Berlin Christopher Street Day: 5 things to expect
July 21, 2023
'Demonstration — not a parade'
The organizers of the Christopher Street Day have made clear they see the day as a "demonstration — not a parade." This is reflected in the name that is generally used in Germany for Pride events, as they are known in the English-speaking world. Christopher Street in Manhattan, New York is where the Stonewall riots took place in June 1969. Police officers violently raided a gay bar and gay, lesbian and trans activists and party-goers fought back. Homosexuality was illegal in most parts of the United States at the time.
One year later, on the anniversary of the riots, the first Pride march took place. The uprising is seen as the beginning of the modern queer liberation movement. With queer rights still under attack in many parts of the world, the Berlin Christopher Street Day honors this legacy.
Focus on underrepresented groups
The theme of this year's Berlin CSD is: "Be their voice — and ours! For more empathy and solidarity!" The organizers have four topics that their monthlong program focuses on. With these, the CSD is trying to amplify underrepresented voices in the queer community.
The first is HIV/AIDS. People living with the virus in wealthier countries are largely able to live normal lives thanks to modern medicine, but they still face discrimination and stigma. The second is Rainbow Families. Marriage equality and same-sex couple adoption have been legal in Germany since 2017. The third is Kink and Fetish. These terms refer to non-conventional consensual sexual interests and practices, for example leather bondage, that some people practice and are also often met by stigma. The final topic is Safer Spaces for TIN/Bi+/Poly. TIN refers to transgender, intersex and non-binary people; Bi+ refers to bisexual people and poly refers to polyamorous people.
Tokio Hotel lead music line-up
Despite the serious issues, the CSD event is still a celebration. In addition to 77 floats and more than 100 groups participating on foot, some half a million participants are registered to take part, with music, food stalls and merchandise all the way along the 7-kilometer (4.3 mile) parade route and particularly at the final stretch in front of the Brandenburg Gate.
That is also where a stage with live music performances will take place, with the headliners this year being the German electropop band Tokio Hotel. Several official after-parties are on offer once the street party winds down, for those who want to dance until dawn — or even later.
Political presence
It is the first CSD event since Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner , the first mayor of Germany's socially liberal capital from the center-right conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) in more than 20 years, took office in April. The CDU has been criticized in the past for not always standing with the queer community — under Chancellor Angela Merkel, a majority of party MPs voted against marriage equality in 2017, and current chairman Friedrich Merz implied that homosexuality and child abuse may be connected in a 2020 interview.
Wegner, however, has made efforts to position himself as a staunch ally of the queer community, appointing Social Democrat Alfonso Pantisamo as Berlin's first-ever queer commissioner this year. Both Wegner and Pantisamo will give speeches at the Berlin CSD.
Commercialization and alternative program
Finally, the CSD organizers have come under fire this year for accusations of overcommercialization — allowing a large proportion of corporate floats to take part, for example. Reports of financial embezzlement allegedly committed by several members of the leadership team were first reported in the daily Berliner Zeitung newspaper in June.
An initial verdict by a Berlin court in the case found in favor of the CSD team, according to a press release on July 17, but further judgments are still to come. The event organized by the Berlin CSD Association is only one of several queer-focused summer Pride events in Berlin, many of which criticize the commercial nature of the capital's largest event.
Edited by: Tanya Ott