To kick off the Germany-wide CSD season, our unit was there with the queer university group “OvGU Pride” at the CSD Schönebeck on April 23rd at the Salzblume on the beautiful Elbe River.
For this we met around 9 am on Saturday and drove together with expectant and joyful mood to the place of action. Around 10 o’clock we arrived and started to set up our stand. We had underestimated the weather a bit, because besides bright sun and blue sky, the day surprised us with moderate wind, which tried to claw our carpeting several times. So that everything remained in place, we had to go without further ado on the hunt for stones on the Elbe. After all, we will be well equipped for future CSDs!
Around 11 o’clock, the first guests started to arrive. As a small action we had previously thought about painting Pride flags on people’s cheeks, similar to children’s face painting, only queer! This was surprisingly well received, because until 6 pm our people worked like crazy and painted flags like Progress Pride, Rainbow, Asexual, Puppy Pride, Lesbian and many others for our visitors. Meanwhile we informed about our work as a unit, handed out stickers and flyers and listened to the stage program. Our speakers had the opportunity to ride with the first march and party on the truck with other happy souls. Both reported that this was a very memorable and special experience, and not only because of the free champagne served by the CSD!
On the day, we especially liked how positively the people of Schönebeck reacted to the demonstration and how many people came to the small Salzblumenplatz to celebrate Pride and visibility of our community with us and many other local associations and groups, such as Lambda Mitteldeutschland, Aidshilfe and “Liebe für alle”.
Jako, he/j