The lovely and fabulous folks from Gerede e.V. invited us to have a speech at the demonstration at 17th of May. We gladly accepted this opportunity. By the way: the awareness week around IDAHOBIT still goes on until 20th of may – here you’ll find the overview with all events. But first you’ll get to read our contribution:
Hello, it’s good to see all of you here together!
As a queer person it happens all too often that you are confronted with encroaching questions and statements. That one’s identity is questioned and doubted. Often from strangers with whom you have nothing to do, often from un-informed people from your immediate environment. Both can be unpleasant and hurtful. “That’s not normal!” – is a common and still comparably innocuous statement. It is something we queer people often encounter, in reference to sexuality or gender identity. Yet the rest of non-queer society is rarely aware that the much-discussed “normality” is a social construct. And society is changing. Culture changes. Constructs can be broken and prejudices can be dismantled. That’s why visibility is so important; education and open, fair treatment of each other. That’s what we are out on the streets for on days like today, that’s why we need queer Pride and queer representation in society.
The long-promised abolition of the discriminatory and unconstitutional TSG (a german law policing trans ppl) would be an important political step towards free self-determination for (binary and non-binary) trans people. But the way goes on much further: we demand an apology and compensation for human rights violations such as forced sterilisations. We demand the inclusion of transition therapies in the health insurance – without any gatekeeping. We demand an amendment of the Personenstandsgesetz (the german Personal Status Act)!
Because we don’t want to have to justify to anyone who we are or who we love! In the same way we want to be able to decide for ourselves which name is on our ID card. And why should a trans person need two medical assesments to have their breasts removed? Theoretically, every cis person can have a breast augmentation done by a cosmetic surgeon, without the need for lengthy psychotherapy.
Queer people exist everywhere and have desires and needs for acceptance just like people who are cis-hetero. And we have hope. Hope that coming out will eventually no longer be necessary. That we can all live and love as the people we want to. We want to break down prejudices, through open-minded conversations and unbiased encounters. We want to raise awareness about issues such as gender-equitable and inclusive language. We want to look at who has which rights and who is still excluded from them. Different realities of life can and must exist not only side by side, but together.If everyone would free themselves from internalized prejudices – and yes, this affects also queer people! – our society would be a lot more colourful and worth living.
Today we stand up for a freer world. A world where being oneself is no longer a provocation. A world in which love is not met with hate and “normality” is no longer a measure of judgement.
Thank you for standing up with us for such a world! 🙂