In the spring, editors of the Berlin gay journey manual Spartacus sounded the alarm. In the current Gay Travel Index (GTI) ranking, Germany had fallen sharply from third place to 23rd. The cause, Leander Milbrecht of Spartacus instructed DW, became the “boom in reported crimes towards and attacks on lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) persons.”
He pointed out that in 2018 in Berlin on my own, the police counted 225 crimes against queer humans, 54 extra than in 2017. “Queer” is the term used to explain those who deviate from heteronormativity.
The Berlin gay anti-violence project Maneo registered 382 attacks on queer people in 2018, fifty-eight more than in the preceding year. Albrecht asserts that, consistent with figures from the authorities, similar tendencies may be discovered in the course of Germany. Additionally, experts expect many unreported cases of those who no longer document this kind of assault.
Spartacus’s editorial crew, a renowned provider of travel guides for gay guys, compiles the GTI for 197 countries and areas every year using several criteria: Are there any threats of persecution, the loss of life penalty, or violent attacks? Is there nation-sanctioned discrimination, including tour regulations for HIV-effective humans, or are Pride parades banned? And what about civil rights? This also includes marriage equality, which became a prison in Germany in 2017.
In the eyes of the global network, Germany has been seen as a liberal and tolerant country. And Berlin is an acceptable destination for persecuted lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender people, and queers fleeing their homelands. Could all this have been modified so dramatically? Should a travel caution be issued, especially now that the Christopher Street Day (CSD) parades are celebrated everywhere in Germany’s towns with many LGBTQ tourists attending?
Right-wing threat
Jan Noll, editor-in-chief of the queer Berlin city magazine “Siegessäule” (Victory Column), advised caution in an interview with DW. “I would not say that homophobic attacks in Germany have taken on a quantity that would discourage queer people from touring right here,” he said.
Like other specialists, Noll assumes that the increase in the numbers is likewise because of the improved willingness of sufferers to record the assaults.
David Staeglich-Büge, a board member at the Berlin CSD, widely known for a parade this weekend, sees it further. He advised DW that he might be satisfied with the route if Germany occupied the pinnacle spot in the safety category.
But for Berlin, nothing has been modified: “The feel of security inside the Berlin community is still solid.” Nevertheless, there may be “growing uncertainty” within the community, said Staeglich.
For him, it derives greater from the political sphere: “The risk from the right is seen to be extra than the danger from hate crime,” he stated. According to the organizers, this has no impact on this year’s Berlin CSD celebrations, the most important and worldwide in Germany.
On the contrary, The 50th anniversary of 12 months of the New York Stonewall uprising of gay men against arbitrary police action is predicted to see even more contributors from all over the globe than usual inside the German capital. They are now not discouraged by reviews of increasing violence against the LGBTQ community.
Nevertheless, the truth that Germany has not reacted to the upward thrust in the number of pronounced assaults with a movement plan has, in the view of “Spartacus,” had a further poor impact on the ranking within the GTI. “French President Emmanuel Macron reacted to a similar increase,” said Leander Albrecht. In Germany, however, the best states, like Berlin, have adopted motion plans. At the federal stage, no similar initiative has been planned.
“Spartacus” sees Germany’s 0.33 large minus factor as a tourist vacation spot within the loss of modern law for transgender people and queers. The law at the third option, which got into force in December 2018 and allowed the gender specification “divers” in addition to male and girl for the first time, has been sharply criticized by using the LGBTQ community. According to Jan Noll, the editor-in-leader of the “Siegessäule” (Victory Column) magazine, it is nevertheless “on occasion extraordinarily difficult particularly for trans* humans to change their marital fame.”
