Berlin’s queer representative is irritating with his Arab headgear

Berlin’s queer representative Alfonso Pantisano (SPD) caused a stir with a photo with an Arab headgear almost at the same time as the anniversary of the attack on Israel. With the picture, Pantisano responded to SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert, who had commented on anti-gay Muslims in a “Spiegel” interview.

Pantisano criticized on Facebook on Friday: “”. Queer hostility exists from people of all origins and with all languages, skin colors and religions. “But why we always single out Muslims as a singular phenomenon remains a mystery to me.” He later wrote of “anti-Muslim racism” and emphasized that it is impossible to tell whether someone is Muslim when there is hostility on the street.

To prove this, Pantisano posted a photo of himself, which he said showed him wearing an Arabic headgear in an advertising campaign in the Arab world in 2007. In the campaigns he was seen as an Arab, even though he came from Italy and was German.

Internal SPD criticism of Alfonso Pantisano’s post

With the post, Partisano responded to a statement from Kevin Kühnert. He said in an interview: “The classic drivers of homophobia include strictly conservative role models and religious fundamentalism.”

In Berlin he experiences that “homophobic sayings are more common from groups of men who read Muslims.” Of course, the majority of Muslims are not homophobic, “but those who are are restricting my freedom and have no right to it,” said Kühnert.

Partisano is dissatisfied with the statements, but caused trouble with the post. The “Tagesspiegel” reported criticism of the photo within the SPD, especially on the anniversary of the terrorist attack by the Islamist Hamas on Israel. The Berlin CDU general secretary spoke of a “silly exchange of self-referential left-wing identity politics” and added: “All of this has little to do with reality.”