The Berlin Drag queen Gitti Reinhardt is one of the faces of the current campaign "Selbstbewusst! Unique!" campaign by ICH WEISS WAS ICH TU. She can be found DJing at many parties. She spoke to the author about her work, her life and intolerance within the scene. Kriss Rudolph.
0 h 31. She is already playing the first song while the dance floor is still being decorated and the finishing touches are being put on. Gitti Reinhardt herself has long since finished dressing up. An outfit reminiscent of circus and burlesque revue - she could easily pass as a barmaid in a western saloon. She likes to take plenty of time for the transformation when her alter ego becomes Benjamin Gitti and invites friends over. Then they listen to music and toast with a glass or two of champagne. Christian and David are often present during this foreplay, later in the club anyway - and because they are not only Gitti fans but also gentlemen, they carry her heavy CD cases.
"I like to call myself her biggest fan," enthuses David, who has only known her for just under a year. "She's not as aloof as some other trannies who think they're better than her." Many straight women, he reports, think Gitti is great because she has style. David not only accompanies Gitti to her gigs, the two also often go out together. It can happen that Benjamin realises shortly beforehand that he would like to go as Gitti.
"Maybe I've just found a great new outfit in the sale and I want to show it off," explains Gitti. "It's also practical if you have a bad hair day. Put a wig on - and I don't have to worry about it any more."
She has a talent for making people feel good
0:47. The first people are dancing. Some guests greet Gitti personally when they come in, others bring her a schnapps to the DJ booth. Every now and then, someone comes up to ask for their favourite song. Gitti listens patiently and responds in a friendly manner - which is not a matter of course with DJs.
"She's such a positive, open character, incredibly friendly," says Christian, who has been friends with Gitti for seven years and comes along to most of her gigs to check the sound or get her something to drink in between. "She has a talent for making people feel at ease."
1h32. At Christopher Street Day, Gitti says, she was once accosted stupidly from the side when she took a break and her DJ colleague took over. An employee of BSR, the Berlin city cleaning service, called out to her: "What kind of scarecrow is that?" Gitti says this with a smile, she doesn't hold grudges. Not for such a small thing when she is convinced that the man didn't mean anything by it.
When Gitti struts up to the bar, many people turn round to look at her, especially the women. In high heels and a wig, she is almost 2 metres tall - but that doesn't make her the tallest drag queen in Berlin.
Even if not everyone is happy with the term, Gitti prefers to call herself a tranny. "Drag queen sounds too pompous for me. I'm just a girl." Part of being a girl is that she doesn't like affected bitching herself. She doesn't live up to the image of the man-eating sex slut who is constantly "drunk and drunk", lounging around in the loo and waiting for the next man - and she doesn't want to anyway. She doesn't think much of such categorisations.
Strange reactions rather from gays
People often perceive her as a woman, not as a trans woman. Even by people who know her alter ego Benjamin. There was once a man in a bar who told her that she looked like his ex-girlfriend. At the Oktoberfest, when Gitti was out and about in a dirndl that gave her a sizeable bust, she was asked by a woman: "Are your breasts real? Once she received a clear request from a lesbian, another time even from a straight woman. If there are any strange reactions, if people avoid her and whisper behind her back, it tends to be from gay men. But that is probably more a sign of fear and shows their insecurity with flaunted femininity.
"A lot of people see me as an object of lust," says Gitti, who is not one of the trannies who dresses particularly provocatively. "I don't clamour like other female colleagues, I'm never super drunk and always polite - more like everbody's darling." She sees herself more as an entertainer. Because her fictional character lives a sexless life. And has been since the beginning, ten years ago. You can't say that about Benjamin. When he's out and about in civilian clothes, he meets more men than Gitti. "I'm a hottie even as a bloke," she says with a laugh. However, he is single. Gitti somehow gets in the way of finding a partner. Because she is often booked as a DJ, she is also omnipresent. If Benjamin meets a nice man and tells him about Gitti, his second identity usually proves to be a hindrance. "Everyone thinks trannies are funny, but when it's your own boyfriend walking around the club dressed up, you'd rather not."
Pigeonholing in the scene too
That's why she is happy to take part in the new IWWIT campaign Self-confident! Unique! Because it offers a counter-image to what the relevant magazines show: gays who are male, trained and strong. "That's not all!" moans the Berliner Drag queen Gitti. There they are again, the pigeonholes that often make life difficult. This kind of thinking is widespread in the scene, she says. But she will continue to enrich Berlin's nightlife as Gitti Reinhardt - she enjoys it far too much for that.
"But it's not always a perfect world," she says. Once, on New Year's Eve, someone followed her home from the underground. She ran into the stairwell and managed to escape to her flat in time - where she then waited, crying, until the man had disappeared. She has not been the victim of physical violence, Gitti has been lucky so far. She knows enough female colleagues who have been "punched in the mouth" on the way home from the club, as she says. Unfortunately, it happens, even in oh-so-crazy, tolerant Berlin.
2.00 28. Gitti goes back to the turntables. Two women watch her with interest. Perhaps one of them will slip her her number later or enquire about the authenticity of her breasts. You never know. But we can hopefully assume one thing. When she gets off work, Gitti is sure to come home. Her friends David and Christian will make sure that nothing happens to her.
More information about SELBSTBEWUSST! EINZIGARTIG! you can find here.
