Nazi-era rage against gays emerges at Leipzig Pride event
Imagine marching with the diverse thousands in Washington, D.C.’s Pride parade, then suddenly you are confronted by hundreds of men, mostly blonde, wearing black, shouting in your face to disrupt the march.
Separating you from them are helmeted riot police with German Shepherds. You blink your eyes in disbelief. You hear the anti-gay epithets shouted in German.
You recoil at obscene placards depicting stick figures locked in sex with a red prohibition slash. The black, white and red colors of the Reich flash; there is another flag with an Iron Cross. “Proud-German-National,” one sign says.
1933? Welcome to Christopher Street Day, 2024 in Leipzig, Germany. Named in homage to the site of the Stonewall Riots, Christopher Street Day (CSD) is the oldest Pride event in what was East Germany, formed in 1992, three years after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
