The townhall of Hamburg with the rainbow flag

For the first time since he was elected in 2001, Hamburg’s First Mayor Ole von Beust lead the parade when it started off in Lange Reihe, Hamburg’s gay “main street”. This is remarkable because even though von Beust is gay himself (he was sort of outed publicly in 2003 when a member of the Hamburg senate tried to blackmail him), he never particularly stood out as an advocate for gay rights.

Hamburg’s First Mayor Ole von Beust (blue shirt)

Here are some more impressions of the parade:

“Equal Duties, Equal Rights”

“Stop the homo-bashing, we want in the constitution”

“Solidary with Gays and Lesbians in Eastern Europe”

For more info, visit the official website of Hamburg Pride.

When I heard the news about last night’s shooting in a GLBT club in Tel Aviv, I was shocked and saddened. Then anger and frustration kicked in as well. As of now, we still don’t know who the shooter was and why he did it, but as there were reports that he also tried to attack a gay night club, it’s very likely that he specifically went after gays and lesbians and that it was a hate crime. And he didn’t just go after any gay and lesbian men and women, his targets were gay teenagers. Accordingly, one of the two people killed was a 16-year-old girl. Some of the teenagers in the group supposedly weren’t even out to their families, making them one of the most vulnerable groups among GLBT people. How much of a threat can they actually be, and to whom, that they deserve to be shot and killed?

I know that there will never be an answer to that question that will make what happened comprehensible for me. Hate rarely is rational, it doesn’t work that way. Why hate somebody who has never done you any harm? Why attack somebody whose only “crime” it is to be different?

I think that what’s usually behind hate is, more often than not, ignorance and fear. Fear of the unknown, of all things different from the respective person and their perception of what is normal. And I believe that the key to change this is visibility and openness.

Last night was the kick-off to this year’s Pride Week in Hamburg, which will culminate in next weekend’s Pride Parade. This year, more than ever, I feel the urge to be part of the parade, part of the community, to be out and proud, and to send the message that the ongoing discrimination, injustice and even violence directed at the GLBT community is unacceptable. Not just because of the tragic events in Tel Aviv, but for so many reasons. Be it the growing number of homophobic attacks against gay and lesbian couples in Berlin. Be it the ineffable homophobic agenda pursued by politicians in Eastern Europe, like Poland and Lithuania. Or be it the derogatory discussions about whether gay and lesbian couples can be good parents.

Of course, we will probably not be able to convince those whose hate is deeply rooted within them. But we can still try. And we can increase the number of people who won’t tolerate or even accept the hate, the violence and the discrimination against members of the GLBT community once they understand that being gay or lesbian isn’t just about sleeping with a person of the same gender or about being different, but that it’s about love.

There’s a line from the movie “If These Walls Could Talk 2” that I think best reflects the message that I would like to send to all the homophobic, hateful, or maybe just fearful people out there. When Fran (Sharon Stone) has second thoughts about having a child with her partner because all of the teasing and social marginalization their child might have to deal with, Kal (Ellen DeGeneres) tries to calm her by telling her that all that matters was their love for each other:

“It’s all from love, how can that be wrong?”

It can’t. Period.

The picture in this article was posted on the “Join the Impact” website as a protest sign against Proposition 8, the proposition against marriage equality in California. My heart goes out to the victims of the horrible attack in Tel Aviv and to their relatives and friends.

(Posted on eurOut on August 2nd, 2009)

40 Jahre Stonewall
Heute vor 40 Jahren, in der Nacht vom 27. auf den 28. Juni 1969, kam es zu den sogenannten “Stonewall Unruhen” in der New Yorker Christopher Street, die allgemein als Auslöser für die amerikanische Schwulen- und Lesbenbewegung gelten und denen der jährliche “Christopher Street Day” seinen Namen verdankt. Einen interessanten Beitrag zu den Hintergründen der damaligen Ereignisse findet man bei Spiegel Online: “Als die Schwulen das Kämpfen lernten”.

Zypries nennt Benachteiligung gleichgeschlechtlicher Paare “zutiefst ungerecht”
Bundesjustizministerin Brigitte Zypries hat die Ungleichbehandlung gleichgeschlechtlicher Paare gegenüber verheirateten hetereosexuellen Paaren als “zutiefst ungerecht” bezeichnet. In einem Interview mit der “Süddeutsche Zeitung” aus Anlass des Christopher Street Days in Berlin sprach sie sich nicht nur für die von schwullesbischen Verbänden in ganz Deutschland geforderte Ergänzung von Artikel 3 des Grundgesetzes dahingehend aus, dass niemand wegen seiner sexuellen Orientierung benachteiligt werden dürfe, sondern auch für eine Erweiterung des in Artikel 6 verankerten Schutzes von Ehe und Familie auf Lebenspartnerschaften.

Rachel Maddow, “Butch” und Sexsymbol
Rachel Maddow ist auf dem Cover der aktuellen Ausgabe der Zeitschrift “The Village Voice” abgebildet. In der sogenannten “The Queer Issue” der New Yorker Zeitschrift gibt es neben einem Interview mit der populären Moderatorin des Nachrichtensenders MSNBC (“The Rachel Maddow Show”) unter dem Titel “The Butch is Back” auch einen Artikel über Frauen wie Rachel oder auch Ellen DeGeneres, die trotz ihres oft eher als “männlich” beschriebenen Äußeren und persönlichen Stils inzwischen als Sexsymbole gelten, und das nicht nur für lesbische, sondern auch für heterosexuelle Frauen und sogar Männer.

(Picture: The Rachel Maddow Show)

Mehr News und Lesenwertes in Kürze:

• “Gewalt fängt nicht an, wenn es blutet”
  Die Homophobie-Expertin der Berliner Polizei spricht in der taz über ihre Arbeit und Gewalt gegen die LGBT-Community.

• “Happily Married Without Children”
  Ellen DeGeneres hat (zum wiederholten Mal) erklärt, dass und warum sie und Ehefrau Portia nicht anstreben, Mütter zu werden.

• In Memoriam
  In dieser Woche verstarben der “King of Pop” Michael Jackson (50), Schauspielerin Farrah Fawcett (62, “Drei Engel für Charlie”) und die belgische Sängerin und Moderatorin Yasmine (37).

Kampagne des CSD Hamburg:
“Gleich wie du fühlst. Gleich vorm Gesetz!”

Jessica Capshaw bleibt bei Grey’s Anatomy
Fans des neuen lesbischen Fernsehtraumpaars Callie & Arizona können aufatmen. Wie “Entertainment Weekly” gestern berichtete, haben die Produzenten der Serie “Grey’s Anatomy” Jessica Capshaw als reguläres Cast-Mitglied unter Vertrag genommen. Capshaw, Tochter von Schauspielerin Kate Capshaw, Stieftochter von Steven Spielberg und lesbischen Fernsehzuschauerinnen spätestens seit ihrem Gastauftritt als Bettes verführerische Assistentin “Nadia” in “The L Word” ein Begriff, spielt seit der 5. Staffel die Kinderchirurgin Dr. Arizona Robbins, die Orthopädin Callie Torres (Sara Ramirez) den Kopf verdreht. In Deutschland lief die erste Folge mit ihr am vergangenen Mittwoch.

Jessica Capshaw (links) mit Sara Ramirez

Aus Chastity wird Chaz
Chastity Bono, amerikanische Aktivistin, Autorin und Tochter des Gesangs-Duos Sonny & Cher, hat bekannt gegeben, dass sie sich einer Geschlechtsumwandlung unterziehen wird.

“Chaz” Bono hatte sich Anfang der 1990er Jahre als lesbisch geoutet und war unter anderem für die “Human Rights Campaign” und GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) tätig. 1998 erschien sein Buch “Family Outing”, in dem er unter anderem über die Reaktionen seiner prominenten Eltern auf sein Coming Out schrieb. Im selben Jahr geriet er durch Äußerungen in die Kritik, Ellen DeGeneres’ Show “Ellen” sei nach dem Coming Out der Hauptfigur “zu lesbisch” gewesen und sei daher vom Publikum nicht mehr angenommen worden.

Chastity Bono (rechts, mit Alice Hirshon und Ellen DeGeneres)

In Kürze
Laut einem Bericht des New York Observer plant Schauspielerin Portia de Rossi, ein Buch zu schreiben. Darin soll es unter anderem um ihren Kampf gegen die Magersucht gehen, unter der sie insbesondere während ihrer Zeit bei der Serie “Ally McBeal” gelitten hatte. +++ Carrie Prejean, durch unglückliche Äußerungen über die gleichgeschlechtliche Ehe in die Kritik geratene “Miss California”, muss ihre Krone abgeben. +++ Finnland hat ein lesbisches Top-Model! Mehr Infos über den Sieg von Nanna Grundfeldt bei der finnischen Version von “Top Model” sowie jede Menge Bilder gibt es bei Kweens, AfterEllen und eurOut.

To me, attending the annual gay pride parade in my hometown has an additional meaning. It also means that at least once a year, surrounded by tens of thousands of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people, I don’t feel like part of a minority group. At least once a year, I can be part of a large community, a community that’s alive and powerful.

I tend to forget how lucky I am to now live in a city where there’s a lively and diverse gay and lesbian culture. I don’t have to drive for a few hours to get to the only lesbian bar in the area. I don’t have to depend solely on the internet to get in touch with other lesbians. I can be part of the LGBT community if I want to, but I can also choose not to get involved with other gays and lesbians. A lot of people don’t even have that choice.

I was reminded of that a few weeks ago, when I told a friend about a gay and lesbian street fair that I intended to go to the following weekend. She said that she wished that there was more of a LGBT culture where she lived, which is a mid-sized town in the upper Midwest of the United States of America. And I can totally relate to her.

At the time of my coming-out, I was studying law in a mid-sized college town in Northern Germany. There was one gay bar in town, but it was mostly frequented by men, and there was another bar that had “women’s nights” once a week. From time to time, there were so-called “women’s parties”, but the women I met at those parties didn’t really make me feel at home. A lot of them looked and acted very aggressively, and some were still longing for the good old days of the feminist movement. I remember telling a friend back then that I was getting desperate – if all lesbians were like that, how would I ever get to know one I could fall in love with?

A little later, I watched the broadcast of the biggest gay pride parade in Germany, the Christopher Street Day Parade in Cologne, on TV. I saw a diverse crowd, hundreds of thousands of people on the floats and along the streets, looking like they felt at ease with themselves, being out and proud. I desperately wanted to be there.

That’s why, when I attended my first pride parade about a year later, it meant the world to me. And when I attended the first LGBT party in the much bigger city I moved to after graduation, I was relieved by the diversity of the people there. Especially the women. I finally felt at home.

I know that there are a lot of people out there who’s only chance to feel like part of the broad and diverse LGBT community is by attending the gay pride parade in the city that is nearest to them once a year. To me, that’s one of the reasons why we still need to have these parades. It’s not just for the political message. It’s also for all the individuals who, at least once a year, want to feel at home.

With that in mind, I hope that all of you have the chance to be out, proud and visible this pride season. And of course, don’t forget to have fun.

Pictures: www.welt.de

Posted on eurOut on May 10th, 2009