This is how the CSD in Döbeln went

Chub. After the 3rd Christopher Street Day in Döbeln, the organizers drew a positive conclusion. On Saturday, a colorful group of queer people walked from the train station across the Obermarkt to Wettin Park to display “colorful flags against brown politics” to demonstrate against the increasing shift to the right. In rural areas in particular, the shift to the right is taking place, as the latest election results show.

“We have drawn a very positive conclusion from this year’s CSD. We had around 600 people who took to the streets with us. “We have thereby set an incredibly courageous example for diversity, for queer life in rural areas,” says Isabell Wiehmert, press spokesperson for the Treibhaus association. He was one of the organizers of this year’s CSD.

Christopher Street Day was created as a commemoration of an uprising of homosexuals and other queer minorities against police brutality on Christopher Street in New York City in the early hours of June 28, 1969. At that time, there were repeated violent police raids on bars with trans and homosexual patrons.

Nowadays, homosexual people, transgender people and people with non-binary gender identities draw attention to themselves at the nationwide CSD. These Christopher Street Days are not tied to a specific day and can also take place in September, as in Döbeln.

This year’s Christopher Street Day began at Döbeln Central Station.

Source: Dirk Wurzel

A lot has been done politically in Germany to give these queer people equal rights, such as marriage for all and the new law on self-determination with regard to gender registration.

But: “There are some people here who don’t want to see us,” said Ahmed Bejaoui from the board of the Lesbian and Gay Association of Saxony, addressing the right-wing extremist counter-demonstration. “There are people who are afraid of diversity.” To these people I say: Get out!”

Over 600 people marched through Döbeln.

Source: Dirk Wurzel

This year’s CSD in Döbeln was also a protest against right-wing extremism, in which people from the left to the far left took part. This was evidenced by the many calls of “Alerta, Alerta, Antifaschista” and corresponding banners. The Leipzig state parliament member Juliane Nagel (Left Party) was also among the demonstrators.

At the launch rally at the train station, Katja Meier spoke to the assembled people. The Greens still head the Saxon State Ministry of Justice and for Democracy, Europe and Equality.

The demonstrators carried banners, posters and slogans with very different motifs.

Source: Dirk Wurzel

The minister urged people to demonstrate not only for the queer community, but for everyone, for democracy. “The future state government must position itself against exclusion and must not adopt cheap slogans from the far-right,” she said.

Of course, the rainbow flags as a symbol of the LGBTQ+ community are not missing. Paul and Tim carried such flags. They are in a long-distance relationship, Paul is from Dessau and Tim from Berlin, and travel to the CSD throughout Germany.

They are concerned with social recognition, with being perceived as normal. “After all, you don’t love the gender, you love the person,” they say. The Döbeln Pride was Paul’s sixth this year, Tim already has twelve participants, including the one in Döbeln.

The police estimated the number of participants at the CSD at 650 people, 50 more than the organizers stated. Behind the colorful demonstration, at a safe distance and shielded by numerous police officers, were the participants of the right-wing extremist counter-demonstration.

The police estimated the number of participants at this gathering at 200 people. One of their members insulted a CSD participant. The former leader of the right-wing demonstration is suspected of having dumped butyric acid on the CSD rally area at the train station. Butyric acid was dumped at the CSD last year.

DNN