Christopher Street Day
Hundreds of thousands celebrate peaceful CSD in Berlin
Colourful, shrill and exuberant – this is how the parade on Christopher Street Day (CSD) in Berlin presents itself. photo
© Fabian Sommer/dpa
In Berlin, several hundred thousand people came to Christopher Street Day. There was dancing in the streets. Berlin’s governing mayor had to listen to boos.
Both the police and the organizers spoke of an overall peaceful course on Sunday. According to the police, there were 84 criminal charges, including physical injuries, drug offenses and insults. With a crowd of several hundred thousand participants, that was nothing unusual, said a police spokesman.
Bas and Wegner at the CSD: double premiere
A rainbow flag hung at the Federal Chancellery. There were also rainbow colors on the T-shirt of Bundestag President Bärbel Bas (SPD) and on many other CSD participants. The blue and yellow of the Ukrainian flag also made repeated appearances. As in the previous year, a Ukrainian truck was part of the demo parade.
The fact that the President of the Bundestag took over the opening together with the Governing Mayor Kai Wegner was a first. Wegner was also the first Berlin CDU head of government who had agreed to do so. However, there were also a number of boos during his speech to the queer community.
Amendment of the Basic Law?
The CDU politician held out the prospect of an extension of Article 3 in the Basic Law. “My firm commitment to this Berlin Senate is: We want to change Article 3 of the Basic Law. Sexual identity has to be included,” he said. According to the article in the Basic Law, nobody may be disadvantaged because of their gender, their origin or their faith.
Bundestag President Bas called for action against discrimination: “We must set a clear signal for a free, diverse, diverse society,” she said.
Neither the organizers nor the police gave precise information on the exact number of participants. Both spoke of several hundred thousand on Sunday. The Berlin CSD is one of the largest events of the LGBTIQA* community in Europe. The abbreviation stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, intersexual, queer, asexual and other.
Christopher Street Day takes place every year in many cities around the world and commemorates the events of June 28, 1969: police officers stormed the New York gay and lesbian bar “Stonewall Inn” on Christopher Street, triggering multi-day protests by gays, lesbians and transsexuals.