Queer | Raid on Casa Kuá intimidates Berlin's trans* community

The queer community is often attacked. The tree in memory of the victims of the attack on the CSD in the Tiergarten was repeatedly damaged. Photo: dpa/Annette Riedl On Sunday evening, the Berlin police carried out a nighttime raid on the “Casa Kuá”. Almost 40 emergency services from the so-called protective and criminal police stormed the rooms of the queer health and information center, where at that time there were mainly trans* people at a weekly community meeting. According to information from the Taz, the personal details of at least 21 people were recorded, even though they were not accused of anything individually.

The search was initiated by the public prosecutor's office on suspicion of a violation of the Medicines Act. When asked, the police left unanswered how exactly the law was supposed to have been violated and referred to a press release that was still pending. The public prosecutor's office also did not comment by press time. It is not yet possible to say whether there was a court order. Without this, a search may only be ordered by the authorities within narrow limits, for example in the event of imminent danger. At the time of access, an information event about cryptocurrencies was planned, from which it would be difficult to deduce an immediate danger.

It is a reality that some trans* people obtain hormones using cryptocurrencies on the Internet. However, this fact also includes the observation that for many trans* people, sexual self-determination and the relief of psychological suffering due to gender incongruence are only possible by taking hormone preparations. However, these are often denied due to medical, financial and legal hurdles in Germany.

For example, there has long been uncertainty about the financing of hormone therapies due to a lack of legal regulations. This makes it more difficult for trans* people to "obtain hormone preparations for their transition in doctors' offices and to have the costs reimbursed by statutory health insurance companies," complains Maik Brückner, the Left's federal spokesman for queer politics. He strongly condemns the raid. The fact that doctors decide on the gender self-determination of trans* people is also criticized by many of those affected.

"Trans* people only have to get hormones through informal community networks because the health system is letting them down and failing."

That is the real scandal that turns the police measure into mere repression, "even if there was a violation of the drug law," says Cassidy, who took photos of the solidarity protest in front of the house on Sunday. She expressly supports the house as a person from the trans* spectrum. »Because trans* people only have to get hormones through informal community networks because the health system is letting them down and failing. Closing something like that down without talking about why people depend on it makes an already vulnerable group even more vulnerable." Maik Brückner also speaks of "double discrimination" - by the legislature and now by the police.

Anyone who follows relevant trans* and queer activist channels in Berlin and seeks contact with those affected will quickly notice a great deal of tension, worry and even panic that has been spreading in the community since Monday morning - caused by the raid. The shock of the CSD attack is still deep, in which a man drove a car into the crowd for suspected Islamist motives and killed a woman.

For days, politicians then praised the police for their efforts at the CSD. The police did not prevent the attack at all and were also responsible for police violence against other queer events in Berlin on the same day. With this still fresh impression, Berlin police officers once again broke into queer organized spaces, confiscated objects and recorded people's personal details.

For historical reasons, the queer community has little trust in German authorities when it comes to registering personal data regarding sexual and gender identity. The memory of systematic persecution in several German states is kept alive. When, as part of the Self-Determination Act, Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) promoted the storage and transmission of previous gender entries in the population register and forwarding them to security authorities, strong protests arose under the term “pink lists”. The Nazis systematically recorded people they considered homosexual.

The latest raid reminds the community of dark experiences with German organizations that violently invaded queer spaces. In May 1933, the SA stormed Magnus Hirschfeld's Institute for Sexual Science in Berlin - a research center on queer identity and sexuality that was unique in the world at the time - and terrorized the employees. A little later, large parts of the research there were destroyed.

Today, such an SA is not even needed “to storm a self-organized health care facility,” writes the author and activist Mine Pleasure Bouvar on Instagram. This is happening at a time of social militarization and fascisation, in which austerity, pressure on health systems and anti-queer discrimination are connected.

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