Queer and antifascist – our bridges will hold!
Hello dear queers and allies,
We are happy to see all your beautiful faces here today.
Today we want to create a queer safer space where no one has to hide. A day where you can just be yourselves. We want to create beautiful memories, we want to dance, we want to be loud. We want to show the whole of Dresden that we exist. We will claim the space we deserve and we need.
We are celebrating 5 years of Queer Pride―first on the streets and later at oka. Five years of loud and colourful, angry and sexy, consensual and combative queer voices from Dresden!
But of course we’re not here just to celebrate. Because queerness is not just a set of letters. It means thinking and living queer. To be truly free, we need to overcoming hard and hierarchical norms. It means to ruffle the feathers of normative structures. We need to get free from thinking of ourselves as economic units, locked in perpetual competition. It means resisting oppression and exploitation in all its forms. And right now, it means building bridges.
Our motto for this year is ‘QUEER AND ANTIFASCIST – our bridges hold!’ Because anti-fascism and queer liberation belong together. Because we know that we can only win the fight for a future in dignity, freedom and diversity if we stand together in solidarity.
In these times, queer and antifascist unity is more important than ever. Separating ourselves, pitting us against each other, making us feel weak and isolated―that’s exactly what the hate preachers want. Beyond the walls of social exclusion and the trenches of dividing hatred, we build bridges of tenderness and community. A community that celebrates and defends diversity. Because no one of us can be free until everybody is free.
We want to build bridges to the past.
We want to celebrate our queer pioneers with you. Queer history is not just a list of persecution, violence and erasure. Queer history is also a tale of life and learning, of resistance and retreats. Above all, queer history shows us the enormous historical power that lies within us. The strength to stand up again and again, to keep fighting and, above all, to always stand together!
Our queer ancestors and queer elders have shown tremendous courage time and again. Whether Magnus Hirschfeld or Rudolf Klimmer, whether Marsha P. Johnson or Sylvia Rivera, whether the defenders of the queer house in Mainzer Straße, Silvia Rentzsch or Nora Eckart – they have all fought for themselves, fought for others, fought for us. And for that they deserve a fuckton of praise!
We want to build bridges to small Prides in eastern Germany.
We want to strengthen the colourful hinterland. Because where right-wing and anti-democratic forces gain influence, our spaces and our visibility are threatened. Solidarity goes out to all people who remain resolute in rural areas! Especially there, it is crucial that queer life and democratic values are defended.
These important freedoms are often further reduced by the authorities and police. In Bautzen, the authorities want to let the right-wing mob march after the CSD again. Puppy masks were banned at the CSD in Frankenberg. And the first CSD this year in Schönebeck was cancelled prematurely. Not because of Nazi threats, but because the public order office suddenly came up with new requirements and categorised the songs being played as apolitical. This harassment is utter nonsense and one more reason for the demand: No Police at Pride!
This makes common goals all the more important: let’s stay visible, stand solidly and united! With the ‘colourful hinterland!’ campaign, we are tackling these goals together as East German CSDs and Queer Prides.
Because together we are louder, can learn from each other and support each other! And only together can we stand our ground against those structures that keep attacking our rights and self-determination!
We want to build bridges for the future.
We are not only concerned about the increasing right-wing extremist violence on the streets. There are also anti-queer right-wing majorities formed by AfD and CDU in district councils. NGOs get defamed, youth work is cut back and democracy education gets blocked. As a result, the pressure on queer, left-wing and critical people is increasing in the very places where their commitment is most important.
And unfortunately, things don’t look much better at state level. The CDU-SPD minority government in Saxony is swinging the axe against democracy work and queer counselling services with its draft budget. The situation is just as bleak for sexual education and health prevention by the Aidshilfe associations. Existential cuts at these places will weaken us at least as much as the direct threat from violent fascists.
It is now rumoured that the Greens and the Left have secured some compromises in the negotiations. But even so, the money remains far too tight at every turn. But we’re not giving up that easy. And we’re not selling the queer community to Springer Verlag for €150,000 like CSD Dresden. No, we are focussing on community care and do-it-yourself. We take care of education and knowledge exchange ourselves. We collect and share information on hormone therapies and good doctors. We’re sharing burdens and income in solidarity. And in this way, we are painstakingly repairing the rifts that are being widened by these bad political decisions. We don’t rely on the state – we rely on each other and mutual aid.
We want to build bridges between us.
We invite you to join us, be part of our spaces and movements. Let’s create a practice of solidarity that connects us and carries us. Here in Dresden, together at the East German Prides or in international struggles.
There will also be a Queer Pride kick-off meeting in autumn. Follow our social media channels for the announcement. Come to the meeting, get to know us and get involved in our work.
If you don’t have the time or energy for political engagement, financial support always helps. You can give donations to the people who come round the demo with money boxes. Every euro helps and goes directly to our projects like this demo, the ‘Queer Action Weeks’, community events like the “unholy club”, and so on – thank you very much for all your support!
And I would like to take this moment to say a huge thank you. Thank you to everyone who organised Queer Pride and the whole programme around it! Thank you to everyone who makes our community so dynamic. Thank you to everyone who fights with us for a colourful hinterland. Thank you to Ocean from Döbeln and Lea from Bautzen, who were recently on our panel. Thank you to all queer voices in East Germany! And thank you to everyone who is celebrating Pride with us today, whether queer or questioning or as allies! You all paint a wonderful picture. The fact that we are standing together so proudly here gives us confidence for the future!
We want to build bridges to utopia.
Let’s get away from the disappointing normality of right-wing rancour and grey capitalist uniformity. Today we invite you to dream with us and shape our visions into reality. At the demo and at the party, talking and dancing together. We are brave and bold because we know one thing for sure: we will never leave each other alone as a community, and we will never give up as a community!
Let’s realise our dreams together. Let’s raise the resistance against all queer-hostile, all trans-hostile, all anti-feminist arseholes in this world. Let’s be loud and let them know: We will not be intimidated, we will not be driven out, and we will certainly not hide!
Together we can make sure that no one is left alone. Together we stand up for queer life to be present and protected everywhere. Whether today in Dresden or on 28 June in Budapest. And just as resolutely on August 10th in Bautzen.
Because one thing is clear: the streets will be ours in 2025, too!
Our Prides will remain places of our joy!
Our Prides will remain platforms for our demands!
Our Prides will remain spaces for our fantasies!
We’re queer, we’re anti-fascist, and our bridges will hold!