Data from the German Ministry of Interior shows that in 2017, reports of hate crimes against homosexuals, bisexuals and transgender people in Germany rose by about 27%. What is even more worrying is that the influence of anti-LGBT extreme right politicians is becoming increasingly powerful.
Original text | Alice Hatton
Source | Atlantic Monthly
Compiled by | Guo Shiyu
In the minds of those fetishists, the Berlin Bull Bar, which can be found in pleasure and hunting for beauty, is definitely a place of pilgrimage. The reason for
is of course very complicated.
For old customers, this is a safe place that can satisfy all kinds of flavors in 24 hours. But for British historian Brandon Nash, it is a symbol of "Babylonian Berlin":
It was the most liberal golden decade of the city's LGBT group in the 1920s, when Hollywood bisexual star Marlene Dietley was hanging with prostitutes and girls in transgender dance halls.
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"For more than a hundred years, in this place, the Bull Bar has been a gay bar in some form."
54-year-old Nash is still energetic. He enthusiastically indicated a neon sign outside to the hiking tour group he led. The sign with a huge nose ring on it was very distinctive. He chuckled and told the tour group that an old woman would calmly walk through the Bull Bar at 5 a.m. every day, in case anyone was hungry.
"Nothing is something she hasn't seen before," said Nash.
Germany has long been praised for its free attitude towards sex. In October 2017, Germany passed laws allowing same-sex couples to marry and adopt, and became the first European country to legalize a third gender.
But at the same time, LGBT rights groups warn that extreme aversion to homosexuality in mainstream politics is also rising.
Since the far-right wing German Alternative Selection Party (AfD) broke into the Bundestag in 2017, politicians in the party have been calling for the imprisonment of gay people, vowed to abolish gay marriages, and condemn those infected with AIDS.
This type of attack not only symbolizes another global rightward earthquake, but also reminds people of the past of German fascism and human rights organizations that this is a sign of dangerous suppression of vulnerable minorities in the future.
Berlin is a very magical place where gay culture, politics, radicalism, clubs and sex echoes everywhere in the city.
During the annual Christopher Street Anniversary (also known as "Gay Pride") parade, people dance under the rain of colorful confetti (spilled on the bride and groom at the wedding). A fierce campaign to abolish intersex children's surgery is underway, and anti-racist protesters often flood the rallies of far-rights.
▲ On July 15, 2017, the LGBT group participated in the 25th Christopher Anniversary Parade (Photo/Oriental IC)
However, "Germany is not the glamorous and progressive country it wants to be portrayed as," said Katrin Hugendubel, head of publicity for the European Branch of the International Federation of Gays, and the Lesbians. Members of the International Federation of Gays include more than 1,000 LGBT organizations including lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenders, etc.
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1918, when the original Bull Bar first opened, Weimar-era Germany was entering a scandalous decade. Gay communities in New York, Paris and London face threats of incarceration, economic bankruptcy, murder and even death penalty.
Berlin, by contrast, is known for its unruly immoral behavior and unusual free law enforcement, making the city an undisputed gay sacred place in Europe.
▲In the 1920s, transgender and drag dancers in the famous nightclub " Golden Country " in Berlin (Photo/Herbert Hoffman, bpk-Bildagentur)
By the 1920s, the "lace edge" living in Berlin was estimated to have 85,000, and the gay market was booming:
There were about 100 LGBT bars and clubs, where artists and writers hang out with drag call girls, which is said to be the latter inspiring the director of "The Passion Like Fire". Magnus Hershfield’s Institute for Sexual Science Revolution openly lobbies to legalize homosexuality and helps trans men apply to government agencies for a new gender legal life.
Whether it is straight or homosexual, the audience lined up in front of the gate of Eldorado. The Golden Kingdom is a Jewish nightclub where transgender women and drag queens perform and provide paid dances to customers. There, customers watched a nude dance named after anesthetics starring Anita Berber, a drug-addicted bisexual.
In the movie "Cabaret", you can see the "unforgettable" years spent in Berlin by British writer Christopher Isherwood in 1929. He wrote in his diary: "I am looking for a paradise in my heart, and I will see if this is the destination of my soul."
Isherwood is Brandon Nash's love. Nash is not an ordinary military scholar on paper. He is shaved, wearing a hooded jacket, and endless romantic anecdotes.
▲Historist Brandon Nash led a history-learning hike tour to Berlin (Photo/Alice Hutton)
In the past 8 years, he has brought tourists and students who are serious about gender theory to return to the past to find the souls of their pioneer heroes. This is part of Brandon Nash's popular LGBT walking tour in "Gay Tour" by Sheneberg.
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But recently, this trip has made unusual meanings. Brandon Nash not only teaches history, but also compares it to the present.
"1932 is the year 2016." Nash explained to the crowd who was fully focused.
In the bright and cold sunshine, he was wrapped in a thick coat. He passed on a 1 million mark note found in a flea market that is about 90 years old, a legacy of the past period of hyperinflation, which was driven by many to champion populist politicians.
He added: "The desperate poor have been promised to have a job, they can 'take back control' and 'make Germany great again'."
voters voted, and the National Socialist German Workers' Party, which later became the Nazi party, received a shocking 6.3 million votes, with seats in the German Bundestag from 12 to 107.
10 months later, on May 6, 1933, the Berlin Institute of Sexual Science was robbed and homosexual dance was banned. From 1933 to 1945, an estimated 100,000 homosexuals were arrested. The golden decade of German sexual freedom is over.
▲After the Nazis came to power in 1933, the Berlin Institute of Sexual Science was looted, a large number of books were burned, and staff were persecuted (photo/bpk-Bildagenur)
Nash warmly talked about the comparison between the rise of fascism in the 1920s and 1930s and the modern rhetoric of Germany. He said: "When I read the political speech in 1932, I was thinking to myself that I also heard someone say this in the news at 6 o'clock last night."
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Germany's current political sentiment is not stable, and there is another rift between the conservative East Germany and the wealthy West Germany.
In September 2017, the German Alternative Party made history and became the first open far-right party to sit in the German Bundestag in 60 years. Founded in 2013, the party is a fringe anti-immigrant group that is allegedly linked to neo-Nazism. The party is currently the third largest party in Germany, with 92 seats in the German Bundestag and a representative in each state. Micha Schultz, executive editor of
gay news website queer.de, said that since the founding of the Alternative Party, the LGBT community has experienced unbearable incitement of hatred.He quoted German alternative politicians as saying that same-sex marriage means "the death of a country", and they also posted obituaries on their website to mourn the "Germany family."
Data from the German Interior Ministry shows that in 2017, reports of hate crimes against homosexuals, bisexuals and transgender people in Germany rose by about 27%. Schultz and other gay, bisexual and transgender groups say this is just the tip of the iceberg.
In October 2018, Alexander Goland, a joint leader of the German Alternative Selection Party, was accused of claiming that his vow to abolish same-sex marriage was actually adapted from a speech by Hitler in 1933. In the same month, the party set up a website to recruit child informants to secretly monitor teachers who express political views in the classroom, including those who support LGBT rights. The party also incited young people to "condemn" the teachers anonymously online.
Saxon Culture Minister Christian Pivaz called it a "despicable snooping mentality that has been since the Nazi dictatorship or Stasi's era."
▲ Alexander Goland, co-leader of the German Alternative Selection Party (AfD), (photo/Visual China)
December 7, 2018, the Sexual Health Charity, Shilf Saxon Anhalt Nord Association for AIDS, criticized the article published on Facebook by Hans Thomas, a representative of the German Alternative Selection Party, on Echoing the Nazi propaganda against homosexuality. The post called AIDS patients "a social martyr who was uncontrollable, greedy for pleasure and excessive sexual desire."
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Although the German Alternative Party has a homophobic reputation, it is surprising that another co-leader of the party, 39-year-old Alice Weider, is a Lara who lives with her female partner and children.
This former investment banker is not fighting for equal rights for LGBT, but just wants to protect gay people in Germany from "dangerous" Muslim immigrants.
Wedel calls Muslims "headscarves girls", "knife men who claim to enjoy welfare" and other idle people. The party even has an outspoken LGBT group called the Alternative Gay, which holds an anti-immigration attitude.
When asked about her attitude, Weidel accused the media of spreading "rumors" and insisted on saying to German Spiegel: "People think I'm involved in a homophobic party, but that's not the case."
Anti-LGBT sentiment also seems to be spreading outside the far-right parties. , Anne Gret Kramp-Karenbauer (formerly the Secretary-General of the CDU), who replaced German Chancellor Angela Merkel as chairman of the Christian Democratic League, had previously publicly stated that same-sex marriage may lead to the legalization of incest.
"You can say we live in an environment full of hate speech," said Marcus Ulrich, spokesman for the influential lobby group, the Gay Federation of Germany.
Ulrich believes that most mainstream left-wing and center-right parties have “consensused” on recent legislation supporting the LGBT community and will oppose those attempts to repeal the legislation, but it is worrying that far-right politicians are also growing in influence. “This is undoubtedly a step towards concrete, violent actions targeting the LGBT community,” Ulrich added.
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At present, Berlin's sexual subcultural groups continue to move forward along the footsteps of their predecessors who pioneered sexual freedom in the 1920s. This place still retains its old style and is still a place for this special group.
At 2:50 am, in the stylish neighborhood of Berlin, Kreuzberg, in the dark and pungent nightclub SO36, the host of the Queen's beauty pageant wearing a blonde wig, a golden hat and thick legs, picked up the microphone:
"It's getting bad. It's no joke that you want to commit suicide when you find yourself gay, it's not a joke. This is too common in this city." Pansy told the crowd immersed in beer, "But the only thing that keeps me going is resistance. Come to such a space and see what's going on in the world."
"The only way we can overcome pain," Pansy said to a group of drunken screaming advocates, "is when we can get together as normal people and celebrate each other. Do you understand what I mean? ”
