CSD in Pirna: Why the demo needed support from the big city

On site

After the mayor of Pirna compared the rainbow flag with the swastika, the queer street festival there was expecting a lot of people to come. Because the queer community and its supporters are under pressure in Pirna: Pirna residents report to the star of hostility and a death threat.

On the day of the street festival, the police counted a number of participants “in the low four-digit range”. This meant that the CSD in Pirna was able to mobilize significantly more people than last year. However, the number of participants fell short of the organizer’s estimates. He had expected at least 5,000 people.

There would have been even fewer without the numerous supporters from the city. Here, three of them tell us why they came to Pirna.

Drag queen Meryl Deep organizes bus tour to Pirna

“I had to do a lot of convincing in Cologne to find enough participants for my bus tour. Many were skeptical at first: What if people from the AfD are there? We get insulted, it gets violent? In the end, none of that happened. Today we are celebrating a very nice festival where everyone is welcome. The police are securing the market square from all sides. I am very relieved about that.

I decided to go to the CSD in Pirna because there will be elections in Saxony in a few weeks. Pirna already has an AfD mayor who compared the rainbow flag to the swastika. Unfortunately he isn’t here today, otherwise I would have liked to have a coffee with him. I would really be interested to know why he thinks that way about the flag. But I would definitely not be accusatory or provocative in the conversation, because that leads nowhere.

In any case, we didn’t come to Pirna to provoke anyone. It’s not about saying: We’re from Cologne and we’re going to show you how to celebrate Pride properly. But unfortunately it will be hard to avoid our presence causing some people to feel disturbed. Unfortunately, some people feel that way when the queer community comes – and that’s completely unjustified in my opinion.”

Tino from Dresden takes queer friends with him

“I grew up near Pirna. There I never dared to be myself. During school I hardly talked to anyone about my sexuality. A few years ago I moved to Dresden to work. It was a liberation for me: I now have many queer friends. I brought three of them with me today.

Of course, the AfD’s high election results also scare us in Dresden. But in a small town like Pirna, young people feel the threat posed by the AfD much more directly. Here, one in three people voted for the AfD recently. Queer young people therefore almost inevitably have to hide their identity if they don’t want to be rejected. Because they know that there are AfD supporters in their own family and circle of friends. I also no longer have contact with some of my family.

And then there is the homophobia in everyday life: On the way here we were insulted as ‘dirty faggots’ on the S-Bahn by 12 or 13 year olds. But unfortunately we always have to expect comments like that.”

Activist Fabian Grischkat came from Berlin

“In Pirna, I also heard critical voices about the supporters from the city. Some say: Pirna can organize a CSD like this on its own. But the fight for our diversity is taking place in places like Pirna, not in our comfort zone in Berlin Mitte. That’s why I applaud the people who are standing up against the shift to the right.

As a West German, I used to believe the prejudice that a small East German town could never organize a CSD. Pirna is showing today that the opposite is the case. I hope that this will change the minds of a few snooty Berliners or Cologners.

When I told my group of friends that I was going to Pirna for the CSD, many of them said: Just be careful. But there are also streets in Cologne where queer people are not safe. Right-wing conservative ideas are deeply rooted in some people there too. That’s why I’m just as careful in Pirna as I am in Cologne or Berlin.”