Motto 2019
Stonewall 50 – Every riot starts with your voice
The Berlin CSD e.V. dedicates this year’s demonstration “50 Years of Stonewall – Every Uprising Begins with Your Voice” to the activists of LGBTTIQ* history. The slogan campaign focuses on Audre Lorde, Brenda Howard, Karl-Heinrich Ulrichs, Lili Elbe and Marsha Johnson. They are the faces of the 41st CSD Berlin.
The five selected portraits are representative of the countless activists who have shaped the community and the lives of all lesbians, gays, bisexuals, trans*, inter* and other queer people (LGBTTIQ*) with their struggle for self-determination. Board Berlin CSD e.V.: “Half a century after the riots at the Stonewall Inn, we pay tribute to those who, with their courageous resistance to police violence, triggered the Stonewall riots at the time and initiated the development of a worldwide LGBTTIQ* emancipation movement. With our campaign, however, we want to broaden the focus in time, because it is the many quiet and loud, the well-known as well as the lesser-known activists* who have shaped the ongoing struggle for equal rights of the LGBTTIQ* community. Without them, even the milestones achieved to date probably wouldn’t exist, be it Marriage for All or Third Sex.”
Every riot
starts with your voice
Audre Geraldine Lorde (*1934 – †1992)
The lesbian, feminist U.S. writer and activist came to Berlin as a literature lecturer in the mid-1980s and is one of the key figures of the early Afro-German movement. Struggling to recognize differences as a source of strength and creativity, she brought the issue of racism to the German women’s movement. Lorde described herself as a “black lesbian feminist mother poet warrior.”
Statement Katharina Oguntoye | JOLIBA e.V.
Katharina Oguntoye, Co-founder of ADEFRA and the inter-cultural network Joliba. Together they published in 1986 “Farbe bekennen: Afro-German Women on the Trail of Their History”:
“Why Audre is a good choice? She was a passionate visionary. Her poetry shines through a magical depth that is also always political. With her themes of “Love and Anger/Anger,” “Civil Rights and Sexuality,” and “Women’s Rights and Environmentalism,” she gave voice to an entire political generation and became a role model not just for black women, but for anyone and everyone who believes that “liberation is not unique to any one group.” In every place Audre visited, she inspired people to take action. Her poems and essays offer useful political analysis, especially in the current climate, so her legacy is being enthusiastically received again, especially by a younger generation.”
Brenda Howard (*1946 – †2005)
„The next time someone asks you why LGBT Pride marches exist or why Gay Pride Month is June tell them ‘A bisexual woman named Brenda Howard thought it should be’”, so Brenda Howard. Die Bi-Aktivistin Howard gilt als Gründerin der CSDs und Pride Weeks. Ein Jahr nach den Stonewall Riots organisierte sie die erste Parade.
Statement Christian Jaeger | BiBerlin e.V.
Christian Jaeger, Board BiBerlin e.V. on Brenda Howard:
“Brenda Howard, as the ‘Mother of Pride,’ is probably the most important woman for the LGBTTIQ* movement. She started the first Christopher Street Liberation Day Parade in 1970, a year after the Stonewall Riots. In 1988, she and friends founded the ‘New York Area Bisexual Network,’ which remains a global focal point for bisexuals today. By founding the network, she laid the foundation for the acceptance of bisexual people, enabling them to organize themselves and thus become visible. Throughout her life, Brenda Howard not only stood for the bisexual community, she wanted to help everyone and create a world in which it doesn’t matter what sexual orientation you have. In 1986, she succeeded in getting the law against discrimination based on sexual orientation passed in the United States. Brenda Howard is thus one of the most important people for the bisexual community.”
Lili Elbe (*1882 – †1931)
“I fight against the bias of the philistine who looks for in me a phenomenon, an abnormality…. “, says Elbe. The Danish painter Lili Elbe was probably one of the first intersexual persons to have consented genital alteration procedures performed with the help of the Berlin Institute for Sexology.
Statement Lucie Veith | Inter-Aktivist*in
Lucie Veith, Inter activist, painter, human rights activist, inter-network-coordinator:
“Lili Elbe struggled for a self-determined life in dignity and the recognition of her identity. She died in 1931. It was to take another 86 years until a decision was made by the highest court: The general personality right (Art. 2 para. 1 in connection with Art. 1 para. 1 GG) protects the gender identity. It also protects the gender identity of those who cannot be permanently assigned to either the male or the female gender. The social clarifications of which “conditions” human beings must fulfill for a discrimination-free life have only just begun.”
Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (*1825 – †1895)
Ulrichs was a German lawyer, journalist, publisher, writer, and is one of the best-known champions of legal equality for homosexuals. He researched and published on same-sex love, which he called “uranism.
Statement Jörg Litwinschuh | Bundestifung Magnuns Hirschfeld
Jörg Litwinschuh, Managing board of the federal Magnus Hirschfeld foundation:
“Brenda Howard, as the ‘Mother of Pride,’ is probably the most important woman for the LGBTTIQ* movement. She started the first Christopher Street Liberation Day Parade in 1970, a year after the Stonewall Riots. In 1988, she and friends founded the ‘New York Area Bisexual Network,’ which remains a global focal point for bisexuals today. By founding the network, she laid the foundation for the acceptance of bisexual people, enabling them to organize themselves and thus become visible. Throughout her life, Brenda Howard not only stood for the bisexual community, she wanted to help everyone and create a world in which it doesn’t matter what sexual orientation you have. In 1986, she succeeded in getting the law against discrimination based on sexual orientation passed in the United States. Brenda Howard is thus one of the most important people for the bisexual community.”
Marsha P. Johnson (*1945 – †1992)
She was called the “Mayor of Christopher Street.” The African-American icon is one of the most important voices of the Stonewall Revolution. Artist, sex worker, and trans* and POC activist, Johnson was not only a colorful personality in New York’s scene life – during the 1969 Stonewall riots, she was at the forefront of fighting against injustice and violence by the police and for equal rights for LGBTTIQ*. In 1970, she and activist Sylvia Rivera co-founded STAR (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries), an organization that advocated for homeless queer youth.
Statement Nic van Dyke | Trans*Aktivist
Nic van Dyke, Trans*Aktivist und Member of the Kingz of Berlin:
“There is still a lot to do! For me, it is a symbol of what people can achieve when they fight for it. Back then, gays, lesbians, drags, trans*,… stood side by side and only together they were able to oppose violence and oppression. I currently miss this cohesion in the Berlin community, but I hope that it will arise again with the memory of our pioneers and that we will fight together again for what unites us – the demand for recognition and equal rights!
