Auf der Demo 2021 wurde die folgende Stimmen-Kollage abgespielt.
Wir haben Queers aus Namibia, Brasilien, Argentinien, Budapest (Ungarn), Gambia, Georgien, Italien, Ankara (Türkei) und Israel angesprochen. Wir haben sie gefragt, wie ihr queeres Leben ist und wie es ihrer Community geht. Sie haben uns auch ein bisschen von ihren aktuellen politischen und queeren Kämpfen erzählt.
Die Audioversion könnt ihr hier auf Instagram anhören: https://www.instagram.com/p/CY66azyKORS/
Weiter unten findet ihr die Antworten als Text. Die Antworten sind in der Originalsprache und auf Englisch.
The following collage of voices was played at Demo 2021.
We spoke to queers from Namibia, Brazil, Argentina, Budapest (Hungary), Gambia, Georgia, Italy, Ankara (Turkey) and Israel. We asked them what their queer lives are like and how their community is doing. They also told us a bit about their current political and queer struggles.
You can listen to the audio version on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CY66azyKORS/
Below this you can find their answers as text. The answer are in their original language and in English.
Reihenfolge / order of appearance:
Namibia – ENG
Brasil – ENG
Argentina – ESP / ENG
Budapest (Hungary) – ENG
Gambie / Gambia – FR / ENG
Georgia – ENG
Italien / Italy – DE / ENG
Ankara (Türkiye / Turkey) – TUK / ENG
Israel – ENG
Namibia (English)
A few weeks ago our minister of justice proposed government scraps some out-dated laws. Amongst the laws that were proposed one was the sodomy act. And we’ve seen a lot of dismay amongst citizens, bringing forth the homophobic views of course. We have seen the bible bullies spring into action, refusing government’s stance on this matter. We have seen CEOs of companies coming out in blatant, blatant homophobia, when they are making their personal views on this issue known. We have seen our own governments reluctance to actually protect people – or the LGBTI people in Namibia. I mean in 2017 activist Mercedes van Cloete was brutally attacked by police and still this matter is in front of the court and still they’re refusing to actually give her damages as she is deserving, for her to find justice.
Brasil (English)
We can’t forget any time that our way of being and loving are legitimate, beautiful and we have the right and duty to be, who we are. And live good and happy moments. It’s our right to be happy, to live wonderful moments… and… we can’t.
Last week the police carried out an operation in a Favela and killed a young woman. She was 24 years old and she was pregnant for 3 months… I, I met Kathleen in a job and she had a beautiful smiling, she was very playful. And, in that same week, she had just made a photoshoot to announce her pregnancy. It’s very hard to see a familiar face in all of the news papers, in the news with that kind of notice. It is not the first time that it happened and unfortunately I know that it [will] not be the last. We are all shaken, especially my Black(friends) and friends from a Favela, we call them in Portuguese favelas.
Argentinien / Argentina (Español, English below)
Con respecto a que significa para mi ser Queer, para mí ser Queer significa ser yo mismo, ser esa persona que siempre fui y que en el pasado tuve miedo de ser. Para mí significa despertarme cada día, mirarme al espejo y decirme “yas queen” y estar contento de ser diferente a la mayoría y haber transitando el camino de aceptarme y no solo de aceptarme sino de amarme. Es un crecimiento personal que no todos tienen la posibilidad de hacer y para mi eso significa ser queer, significa haber transitado este camino de tratar de analizar porque uno es cómo es, pero por sobre todo el hecho de aceptar que uno es cómo es y amarse de esa manera. Para mi es es ser Queer y estoy muy contento de serlo.
Argentina (English)
Regarding what being Queer means to me, for me being Queer means being myself, being that person that I always was and that in the past I was afraid to be. For me it means waking up every day, looking at myself in the mirror and saying to myself “yas queen” and being happy to be different from the majority and to have walked the path of accepting myself and not only accepting myself but loving myself. It is a personal growth that not everyone has the possibility to do and for me that means being queer, it means having travelled this path of trying to analyse why one is the way one is, but above all the fact of accepting that one is the way one is and loving oneself in that way. For me it means being queer and I am very happy to be queer.
Budapest (English)
Hello, this is Ádám Balázs Czinege from Budapest, Hungary. As some of you may already know, on June 15th the National Assembly have passed a bill (quote) “to fight pedophilia” (end quote), containing certain passages, which, in essence, prohibit the (quote) “propagation” (end quote) of non-heterosexual orientations and non-cis gender identities to people under the age of 18 years. This means that it is prohibited to make content accessible in any media which (quote) “popularize” (end quote) same sex attraction, divergence of identity from assigned sex at birth and (quote) “gender change” (end quote). Sex education in schools can not (quote) “popularize” (end quote) the above mentioned. NGO-professionals can be invited to hold sex ed classes only if they are registered and authorized to do so by the government. This bill conflates pedophilia and sexual variance at near the highest level of the Hungarian system of law. Although it’s legal trajectory is easily predicted, first getting challenged at the constitutional court of Hungary, then, should they decide to indulge the populists of Fidesz-KDNP rather than protecting the citizens at the European Court of Human Rights, Straßbourg, many of us are still really worried that it will have a devastating effect on both the already dire homo-, bi- and transphobia permeating the Hungarian society and the mental health of many members of our queer community, especially that of queer youngs and their families and loved ones. One of the most bitter things is that this bill does nothing of 21st centuries standards to actually protect children from sexual predators. It merely prevents them from getting authentic information and support to be more accepting of themselves and each other. We are resisting and standing up to this evil as there is nothing else to do. Fortunately we have a lot of cis-straight allies, who are standing by us. But today, many of us are shocked and desperate to be the targets of an unjust attack by the state itself.
Gambie (Français, English below)
Nous sommes actuellement la seule association qui mène les luttes et les combat et nous avons vraiment besoin de soutien sur le côté des finance et parce que beaucoup parmi nous n’ont pas de travail parce que la société les rejette a cause de leur orientation sexuelle, ce constat est presque partout en Afrique et en Europe et c’est un peu difficile pour nous, surtout des gens qui ont besoin de soutiens, des gens qui ont besoin de travail et que la société les rejette à cause de leur orientation sexuelle c’est très difficile mais ici notre spécificité de notre communauté queer est le respect, le souties et le partage, on vit ici comme une famille on vit comme des frères et des sœurs, il y a pas de divergence tout est égaux que ce soit lesbienne, hetérosexuel, bisexuelle nous sommes tous égaux comme droit et comme toute chose, tout ce que je voudrais ajouter est que nous sommes toujours derrière vous nous comptons aussi sur vous, sur notre petit projet que l’on va mener ici bientôt, pour que la communauté ait leur propre projet et qu’on puisse travailler.
A nous même, on vous souhaite une belle victoire sur les combats à venir et nous souhaitons aussi un jour vous rencontrer et échanger un peu, je vous salue et je salue tout le monde, ciao et merci beaucoup.
Appel aux dons pour les queers en Gambie – “Voix de Sortie Facile” :
https://de.gofundme.com/f/lgbtqia-community-organizing-in-gambia
Gambia (English)
We are currently the only association that leads the struggles and fights and we really need support on the side of finance and because many of us do not have jobs because society rejects them because of their sexual orientation, this is almost everywhere in Africa and in Europe and it’s a bit difficult for us, especially people who need support, people who need work and society rejects them because of their sexual orientation, it’s very difficult but here our specificity of our queer community is respect, support and sharing, we live here as a family, we live as brothers and sisters, There is no divergence, everything is equal, whether lesbian, heterosexual, bisexual, we are all equal as a right and as anything, all I would like to add is that we are always behind you, we also count on you, on our little project that we will carry out here soon, so that the community has their own project and we can work.
To us, we wish you a great victory in the coming fights and we also hope one day to meet you and exchange a little, I greet you and I greet everyone, ciao and thank you very much.
Spendenaufruf für Queers in Gambia / Call for donations for queers in Gambia – “Voix de Sortie Facile”:
https://de.gofundme.com/f/lgbtqia-community-organizing-in-gambia
Georgia (English)
I love beeing queer because my community is holding a space for me in many ways, so that I can be my true authentic self and also I’m able to hold a space for others as well. And also there is like very important level of solidarity, mutual support and care systems, that we have established as queer community, that is something that I really deeply appreciate. So I guess it’s like a chosen family as opposed to the biological family at this point. And last year has been extremely difficult for queer communities around me, both in spain and georgia and people around me, queer people, have been increasingly experiencing domestic abuse, being homeless, lack of access to quality heathcare, especially in light of covid. And especially undocumented queer migrants have been in the ecces of healthcare, which has been a huge issue. It’s always a collective moment, the pride month, to think about what queer liberation actually means, how to build intersectional cross movements, solidarity and agenda and also how to center the healing justice, as we are trying to thrive and survive as queer community.
Italien (Deutsch, English below)
Hi, ich heiße Fabio Aranzulla, bin 29 Jahre alt und wohne in Palermo, Italien. Ich bin im August 2020 hier her gezogen, kannte Sizilien aber sehr sehr gut, da beide meine Eltern von hier sind und ich hier sehr viel Zeit in meinem Leben verbracht habe. Was ich nicht so gut kannte war das queere Leben und die queere Lebensrealität hier. Ich hatte das Glück, dass ich hier ziemlich viele queere politisch aktive Menschen kennen gelernt habe, mit denen ich zusammen verschiedene Aktionen durchführe. Dabei bezieht es sich aber nicht nur auf queere Thematiken, sondern wir arbeiten ganz stark im Feld, der antirassistischen Arbeit und der anticolonialen Arbeit. Was ich auf jeden Fall noch sagen kann ist, dass mir aufgefallen ist, dass die politisch aktiven Menschen hier mit sehr viel Energie die Kämpfe führen. Was zum Beispiel auch einfach daran liegt, dass es erst vor kurzer Zeit zu einer homophoben Attacke kam im Zentrum von Palermo, bei der ein schwules Pärchen attackiert wurde von einer jugendlichen Gang. Dies hat dazu geführt, dass italienweit Demos und Proteste stattfanden und darunter auch in Palermo. Die Leute hier sind auf jeden Fall sehr wütend, die Leute haben auch hier keine Lust mehr auf Regenbogenkapitalismus. Das ist alles sehr sehr schön zu sehen, dass es im Endeffekt auch hier in Italien sehr sehrlaute Bewegungen und sehr sehr laute Stimmen gibt.
Italy (English)
Hi, my name is Fabio Aranzulla, I am 29 years old and I live in Palermo, Italy. I moved here in August 2020, but I knew Sicily very well because both my parents are from here and I spent a lot of time here in my life. What I didn’t know so well was queer life and the queer reality of life here. I was lucky enough to meet quite a few queer politically active people here, with whom I do different actions together. But it’s not only about queer issues, we work very much in the field of anti-racist work and anti-colonial work. What I can say in any case is that I have noticed that the politically active people here lead the struggles with a lot of energy. One reason for this is that recently there was a homophobic attack in the centre of Palermo, where a gay couple was attacked by a gang of youths. This has led to demos and protests all over Italy, including in Palermo. People here are definitely very angry, people are fed up with rainbow capitalism here too. It’s all very very nice to see that in the end there are very very loud movements and very very loud voices here in Italy as well.
Ankara (Türkçe, English below)
Heteroseksist, ikili cinsiyetçi, ataerkil, non-trans bir sistemde yaşadığımız için eğer bu normlara dahil değilsek dünya ile olan her türlü etkileşimimiz deneyimimiz ve bunun somutlaştığı her alan bana queer geliyor.
Yani queer olmayı aradığım gözlemlediğim ya da deneyimlediğim yerler buralar diyebilirim aslında.
Queer olmak çünkü bize dayatılan sınırların anlamsızlığını görmemize vesile oluyor bence.
Ya da olabilir diyeyim.
Bir diğer son yıla ait durum üzerinden düşündüğümüzde, aslında sanıyorum ki hep var olan ama son yıllarda hortlamış bir terfler grubuyla karşılaştık.
Benim için uzun süre aktivizm şiyarıyla gündemi ve söylemleri takip etmek ve bunlara yanıt vermek mi gerekir yoksa kendimizi korumak için umarsızı oynamak mı lazımdır, soru işaretli kalmıştı açıkçası.
Fakat, buradan doğan söylemlerin nasıl yaygınlaştığını, 10-20 yıllık cis-hetero arkadaşlarımla aramda geçen konuşmalara dahi nasıl sızıp incitici olabildiğini gördüğümde etki alanı karşısında şaşkınlığa uğradım.
Yani, tüm feminist grupla oluşumların her lubunya için gül bahçesi vadettiğini düşünmüyordum elbette.
Son olarak da bizim buralardaki bir sözü hatırlatmak istiyorum;
O da: “Ne yanlışız ne de yalnız!”
Ankara (English)
Since we live in a heterosexist, binary, patriarchal, non-trans system, if we are not included in these norms, all our interactions with the world, our experience and every area where this materializes seem queer to me.
In other words, I can say that these are the places where I look to be queer, observe or experience.
Being queer, I think, helps us to see the meaninglessness of the borders imposed on us.
Or should I say maybe it can help.
When we think about another situation of last year, I think we encountered a group of TERFs (trans-exclusionary radical feminist)that have always existed but have resurrected in recent years.
Frankly, the question remained for me for a long time, whether it was necessary to follow the agenda and discourses with the slogan of activism and respond to them, or whether it was necessary to play the uncaring to protect ourselves.
However, when I saw how the discourses arising from this spread, and how even the conversations between me and my 10-20-year-old cis-hetero friends could be infiltrating and hurtful, I was astonished by the scope of influence.
I mean, of course, I didn’t think that all feminist groups and formations promised a rose garden for every queer person.
Finally, I would like to remind you of a word here;
It is: “We are neither wrong nor alone!”
Israel (English)
My name is Yafit, I’m a non-binary queer from Jerusalem, Israel. There is quiet a large queer Community in Israel. We just started Pride Month. Part of the community celebrates it, part of the community doesn’t celebrate it. But I think a community, here in Israel, in such a small place, means they can count on each other and [a small community means] seeing other queer people in the street or feeling close to other queer people. And they wish us all a queer year and not just a rainbow pride month.