Quarrel

A strategy discussion between 1973 and 1974 within the so-called second German gay movement is referred to as a queer dispute .

history

The conflict broke out at the Pentecost meeting in West Berlin in 1973 . At the final demonstration organized by Homosexual Action Westberlin (HAW) with over 700 participants, the gays who had come from France and Italy appeared in women's clothes. For this “effeminate” behavior, the abusive term “ tune” was common in Germany . The disapproval of this confrontational behavior by German comrades expanded into an internal strategy debate.

Consequences and backgrounds

The result of the queer dispute was the split of the HAW into an integrationist wing of orthodox Marxists and the radical faction of feminists . For the former, homosexual oppression was a " pre-capitalist relic" and not an essential feature of bourgeois society. Since the integration of homosexuals seemed possible at any time, the task of the "homosexual socialists" was seen in developing active solidarity for the homosexual minority in the labor movement and an awareness of the majority situation as exploited wage workers among homosexuals .

The radicals, on the other hand, rejected a minority policy that amounts to leaving the prevailing form of heterosexuality untouched. The latter is characterized by the violent exaggeration of gender roles and a latent homosexual identification of the men with one another. From this perspective, they derived the demand for an autonomous gay movement that should develop independent positions and bring them to the political left .

See also

• History of the Lesbian and Gay Movement
• Straight acting
• General Homosexual Working Group (AHA)

literature

• Quarrel. Theory discussion of the homosexual action West Berlin (PDF; 7.5 MB). Verlag Rosa Winkel, Berlin, 1975.
• Michael Glas: The gay movement in the Federal Republic of Germany - political goals and strategies , Master's thesis at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg 1993 ( online excerpt from the Tuntenstreit ( memento from December 12, 2011 in the Internet Archive ))
• Craig Griffiths: Competing Paths to Emancipation. The queer dispute (1973-75) and the question of 'respectable appearance'. In: Andreas Pretzel & Volker Weiß (eds.): Pink radicals. The Gay Movement of the 1970s , Swarm of Men, 2012, ISBN 978-3-86300-121-6