Philosopher and queer theorist Judith Butler rejected the Civil Courage Award at the closing ceremony. Reason: The CSD does not distinguish itself sufficiently from racist statements.
It was supposed to be the political highlight of the 32nd Christopher Street Day in Berlin: the presentation of the Civil Courage Award to the sexologist Martin Dannecker and the queer theorist Judith Butler.
Instead, the award ceremony ended in a scandal: Judith Butler, who enjoys a high international reputation, rejected the award. Her reason, presented in German: The Berlin CSD was too commercialised and did not sufficiently distance itself from racist statements. It also co-operates with projects that have made racist statements.
Butler explained that she would actually prefer to pass the award on. There are projects in Berlin that really deserve it because they campaign against racism and address the double discrimination of queer people with a migration background.
These included the organisation GLADT (an organisation of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and trans people of Turkish origin), LesMigraS (the anti-violence and anti-discrimination section of the Berlin Lesbian Advice Centre) and ReachOut (an advice centre for victims of right-wing, racist and anti-Semitic violence).
The politically left-wing Transgenial CSD, which is orientated towards queer ideas and has been taking place separately from the "big CSD" for years, was also expressly acknowledged by Butler: there, the big questions of war and peace as well as sexual identity are still being dealt with. Queer emancipation could not be viewed in isolation from the confrontation with racism.
The Transgenial CSD showed itself in his blog immediately enthusiastic about Butler's performance: "We think it's great, great theatre! Thank you, Judith!"
The Berlin CSD e.V. rejected Butler's accusations while still on stage: "We firmly reject the accusation of being racist," said board member Jan Salloch: "That's simply not true." He shouted to a small group in front of the stage, who had loudly cheered Butler's speech: "You are not the majority here!"
Backstage, one question took centre stage after the scandal: what exactly does Judith Butler mean? In her written speech, she had left it at rather generalised statements. She did not explain why, in her eyes, the Berlin CSD was cooperating with projects that had made racist statements.
Many CSD visitors therefore felt that Butler's speech was poor. One would have expected at least a differentiated explanation from a renowned thinker, they said. Especially as Butler quickly left after the award ceremony, which was not an award ceremony.
The background to the accusation of racism is presumably an old dispute in the Berlin scene: the anti-violence project Maneo, which belongs to the gay information and advice centre Mann-O-Meter, has repeatedly included information about the migration background of the perpetrators of anti-gay violence in its data.
For years, there has been a heated debate in Berlin about whether young men from certain cultures, such as Turkey, commit violent offences against gays and lesbians disproportionately often.
The way in which Maneo and the Lesbian and Gay Association of Berlin-Brandenburg (LSVD) dealt with this issue in public was seen as racist by some critics. Others - including people of Turkish origin - simply saw it as a portrayal of reality.
There are close relationships and personnel overlaps between the CSD and Mann-O-Meter.
But as I said, this debate, which requires a differentiated and responsible discussion, was not explicitly mentioned on the CSD stage.
According to the CSD organisers, Butler did not seek a conversation with them to hear their opinion. Instead, she explained on stage that she had learnt a lot about the Berlin scene over the past few days.
It is to be hoped that the scandal will now primarily lead to discussions about content and not deepen the rift that runs between the two Berlin CSDs.
(Holger Wicht)
