Note: This article contains descriptions of homophobic violence.
Several people were reportedly assaulted in two separate incidents after Berlin’s annual Pride celebration on Saturday.
In one incident, a group of nine people reportedly confronted three teenagers, ages 15 to 17, on Saturday in the German capital city, as the Associated Press reported. The teenagers said that their assailants made anti-gay remarks, and when a 16-year-old girl responded to them, one man knocked her hat off her head and tripped her, punching her when she got back up.
Later that evening in a separate incident, a group of eight people reportedly insulted and chased a 32-year-old man, kicking his head and upper body once they caught up with him. A passerby then stood in front of the victim, at which point his attackers fled the scene.
Neither the man nor the teenager suffered severe injuries, with the man receiving outpatient treatment for cuts and bruises and the girl declining assistance from emergency services.
While Berlin is known as a haven of LGBTQ+ nightlife, homophobic and transphobic attacks have been escalating steadily around the world in the past several years. The German government released a report in 2021 that found that hate crimes against LGBTQ+ Germans had risen 36% in 2020. That same year, the German government reported that it had observed a 4% increase in far-right extremists from 2019 to 2020 — and those are only the officially recorded figures.
Violence against queer and trans people has been increasing in the U.S. as well. The Proud Boys, a far-right group, have been ambushing drag queen events intended for children, including drag queen story hours across the country. State lawmakers have proposed banning children from drag shows, claiming that such events constitute “grooming.” A pride celebration in a city in northern Idaho narrowly avoided being ambushed by the white nationalist group Patriot Front, which arrived with a cohort of members from around the country.
Still, Berlin’s Pride was proof that the country’s LGBTQ+ community refuses to be cowed. After cancelling the parade in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 65,000 people marched in Berlin’s 2021 Pride celebrations, which included social distancing rules and a ban on alcohol. This year was the first year that Berlin’s Pride has come back in full force, and the crowd was estimated at 350,000 people strong.
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