{"id":6113,"date":"2022-04-22T23:36:09","date_gmt":"2022-04-22T21:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/?p=6113"},"modified":"2022-04-23T01:38:24","modified_gmt":"2022-04-22T23:38:24","slug":"berlin-the-queer-capital-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/6113\/berlin-the-queer-capital-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Berlin – The Queer Capital ?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Berlin has long been known as the most vibrant and gay-friendly city within Europe. In the golden 1920\u00b4s the gay culture flourished and the city was the Gay Capital of Europe. Berlin’s rich history contains the first gay museum which opened in 1985 – discovering gay and lesbian history, art, and culture. Berlin has become a haven and refuge for gays and lesbians with it\u2019s diversity. Even today, The Global LGBTQ+ Directory<\/a> states, that nowhere does the queer community shape the cityscape as much as in Berlin. <\/strong>However, Berlin experiences a rising number in hate crimes against LGBTQ+ people<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n The biggest organisation for queer people in Germany is the Gay and Lesbian Association of Berlin and Brandenburg, LSDV. Christopher Schreiber, managing director of LSDV elaborates why we see a rise of acts against sexual orientation in Berlin:<\/p>\n[aesop_quote type=”block” background=”#ffffff” text=”#808080″ align=”center” size=”1″ quote=”\u201c We have this narrative that people say they don\u2019t feel safe anymore and that a few years ago they felt safer in Berlin. \u201d” parallax=”off” direction=”left” revealfx=”off”]\n However, the views are split. On one side, there are people who have not experienced any negative change. But on the other side, there are people within the queer community, who feel less safe in Berlin. Both views need to be respected and taken into account.<\/p>\n As an example of one of the sides, Christopher Schreiber describes how some drag queens say that five years ago they would go by public transportation to a concert or an other event. But today, they would not do that anymore. Instead they would take a taxi or an Uber.<\/p>\n Not all have negative experiences. To comedian Luize Be\u010da, who identifies herself as queer, being a part of the queer community in Berlin has been very positive:<\/p>\n[aesop_quote type=”block” background=”#ffffff” text=”#808080″ align=”center” size=”1″ quote=”\u201cHere I don\u2019t really have to pretend. For me it\u2019s done wonders. But I know it\u2019s not the same for everyone. The community is so big and there\u2019s so many stories, there is so much going on.\u201d” parallax=”off” direction=”left” revealfx=”off”]\n Christopher Schreiber tries to understand whether there is really a rise in homophobic violence\u00a0 <\/span>and what the narrative of not feeling safe anymore in Berlin means. He explains:<\/p>\n[aesop_quote type=”block” background=”#ffffff” text=”#808080″ align=”center” size=”1″ quote=”\u201cThe numbers are high and have been high. But Berlin is one of the very few states in Germany that actually has a statistic about homophobic and transphobic violence.\u201d” parallax=”off” direction=”left” revealfx=”off”]\n