Christopher Street Day (CSD) is an annual European LGBTQ+ celebration and demonstration held in various cities across Europe for the rights of LGBTQ+ people, and against discrimination and exclusion. It is Germany's and Switzerland's counterpart to Gay Pride or Pride Parades. Austria calls their Pride Parade Rainbow Parade. The most prominent CSD events are Berlin Pride, CSD Hamburg, and CSD Cologne in Germany, and CSD Zürich in Switzerland.
The CSD is held in memory of the Stonewall riots, the first big uprising of LGBT people against police assaults that took place at the Stonewall Inn, a bar on Manhattan, New York City's Christopher Street in the district of Greenwich Village on June 28, 1969.
On Saturday, June 27, 1970, marches to mark the first anniversary of Stonewall were held in Chicago and San Francisco, followed on Sunday, June 28, 1970, by the Christopher Street Liberation Day Parade in New York and the Christopher Street West Association Parade in Los Angeles; the four gatherings were the first Pride parades in United States history. [1] [2] To accommodate the interests of the many different groups participating, the Christopher Street Liberation Day Committee named the days leading up to the march Gay Pride Week. [3]
The first four American cities have since continued to celebrate Pride on the last weekend of each June. It has become an international tradition to hold a demonstration for the rights of LGBT people in the summer. The first German Christopher Street Day took place in Berlin in 1979; other parades before then had different names. The first documented LGBT parade in Germany was in Münster on 29 April 1972. The first parade in Switzerland was celebrated on June 24, 1978 in Zürich and was called "Christopher Street Liberation Memorial Day."
CSD Berlin started in 1979. Now almost every large city in Germany celebrates CSD, with the largest in Berlin (Berlin Pride), Hamburg (Hamburg Pride) and Cologne (Cologne Pride). When Cologne hosted Europride in 2002, it attracted 1.2 million participants and spectators to the city together with the Cologne Carnival.
Due to organizational reasons, the CSDs do not take place on the historic date of June 27, but on different weekends between June and August. On the one hand, CSDs are considered political parades, and therefore also include speeches, political mottos, and attendances and patronages from well-known politicians. On the other hand, CSDs are often compared to carnival processions or techno parades, in which celebrating and partying are the main focus.
A typical Christopher Street Day Parade includes floats as well as walking groups usually provided by and made up of members of LGBT organizations, but is increasingly used also as a platform for political campaigning and commercial advertising as floats by political parties and commercially sponsored trucks are becoming more common. It is also typical to see many drag queens or women and men colorfully dressed. BDSM enthusiasts also often participate in CSDs. The parade is usually quite joyous and has a rather upbeat and exciting energy to it. In addition to the Parade and the final rallies, in many cities there are days or up to whole weeks of street festivals and cultural events with artists, political events, lectures, readings, parties and other festivities.
The largest gay street party in Europe is held each year since 1993 in Berlin and is called Lesbian and Gay City Festival (Lesbisch-schwules Stadtfest Berlin). Today Berlin is the leading city in Europe when it comes to gay events[ citation needed ] with four major gay festivals held each year: Lesbian and Gay City Festival, Berlin Pride, Folsom Europe and Easter Berlin. Even a smaller Pride Parade called Kreuzberg Pride, is held every year together with Dyke March.
The growth and commercialization of CSDs, coupled with their de-politicization – has led to an alternative CSD in Berlin, the so-called Kreuzberg Pride (Kreuzberger CSD) or "Transgenialer" ("Transgenial"/"Trans Ingenious") CSD. Political party members are not invited for speeches, nor can parties or companies sponsor floats. After the parade there is a festival with a stage for political speakers and entertainers. Groups discuss lesbian/transsexual/transgender/gay or queer perspectives on issues such as poverty and unemployment benefits (Hartz IV), gentrification, or "Fortress Europe."
In June 2010, American philosopher and theorist Judith Butler refused the Civil Courage Award (Zivilcouragepreis) of the Christopher Street Day Parade in Berlin, Germany at the award ceremony, arguing and lamenting in a speech that the parade had become too commercial, and was ignoring the problems of racism and the double discrimination facing homosexual or transsexual migrants. According to Butler, even the organizers themselves promote racism. [4] The general manager of the CSD committee, Robert Kastl, countered Butler's allegations and pointed out that the organizers already awarded a counselling center for lesbians dealing with double discrimination in 2006. Regarding the allegations of commercialism Kastl explained further that the CSD organizers do not require small groups to pay a participation fee which starts at 50 € and goes up to 1500 €. He also distanced himself from all forms of racism and Islamophobia. [5]
| Berlin Gay Festival | Month |
|---|---|
| Teddy Award/Queer Film Festival | February |
| Easter Berlin /Berlin Leather Pride | March/ April |
| Mr. Fetish Biker | March/ April |
| German Mr. Leather | March/ April |
| Bearversions Berlin | April |
| Lesbian and Gay City Festival | June |
| Berlin Dyke March | June |
| Gay Night at the Zoo | June |
| Kreuzberg Pride | June |
| Berlin Pride /Christopher Street Day | July |
| Lesbischwules Parkfest Friedrichshain | August |
| Folsom Europe | September |
| Lesben Film Festival Berlin | October |
| Gay Rubber Weekend | October |
| Hustlaball | October |
| Wigstöckel Transgender Event | October |
| Gay Skinhead Weekend | November |
| Pink Christmas | December |
Politicians often participate in CSDs, including:
In some cities, politicians are also patrons of the CSD, for example in Hamburg, the former First Mayor Ortwin Runde, and Ole von Beust, in Dresden Mayor Ingolf Rossberg, in Würzburg Claudia Roth, in Munich the former Mayor Christian Ude as well as current Mayor Dieter Reiter and in Brunswick, the former Federal Minister Jürgen Trittin.
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 | This section possibly contains original research .(August 2018) |
More informationen at https://csd-deutschland.de/auf-einen-blick/
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A dyke march is a lesbian visibility and protest march, much like the original Gay Pride parades and gay rights demonstrations. The main purpose of a dyke march is the encouragement of activism within the lesbian and sapphic community. Dyke marches commonly take place the Friday or Saturday before LGBTQ pride parades. Larger metropolitan areas usually have several Pride-related happenings both before and after the march to further community building; with social outreach to specific segments such as older women, women of color, and lesbian parenting groups.
Cologne Pride or Cologne Gay Pride is one of the largest gay and lesbian events organised in Germany and one of the biggest in Europe. Its origin is to celebrate the pride in Gay and Lesbian Culture.
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The Berlin Pride Celebration, also known as Christopher Street Day Berlin, or CSD Berlin, is a pride parade and festival held in the second half of July each year in Berlin, Germany to celebrate the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) people and their allies. Since 1979, the event has been held each year. Berlin Pride is one of the largest gay and lesbian organized events in Germany and one of the biggest in Europe. Its aim is to demonstrate for equal rights and equal treatment for LGBT people, as well as celebrate the pride in Gay and Lesbian Culture.
The Kreuzberg Pride was a parade and festival held in June each year in Kreuzberg, Berlin, to celebrate the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people and their allies. From 1998 to 2013, the event had been held each year. In the same month both Berlin Pride and Gay Night at the Zoo is held. More gay festivals in Berlin are the fetish festivals Folsom Europe and Easter Berlin.
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Berlin was the capital city of the German Empire from 1871 to 1945, its eastern part the de facto capital of East Germany from 1949 to 1990, and has been the capital of the unified Federal Republic of Germany since June, 1991. The city has an active LGBTQ community with a long history. Berlin has many LGBTIQ+ friendly districts, though the borough of Schöneberg is widely viewed both locally and by visitors as Berlin's gayborhood. Particularly the boroughs North-West near Nollendorfplatz identifies as Berlin's "Regenbogenkiez", with a certain concentration of gay bars near and along Motzstraße and Fuggerstraße. Many of the decisive events of what has become known as Germany's second LGBT movement take place in the West Berlin boroughs of Charlottenburg, Schöneberg, and Kreuzberg beginning in 1971 with the formation of the Homosexuelle Aktion Westberlin (HAW). Whereas in East Berlin the district of Prenzlauer Berg became synonymous with the East Germany LGBT movement beginning in 1973 with the founding of the HIB. Schöneberg's gayborhood has a lot to offer for locals and tourists alike, and caters to, and is particularly popular with gay men.
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