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September 2007
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CSD Thüringen 2007

Schwule Sau!Today I went with a friend to CSD-Thüringen in Erfurt.

It was a gay day, overall, and not just because of Christopher Street Days (Gay Pride in America). Although we did not complete the entire march, we did go from the Erfurt Hauptbahnhof to the Erfurt Rathaus before both of us got bored and decided to go shopping.

Erfurt has better shopping than either Weimar or Jena – and that’s something that only women and gay men would actively discuss.

CSD-Thüringen 2007It’s interesting to see Christopher Street Days in light of what I saw at Indianapolis Pride earlier this summer – or my brief encounter with Frankfurt Pride in July. It seems to me that the struggle in Thüringen is at a much more basic level than the struggle in either Frankfurt or Indianapolis.

I didn’t attend the parade in Indianapolis, but as I perceive it, from the floats I saw, the booths I saw, and the feeling I got, the celebration in Indianapolis is much more about being out and proud to be gay—that Indianapolis has, for the most part, moved beyond basic struggles like being visible and being accepted.

Not that there aren’t troubles in Indianapolis or Indiana, but that path is better defined in Indiana than it is in Thüringen.

We joined the parade before it started, then ducked into the train station to grab a cup of coffee and a sandwich for my friend—by the time we got out, we had to chase down the parade, which had started. This was the part that got me: the parade did not seem to have that many people. I’m no expert on estimating crowd sizes, but I would say that there were maybe 100 people in the parade marching to whatever the (cute) DJ was playing (but no photos of him, my apologies).

CSD-Thüringen 2007When we got to Anger Platz there was some older guy, with a cane, who took issue with the march—but the Thüringen police quickly encouraged the guy to move elsewhere and not try to out shout the guy speaking through the amplifier.

From there it was a mosey down to the Rathaus for a rainbow flag raising and more speeches. I remembered the Jack Wolfskin store nearby and we decided to go shopping, which was a whole lot more interesting—somewhere along the way I acquired two shirts that look really kick-ass.

We caught up with the end of the parade, which consisted of the DJ playing music in front of a building and people sitting on the grass talking. Overall, I am not really sure what I think—it was a nice day to be out and about. That much is certain.

1 comment to CSD Thüringen 2007

  • Ed

    Here in Southern Indiana if they tried to put on a Gay parade the OLd Paths BAptist church would be out with their signs reading: God hates fags, AIDS is God’s way of killing off FAgs, Matthew Shephard is burning in Hell etc.