Christopher Street Day
Christopher Street Day (CSD) is an annual
History
The CSD is held in memory of the Stonewall riots, the first big uprising of LGBT people against police assaults that took place at the Stonewall Inn, a bar on Manhattan, New York City's Christopher Street in the district of Greenwich Village on June 28, 1969.
On Saturday, June 27, 1970, marches to mark the first anniversary of Stonewall were held in Chicago and San Francisco, followed on Sunday, June 28, 1970, by the
The first four American cities have since continued to celebrate Pride on the last weekend of each June. It has become an international tradition to hold a demonstration for the rights of LGBT people in the summer. The first German Christopher Street Day took place in Berlin in 1979; other parades before then had different names. The first documented LGBT parade in Germany was in Münster on 29 April 1972. The first parade in Switzerland was celebrated on June 24, 1978 in Zürich and was called "Christopher Street Liberation Memorial Day."
Current situation
CSD Berlin started already in 1979. Now almost every large city in Germany celebrates CSD, with the largest in
Due to organizational reasons, the CSDs do not take place on the historic date of June 27, but on different weekends between June and August. On the one hand, CSDs are considered political parades, and therefore also include speeches, political mottos, and attendances and patronages from well-known politicians. On the other hand, CSDs are often compared to
A typical Christopher Street Day Parade includes floats as well as walking groups usually provided by and made up of members of
In Berlin
The largest gay street party in Europe is held each year since 1993 in Berlin and is called Lesbian and Gay City Festival (Lesbisch-schwules Stadtfest Berlin). Today Berlin is the leading city in Europe when it comes to gay events[citation needed] with four major gay festivals held each year: Lesbian and Gay City Festival, Berlin Pride, Folsom Europe and Easter in Berlin. Even a smaller Pride Parade called Kreuzberg Pride, is held every year together with Dyke March.
The growth and commercialization of CSDs, coupled with their de-politicization – has led to an alternative CSD in Berlin, the so-called Kreuzberg Pride (Kreuzberger CSD) or "Transgenialer" ("Transgenial"/"Trans Ingenious") CSD. Political party members are not invited for speeches, nor can parties or companies sponsor floats. After the parade there is a festival with a stage for political speakers and entertainers. Groups discuss lesbian/transsexual/transgender/gay or queer perspectives on issues such as poverty and unemployment benefits (Hartz IV), gentrification, or "Fortress Europe."
In June 2010, American philosopher and theorist Judith Butler refused the Civil Courage Award (Zivilcouragepreis) of the Christopher Street Day Parade in Berlin, Germany at the award ceremony, arguing and lamenting in a speech that the parade had become too commercial, and was ignoring the problems of racism and the double discrimination facing homosexual or transsexual migrants. According to Butler, even the organizers themselves promote racism.[4] The general manager of the CSD committee, Robert Kastl, countered Butler's allegations and pointed out that the organizers already awarded a counselling center for lesbians dealing with double discrimination in 2006. Regarding the allegations of commercialism Kastl explained further that the CSD organizers do not require small groups to pay a participation fee which starts at 50 € and goes up to 1500 €. He also distanced himself from all forms of racism and Islamophobia.[5]
Berlin Gay Festival | Month |
---|---|
Teddy Award/Queer Film Festival | February |
Easter in Berlin/Berlin Leather Pride | March/ April |
Mr. Fetish Biker | March/ April |
German Mr. Leather | March/ April |
Bearversions Berlin | April |
Lesbian and Gay City Festival | June |
Berlin Dyke March | June |
Gay Night at the Zoo | June |
Kreuzberg Pride | June |
Berlin Pride/Christopher Street Day | July |
Lesbischwules Parkfest Friedrichshain | August |
Folsom Europe | September |
Lesben Film Festival Berlin | October |
Gay Rubber Weekend | October |
Hustlaball |
October |
Wigstöckel Transgender Event | October |
Gay Skinhead Weekend | November |
Pink Christmas | December |
Politicians attending
Politicians often participate in CSDs, including:
- Federal Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor Joschka Fischer (Cologne, 2002, Hamburg 2004, Cologne 2005)
- Federal Minister Renate Künast (Berlin 2001)
- Former Governing Mayor of Berlin Klaus Wowereit (since 2001)
- Mayor of Frankfurt Petra Roth (2004)
- Prime Minister of Hesse Roland Koch (Frankfurt am Main)
- President of the German Bundestag Wolfgang Thierse (Berlin 2000)
In some cities, politicians are also patrons of the CSD, for example in Hamburg, the former First Mayor Ortwin Runde, and Ole von Beust, in Dresden Mayor Ingolf Rossberg, in Würzburg Claudia Roth, in Munich the former Mayor Christian Ude as well as current Mayor Dieter Reiter and in Brunswick, the former Federal Minister Jürgen Trittin.
CSD hosts in Germany
This section possibly contains original research. (August 2018) |
- Aurich
- Bamberg
- Bayreuth
- Berlin (Berlin Pride, Kreuzberg Pride, Easter in Berlin, Folsom Europe)
- Bonn
- Brunswick
- Bremen
- Darmstadt
- Dortmund
- Dresden
- Düsseldorf
- Duisburg
- Erlangen
- Essen
- Esslingen am Neckar
- Erfurt
- Frankfurt am Main
- Freiburg im Breisgau
- Gera
- Hagen
- Hamburg (Hamburg Pride)
- Hanover
- Iserlohn
- Jena
- Karlsruhe
- Kassel
- Kiel
- Koblenz
- Cologne Gay Pride)
- Konstanz (CSD Bodensee)
- Krefeld
- Landsberg am Lech
- Landshut
- Leipzig
- Lübeck
- Lüneburg
- Magdeburg
- Mannheim (CSD Rhein-Neckar)
- Mainz
- Minden
- München
- Neustrelitz (smallest CSD in Germany)
- Nürnberg
- Oldenburg (CSD Nordwest)
- Regensburg
- Rostock
- Saarbrücken
- Siegen
- Stuttgart
- Trier
- Tübingen[6]
- Ulm
- Weimar
- Würzburg
See also
- Europride
- Gay pride
- List of gay pride events
- John Paul Hudson
References
- ^ "Labor of "Love: The Birth of San Francisco Pride 1970~1980"". GLBT Historical Society.
- ^ "Gay New York". Archived from the original on 2011-10-14. Retrieved 2011-09-05.
- ^ "Christopher Street Liberation Day March - OutHistory". Archived from the original on 2011-09-13. Retrieved 2011-09-05.
- ^ Butler, Judith. I must distance myself from this complicity with racism (Video) Archived 2012-03-05 at the Wayback Machine (Transcript). Archived 2012-03-22 at the Wayback Machine Christopher Street Day 'Civil Courage Prize' Day Refusal Speech. European Graduate School. June 19, 2010.
- ^ Ataman, Ferda / Kögel, Annette / Hasselmann, Jörg: "Butler-Auftritt: Heftige Diskussionen nach Kritik an CSD" published in: Der Tagesspiegel (Berlin) on July 20, 2010 [1]
- ^ "Von Ace bis Puppies: 3000 Menschen beim CSD auf der Straße". Schwäbisches Tagblatt (in German). Retrieved 2023-06-22.
External links
- CSD calendar Germany (in German)
- Berlin CSD (in German)
- Cologne CSD
- Munich CSD (in German)
- Zürich CSD (in German)
- Hamburg CSD (in German)
- Frankfurt CSD (in German)
- Weimar CSD (in German)
- gayScout CSD Events Calendar worldwide (in English and German)
- GayWeb with links to all CSD events (in German)
- Gay Press Organization
- CSD Aurich (in German)