The most well known female feminist activist in Germany is Alice Schwarzer, nowadays 83 years old. She founded a feminist magazine named Emma back in the 70s.
Lesbian author Annika Ross wrote an op ed named "Not my rainbow" in it back in 2025, discussing the big schism between the modern gay&lesbian and queer community. Lesbians and gays are nowadays quite accepted here in Germany, as a matter of fact the leader of our right wing nut party, the AfD, is the open lesbian Alice Weidel, married to another woman raising children. Another important political figure is open gay Jens Spahn from the CDU, who's having the whip in the parliament.
There's a certain trend here that some gays&lesbians refuse to call themself queer, while the queer community criticises that stance and wants to subsume them.
"They are bonkers" my father said, shaking his head, as we watched the news coverage of the Berlin CSD parade together. A few gay guys were dancing to samba rhythms in green, glittery thongs, followed by a line-dancing cowboy troupe carrying rainbow flags emblazoned with the slogan: "Don’t ride the pony, ride the cowboy!"
That must have been around 2002. Back then, I hadn’t yet told my father that my best friend was more than just my best friend, and I thought to myself: *Well, this is going to be interesting...*
For years, CSD was a mini-holiday for me. We usually headed to Berlin; that’s simply where the best parties were. I loved the relaxed, slightly risqué atmosphere and the colorful sense of community in what was, to me, the coolest German city of all. Sure, there were always a few eccentric characters around, but so what? That’s the whole point—every color of the rainbow.
The rainbow flag has long since degenerated into a marketing strategy.
Whenever my girlfriend and I went on city trips—to Barcelona, Madrid, Paris, or London—we’d seek out the neighborhoods flying the rainbow flag. That usually led us straight into a city’s subculture, far away from the tourist crowds. The rainbow flag used to be a great guidepost. Today, it just annoys me.
Primarily because it has degenerated into a marketing strategy. Almost every company feels compelled to display it somewhere. Adidas, Bayer, BMW, DHL, Mercedes-Benz, Puma, Siemens, and Volkswagen all fly it. Nivea prints it on its lids. Only here at home, of course—not in Islamic countries, where homosexuality is punishable by death. When the wind changes, the flag disappears. Just look at the fiasco surrounding the rainbow armband at the World Cup in Qatar. It’s a flag that simply blows with the wind. As it happened, my family and I stumbled upon Munich’s CSD parade last year while on our way to vacation. "Mom, why are they dressing up as dogs?" my daughter Henriette asked when she spotted the pet-play community—people wearing dog masks who were rubbing up against spectators and begging to have their necks scratched. Some even let themselves be led on leashes. "They’ve lost their minds," I thought—acting every bit the dad—and steered my children in a different direction.
What I found even more unsettling than the fetish dogs was the hostility directed at women. Anyone who doesn't immediately hoist the trans flag is branded a "TERF"—and apparently, it’s okay to kill them. "Kill TERFs" was written on several placards. Since when did it become cool to spew hate at others during a rally for tolerance? A large number of the young girls at the CSD were wrapped in rainbow-trans flags. "Proud to be trans" or "Proud to be queer" read the slogans on their badges.
"Proud to be lesbian?" I don't think that badge even exists. Would a girl dare to wear one today? I didn't spot a single lesbian-themed float in the entire CSD parade. Butches? Do they even exist anymore? I didn't even see women walking along in trekking gear. Instead, a sign reading "Enable surrogacy" was plastered on one stall. Another bore the slogan "Pharma for Pride." Well, the revolution devours its children. For me, the rainbow finally set that day.
"TERFs" are fair game for killing, and women are expected to call themselves FLINTAs.
Women have never had it easy in the LGBTQ community, and lesbians were never the loudest voices at CSD events, either. But today, they are facing a real backlash. We aren’t even supposed to call ourselves women anymore, but rather "FLINTAs" or "birthing people with a uterus," just so no one feels excluded or discriminated against.
You know what? I feel excluded. I feel discriminated against. As a woman. Is our never-ending fight for visibility supposed to just vanish behind the rainbow in the blink of an eye?
In Germany, we have a femicide every single damn day. Hundreds of women are murdered every year simply because they are women. Only one in a hundred rapists is convicted. Gang rapes are an everyday occurrence. Domestic violence against women has reached a grim peak. We are anything but equal. It is time for us women to take a stand!
And not under the rainbow flag.
Jahrelang war der CSD für EMMA-Redakteurin Annika Ross ein kleiner Feiertag. Das bunte Wir-Gefühl, das auf eine ganze Stadt abfärbte. Heute ist sie genervt von der Regenbogenfahne. Und nicht nur, weil die zur Marketing-Strategie verkommen ist und jeder Fetisch wie das "Pet Playing" (Foto)...
www.emma.de
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