Content warning: This article contains references to terrorism, hate crimes. homophobia, transphobia, queerphobia, islamophobia and racism.

Part 1: In light of the Berlin attack – Pride as Protest – A view from Germany

Manchester’s LGTBQ+ community has been getting ready for this year’s August Bank Holiday Pride events. For a while there seems to have been some disagreement between individuals who think Pride is supposed to be primarily a political protest and those who want to purely celebrate queer joy.

On Sunday, 26^th July 2026, I woke up to the sad news that the night before the 48^th Berlin Christopher Street Day celebrations had been brought to a brutal halt around 10pm when a man drove a van into a crowd, went on a knife rampage in a suspected fundamentalist Islamic terror attack, killing one person and injuring over 30 people.

Christopher Street Day in Germany:

In Germany pride celebrations are called Christopher Street Day (CSD) in honour of the location of the Stonewall riots.

I have never been to Berlin’s CSD, but I watched my first CSD parade in Köln (Cologne) in 2004. Roughly 10% of the population of Cologne are members of the LGTBQ+ community and the parade has been embraced by a wide range of the population. Among the thousands of participants were also top politicians, national broadcasters and celebrities. Many businesses had hissed the rainbow flag and the local car manufacturer sponsored “Tuxis”, cars handing out condoms and providing a rescue for people in need over the whole weekend.

After I had moved to Manchester, I experienced my first Manchester Mardi Gras in the Mid 2000s. I felt that big names, businesses and celebrities had not embraced the event to the same extent. In more recent years Manchester Pride, like many other big Pride events, has been criticised for having become too big, commercial and party-focussed. In general society quite a few think that in today’s Britain LGTBQ+ people must be safe and have achieved equal rights with marriage equality and the protection of the Equality Act 2010. The Berlin attack has been a sharp reminder that despite legal progress in many Western countries, LGTBQ+ lives are still precarious and the fight for rights might not be over.

Current issues for the LGTBQ+ community in Germany:

After many years of progress, Germany’s LGTBQ+ community has been facing increased levels of hostility. The national crime agency (BKA) has reported a tenfold increase in politically motivated crimes against queer people over the past 15 years. The current government has ceased ministerial funding for an important queer youth organisation and stopped an action plan that was meant to cultivate and protect the acceptance of sexual and gender diversity. Rude banter and derogatory language seemed to have become more acceptable. Last year Chancellor Friedrich Merz earned widespread criticism after he compared the Bundestag flying the rainbow flag with a circus tent. Far right political parties have rejected marriage equality, adoption rights for same-sex couples, are fighting against the gender recognition law of 2022 and have been spreading anti-trans rhetoric and online hate.

As counterpoint, this year’s CSD in Berlin started for the first time with a Democracy Evening under the slogan “Haltung ist hot” demanding to “go and vote, take responsibility and stand up together for an open society”.

The aftermath of the Berlin Attack:

Shortly after the Berlin attack a number of prominent German politicians from across the spectrum called it an attack on the whole of German society and its values and expressed solidarity with the queer community. Christian and Muslim leaders joined the declarations of sorrow and solidarity with the victims and the queer community.

All over Germany the queer community and its allies joined spontaneously in commemorative ceremonies and demonstrations. Many speakers and commentators called out the hyprocrisy of the current German government and the rise of hostility in wider society.

Speakers, such as Barbie Breakout, a well-known activist and drag queen, demanded to add sexual orientation to the list of characteristics protected from discrimination in the Grundgesetz, the German constitution. They also rejected the idea of weaponising the alleged motive and background of the suspect to promote anti-Muslim and anti-migrant polemic and policies. Mainstream politics has been held accountable for its contribution to a hostile environment from which such acts of violence against queer people can spark. Others expressed that real solidarity requires political actions, not just words.

In the aftermath of the Berlin attack CSD organisers in other German cities asked themselves what to do in relation to their own events. Would it be safe? Would it be be appropriate to sing, dance and be joyful? Most people stressed the importance of political visibility, defiance and protest. “Jetzt erst recht” (Now more than ever) has become a motto for many CSD parades in Germany. In Hamburg the queer community celebrated a very emotional and politically charged Christopher Street Day parade one week after Berlin with record participation under increased security presence.

To conclude:

In the UK the situation is unfortunately not too dissimilar. Germany’s example does not show only in the present how volatile human rights and LGTBQ+ rights are, but also in its past. According to Benno Gammerls (2020) queer history in Germany indicates particularly well that progress cannot be expected to be linear and I will try to show this with a quick whistlestop tour through Germany’s queer history, in part 2.

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