hosted by:

Jako Wende researches the histories and lived experiences of trans*, inter*, and/or gender-nonconforming people under national socialism from the perspective of a non-binary endo trans* person. In the course of their work, Jako continues to uncover individuals who have so far been excluded from public remembrance and commemorative cultur

Juliana Gleeson is a writer from West London, who now lives in East Berlin. After co-editing the pioneering anthology Transgender Marxism, her debut Hermaphrodite Logic provided a history of intersex liberation (from 1990-2025).

River Roux is a performer, writer, and pole dancer. Her work focuses on the intersections of labor, gender, care, and sex. Roux’s performances begin in archives, where she traces the lives of trans* and inter* people. Since the 26/27 season, Roux has been part of the ensemble at the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz.

Timeline:

→ A Woman in Question or Why Are You so Obsessed with Me with River Roux, 2. September 2026

→ ‚Ich möchte so gern mein Leben in die Welt schreien‘ with Jako Wende, 8. October 2026

→ The Unlikely Birth of the Intersex Movement with Juliana Gleeson, 18. November 2026

Image: River Roux

Funded by the Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion; Funding for Projects on Contemporary History and the Culture of Remembrance 2026