Wh Ko Internatnal screeng 1989 queer film "Comg Out" on Nov 9, the GDR's first (and only) feature alg wh homosexualy, our lumnist chats to Ossis to fd out more about the East Berl gay scene.
Contents:
- GAY THE GDR? THE GAY BERLER VTIGAT AHEAD OF “COMG OUT” SCREENG
- PRI MONTH 2020: HOW BERL AND PALERMO'S GAY KISS NETFLIX'S ‘MONEY HEIST’ CHANGED THE GAME FOR QUEER FANS
GAY THE GDR? THE GAY BERLER VTIGAT AHEAD OF “COMG OUT” SCREENG
* gay kiss berlin wall *
What did the gay scene look like GDR Berl? But asi om Jochen Hick’s 2013 documentary Out Ost-Berl, gettg sight to the gay scene East Berl isn’t easy. “There were only maybe four official gay Kneipen East Berl the 1980s: Schoppenstube, Café Senefelr, Burgien and Café Prenzl.
When the untry crimalised homosexualy 1968 – renrg Germany’s famo anti-homosexualy law, Paragraph 175, els (Wt Germany didn’t repeal 175 until after rnifitn) – the GDR did seem light years ahead. But then, as the Wt was experiencg Gay Liberatn, the movement didn’t get much sway the pdish East.
PRI MONTH 2020: HOW BERL AND PALERMO'S GAY KISS NETFLIX'S ‘MONEY HEIST’ CHANGED THE GAME FOR QUEER FANS
We uldn’t lose our jobs or apartments for beg gay, ” says Schäfer. ” Another difference is that Ossi gays were spared the trmatic experience of HIV and AIDS that was polilly mobilisg LGBT people the Wt and sparked the awakeng of the 1980s.
The state self was pretty quiet regards to homosexualy. However, when DEFA (the state-owned film stud) fally gave the green light to the GDR’s first (and only) feature alg wh homosexualy – Heer Carow’s betiful Comg Out – premiered on the eveng of November 9, 1989 at Ko Internatnal – the same night the Berl Wall fell.
Twelve years later, when the DVD release exposed ternatnal dienc to the film, Comg Out was my first troductn to gay life Germany as a whole – a ttament to not jt as a great gay film, but great film general. After the Wall me down, East Berl’s gays had a whole new world to al wh.