To mark Stonewall Riots Day on 28 June, the German AIDS Service Organisation's prevention campaign ICH WEISS WAS ICH TU is calling for action: Counter queer hostility and enable prevention!
The appeal was triggered by increasing queer and sexual hostility, which is also severely affecting vital work in the field of sexual health and HIV prevention in the queer community - as the short-term deletion of the YouTube channel of ICH WEISS WAS ICH TU (IWWIT) shows.
The extent to which queer visibility and emancipation are at risk was recently demonstrated by the cancellation of diversity programmes in companies and their support for Prides, discussions about the flying of rainbow flags or attacks on CSDs by right-wing extremists or cancellations due to "acute threat situations".
IWWIT does not see this as an isolated case, but rather a structural problem: every year, the Numbers of queer-hostile attacks in Germany new highs. Politicians are calling for queer rights to be dismantled again. And platforms such as Google, Meta and TikTok are censoring queer education and prevention on the basis of their sex-hostile "community guidelines".
Jonathan Gregory, Head of IWWIT:
"Where queer life is marginalised, made invisible or threatened, prevention must protest! When queer issues are pushed out of the public sphere or censored, this jeopardises the health and lives of queer people. Prevention must be loud, remain visible and oppose any form of invisibilisation - especially during Pride Month!"
The fight is not over!
The campaign calls on Stonewall Riots Day to show solidarity and to understand sexual health as a central component of queer emancipation. When queer life is under attack, prevention means protest - and it belongs at the Pride demo.
The Stonewall riots of 1969 marked the beginning of the modern LGBTIQ* movement - a milestone in the fight against discrimination. Today, over 50 years later, this fight is not over.
"The rights and realities of queer people are under pressure worldwide. Exclusion makes people ill and can be fatal. Visible, accessible prevention is therefore not only a medical concern, but also a socio-political one," says Jonathan Gregory.
A very special CSD truck
IWWIT will be wearing all black at the CSD demonstration in Berlin on 26 July 2025 to commemorate the protests of Stonewall and AIDS activists from Act Up. Our motto in large white letters: "PRIDE IS OUR PROTEST! PRIDE IS OUR PROTEST! Never be silent again!"
"We will never again allow ourselves to be muzzled or pushed out of the public eye. Especially when right-wing populists fight us and some companies no longer support queers: We are many and together we are strong. Whether HIV-positive or queer, we stay loud and show: Our rights are human rights and non-negotiable!",
concludes Jonathan Gregory.
