Queerphobia | “Authoritarian states try to prevent trans existence”

Demonstration “Hands off trans lives!” in response to the search Photo: Fabian Sommer/dpa The raid on the queer health and information center Casa Kuá also caused international consternation and concern. In an open letter, which is available in German translation, around 200 researchers, artists and activists from various countries and universities express their solidarity and support for the “Dolls of Berlin”, Casa Kuá, and trans and queer people worldwide who are subject to repression”. Signatories include leading theorists in the field of gender and sexual studies, such as Stanford historian Susan Stryker, Berkeley social scientist Judith Butler and Columbia cultural scientist Jack Halberstam. German social scientist Vanessa E. Thomson and Berlin-based artist Zoë Claire Miller also signed the letter, which, in addition to dropping the planned charges against Casa Kuá, calls for an end to the criminalization of trans places.

"Authoritarian states like Germany are trying to prevent the existence of trans people through administrative violence."

"The attack on the 'Dolls of Berlin'," write the authors of the letter, "is happening at a moment of unprecedented rise of state fascism, both in Germany, where the AfD recently won the state elections in Saxony-Anhalt, and in neighboring European states." This development has also progressed in other regions of the world such as India, Brazil and the USA. "This rise of the extreme right is accompanied by a massive increase in attacks on queer and trans people." The authors place these attacks at the center of a larger developmental context of increasing authoritarianism, which is described in research, among other things, by criminalizing the specific needs of marginalized groups and/or political enemies. The letter explains this as follows: “Increasingly authoritarian states like Germany” are trying “to make it impossible for trans people to achieve a self-determined existence through administrative violence, especially through regressive hurdles in trans health care.”

In fact, especially for trans people affected by racism or those with unsecured residence or insurance status, there are high medical, financial and legal hurdles to receiving the health care they need, such as hormone or psychotherapy. This forces some people into so-called procurement crime when they try to get medication. Because self-organized queer centers offer a place to find out about these questions and exchange ideas with one another, they are automatically exposed to criminalization by the authorities, complain voices from those close to Casa Kuá, from where a large protest rally was organized in the week after the raid. Around 2,500 queer people and supporters came together at Mariannenplatz in Berlin-Kreuzberg under the motto “Hands off trans life!”

“nd” documents the open letter in German at this point, along with the first 50 signatories:

We, the undersigned, express our solidarity with the “Dolls of Berlin”, Casa Kuá and all queer and trans people who are confronted with state violence, repression and attempts at their erasure.

We demand that the German state drop the planned charges and immediately stop criminalizing places for and solidarity between trans people.

We urgently ask you to support the fundraiser for those affected so that our comrades can continue their essential work and continue to provide urgently needed refuge for the most vulnerable of their communities.

The attack on the “Dolls of Berlin” comes at a moment of unprecedented rise of state fascism, both in Germany, where the AfD recently won the state elections in Saxony-Anhalt, and in neighboring European states, in India, Brazil, the United States and elsewhere. This rise of the far right is accompanied by a massive increase in the number of attacks on queer and trans people. In a raid coordinated between five cities, Turkish police recently (September 12-14) targeted seven LGBTIQ+ organizations, two support groups for people living with HIV, and 13 bars and clubs where queer people gather. Board members of some of the country's oldest LGBTQI+ associations, such as Kaos GL and Lamda Istanbul, were taken from their homes. Human Rights Watch reports that at least 112 people have been arrested and that 82 of them remain detained under court orders.

At the same time, increasingly authoritarian states such as Germany are trying to make it impossible for trans people to achieve a self-determined existence through administrative violence, particularly through regressive hurdles in trans health care. As European governments divert public funds to remilitarization, access to housing, welfare, work and education are being cut. In the UK, drastically limited access to trans healthcare has already led to unprecedented levels of trans suicide in recent years. Policies on so-called "single sex spaces" are expected to lead to more deaths like that of Joelle, a trans woman who died after being denied cancer treatment for 16 days. An example of the hypocrisy of the ruling elite is that on October 21, the openly gay Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten celebrated with his partner the news of the imminent birth of their child via a surrogate mother, while his government continues to deny queer refugees the right to family reunification.

The attacks on queer and trans people are accompanied by attacks on and further marginalization of disabled people, migrants and refugees, precarious workers, poor people of color, the homeless and the imprisoned - with even harsher consequences for those who find themselves in several of these categories. It is a disturbing sign of fascism when certain communities are made vulnerable and dispensable and are used as scapegoats for the diverse imbalances of racial capitalism.

The fact that the relatively small community of queer and trans people, and particularly racialized transfems, has become the target of (proto-)fascist and authoritarian regimes globally should not surprise us. Transness in particular stands out as a visible transgression of those cis heteropatriarchal norms on which fascist authority is based. Transness is a thorn in the side of regimes that rely on the widespread internalization of their structural “truths.” Transness thus becomes an effective political wedge that allows states to incite fear and distrust of trans people, dynamics that are reinforced by state carceral and administrative violence. It is no surprise, then, that government attacks on queer and trans people are rising globally just as Gen Z is joining forces politically with other movements - in France, Albania, Brazil, India, Argentina, Indonesia, Greece and around the world.

Queer and trans people have repeatedly been at the forefront of social movements and liberation struggles. The attack on the Dolls of Berlin in Casa Kuá on October 18th is historic. At the current historical crossroads, it represents a moment that requires all of us to take a stand, not just with and for our queer and trans siblings, but for humanity itself.

We, the signatories, stand with the Dolls of Berlin, Casa Kuá and trans and queer people worldwide who experience state repression. We are answering their call to organize! To be angry! Stay glamorous!

To stay informed, draw attention to the topic or get involved, follow @thedolls_ofberlin and @casakua on Instagram. Support committees are currently forming in Berlin, in Europe and worldwide, for sustainable momentum in this fight that is just beginning.

Judith Butler, Distinguished Professor, University of California, Berkeley

Jack Halberstam, Professor, Columbia University.

Eric A. Stanley, Associate Professor and Vice Chair for Research, and Haas Distinguished Chair in LGBT Equity, University of California, Berkeley

Paola Bacchetta, Professor and Chair, Department of Gender and Women’s Studies, University of California Berkeley; Co-Director, Decolonizing Sexualities Network

Dean Spade, Professor, Seattle University School of Law

Jordy Rosenberg, Professor, Department of English, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Dr. Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Independent Scholar

Dr. Clare Hemmings, Professor in Feminist Theory, Department of Gender Studies, LSE

M.E. O’Brien, independent scholar, New York City

Dr. Mijke van der Drift, Royal College of Art, London

Dr. River Baars, Reader in Law & Social Change, SOAS, University of London, and organizer with the QTHoMo Collective

Professor Vanja Hamzić, Professor of Law, History and Anthropology, SOAS University of London

Dr. Sophie Lewis, independent scholar, Philadelphia

Isabel Boni Le Goff, Sociologist, Senior Lecturer University Paris 8

Jesse Darling, artist and educator, Oxford

Dr. Sarah Lamble, Professor of Criminology and Queer Theory, Birkbeck, University of London

Dr. Shuli Branson, Mellon Teaching Fellow in Trans Studies, Dartmouth College

Dr. Clair Quentin, Loughborough University

Dr. Mikki Stelder, University of Amsterdam

Dr. Tris Hedges, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Copenhagen

Alan Sears, Professor Emeritus, Department of Sociology, Toronto Metropolitan University

Laurie Marhoefer, Professor, University of Washington

Hil Malatino, Associate Professor of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Philosophy, Penn State University

Eric Fassin, Emeritus professor of sociology and gender studies, Université Paris 8 

Dr. Sara Bragg, UCL Institute of Education

Dr. Ashkan Sepahvand, Junior Research Fellow in Fine Art, St. John’s College, University of Oxford 

Dr. Asli Zengin, Associate Professor, Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies Department, Rutgers University

Professor Dr. Tamás Jules Fütty, Institute of Educational Science, University of Klagenfurt, Austria

Melanie Richter-Montpetit, Associate Professor, Department of International Relations, University of Sussex

Prof. Dr. Mike Laufenberg, Fulda University of Applied Sciences

Dr. Ruth Pearce, School of Education, University of Glasgow 

Dr. Daniel Loick, University of Amsterdam 

Prof. Dr. Utan Schirmer, Alice Salomon University Berlin

Professor Dr. Gundula Ludwig, Center for Interdisciplinary Gender Studies, University of Innsbruck

Pauline Clochec, associate professor of philosophy, University of Picardy

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