When Chinese medical student Li Shiu Tong met Magnus Hirschfeld in Shanghai during Hirschfeld’s 1931 world tour, their relationship — in which Li accompanied and cared for the famed sexologist across continents and the final years of his life — fell quickly into place. Li attended St. Johns University, which ran classes in English and prepared students for life in the international sphere. Growing up in a wealthy family with a banker father who supported his academic pursuits, he had ambitions to study abroad and a sharp interest in Hirschfeld’s work on sexuality. The 63-year-old Hirschfeld, who was one of the first public advocates for LGBTQ+ people and who campaigned against laws restricting homosexuality, had a reputation for fancying younger men socially. It would have been career suic

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