LGBTQ+ safe space becomes a target for hate in Berlin

Berlin (AP) – A sign of neon inside Das Hoven Cafe in a trendy district of Berlin proudly proclaims “Queer and his friends”.

The panel was intended to show that coffee is a Safety area for LGBTQ + people. But it has also become a lighthouse of hatred and homophobic attacks.

The owner Danjel Zarte said that there were 45 criminal investigations pending coffee in the past year and a half, ranging from verbal and physical attacks against customers and workers to broken windows or covered with fecal and nazi graffiti matters. A person even stood outside the coffee with a gun.

“An act of terror,” said Zarte. “I sometimes have panic attacks in the morning and I’m afraid to watch my mobile phone because I am afraid that something will happen.”

Attacks against LGBTQ + people and gay-friendly establishments increase across GermanyIncluding in Berlin, a city that has historically adopted the community, of which members often use the word queer to describe themselves.

Last year, a 40% increase in violence targeting LGBTQ + people in 12 of the 16 German federal states compared to 2023, according to the association of counseling centers for victim of Right-Wing, racist and anti-Semitic violence.

Activists say that these figures only show a fraction of the scope of the problem because the victims are often afraid of manifesting themselves. They partially blame the climb of the extreme right through Europeincluding in Germany where the Alternative for Germany party Make important gains in the February elections.

Hostility towards LGBTQ + people serves as a “rallying cry” to believe in right extremism, according to Judith Porath, director general of the association. Experts have increased by demonstrations and violence among neonazis, most of whom are young men.

Bastian Finke, the chief of Maneo, an organization according to anti-gay violence in the capital, said that those who are openly queer on the Berlin roads “automatically run a very, very high risk because of who they are. To be attacked, to be insulted, to be spit. We have these scenarios every day.”

Fear was palpable at Saturday Christopher Street Day Parade in Berlin. The pride annual event commemorates the Rebellion of Stonewall 1969 In New York, when a spontaneous street uprising was launched by a police raid on the Stonewall Inn gay bar On Christopher Street to Greenwich Village.

“The atmosphere is actually tense: people are afraid, they are unstable,” Thomas Hoffmann, a member of the event council of the event on Saturday.

Hundreds of thousands of people showed up for the celebration, dancing in Techno Beats while they were heading to the emblematic door of Brandenburg.

“It is really a powerful and wonderful sign for more equality,” added Hoffmann.

Hoffmann and others have long wanted the German legislators to modify the Constitution in order to explicitly include the legal protection of LGBTQ + persons against discrimination based on gender identity. But it seems unlikely to become a political priority.

For Zarte, the stress of hate crimes and politics is constantly, except during the parade of rue Christopher, which always makes him cry.

“It is very moving to feel completely accepted once a year,” he said.

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Pietro de Cristofaro in Berlin contributed to this report.