From being punched in the face to being threatened with a gun: within just a few days, several LGBTI+ people were attacked, insulted and injured in Berlin. The attacks are an expression of a shift to the right that is increasingly turning queer people into enemies. – A comment by Eduard Dunker.

Violence hostile to LGBTI+ people has been growing massively for years, not just in the abstract. It is also reflected in concrete terms. The last few weeks and months in particular have been full of hostility and violence. Symbolic of these attacks is the attack on the Berlin CSD on July 25th, when an Islamic fundamentalist drove a van into a crowd and then attacked passers-by with a machete. A woman was murdered and 31 other people were injured, some seriously.

To commemorate this cruel attack and the victims, the city set up a small memorial in early August - a bench in rainbow colors and the planting of a maple tree. Not even a month later this one happenedSouvenirs completely destroyed. The bank was so badly damaged that it had to be dismantled. A few days later, unknown people tried that tooto tear out tree.

Attacks in Berlin

At the beginning of September there were further attacks in Berlin. On September 2nda young trans womanIn the evening in front of a restaurant on Sonnenallee, a man asked her gender from a group. He then insulted her, punched her in the face and threw her to the ground. On the floor he kicked her in the face several more times.

LGBTI+ under attack: Anti-queer violence is increasing

Just a day later there was another one on Nollendorfplatzattack. A 62-year-old was first given a homophobic insult and then hit in the face. He needed medical treatment. In the same week a...gay coupleattacked and a 17-year-old was homophobically insulted, beaten andended up in the hospital.

On the night from Sunday to Monday it finally happened that a person was sitting on a bench at Mehringplatz when she was talking to someone because of their transsexualityGun threatenedbecame. The following night, another LGBTI+ person was killed by two people from an e-scooterattacked.

LGBTI+ hostile attacks are not just a phenomenon in Berlin, which is considered an LGBTI+ metropolis. At the end of August there wasDresdena serious attack by three men on a trans woman. The victim was thrown to the ground and then kicked. She suffered, among other things, fractures to her nose and cheekbone.

Violence against LGBTI+ at an all-time high

Violence against LGBTI+ people has been increasing enormously for years. TheLGBTI+ Safety Situation Report 2025BKA statistics show that cases in the areas of “sexual orientation” and “gender diversity” have increased almost tenfold since 2010. In 2023, 212 acts of violence were recorded compared to 197 in the previous year.

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An EU dark field study came to the conclusion that 96 percent of the LGBTI+ surveyed would not report the insults and comments and 87 percent also did not report physical and sexual assaults. One of the reasons: apparently fear of police officers hostile to LGBTI+.

Another expression of the increase in LGBTI+ hostility across society is the general shift to the right in society. By living out their sexuality and gender identity, LGBTI+ question the distribution of tasks and the binary gender system necessary in patriarchy. But it is precisely these that play a major role in fascist propaganda. The fear of a supposed one becomes consciousAbolition of the familyfueled, and LGBTI+ are portrayed as perverts and pedophiles.

These representations can also be found, among other things, in the AfD's positions and election campaign - as the election results of the state elections in Saxony-Anhalt recently show, with great success. In addition to migrants, LGBTI+ are one of the AfD's main enemy images. The fact that this results in more violence against LGBTI+ does not seem surprising.

“Pedo Hunter” and the LGBTI+ myth

A phenomenon that uses precisely these arguments are so-called“Pedo Hunter”-Networks. These online groups, some with thousands of followers, pose as boys and girls on the Internet, arrange meetings with people they suspect of being pedophiles, and then attack them.

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These chat groups are mainly made up of young men who justify their violent fantasies with the fight against pedophilia. Although the groups often present themselves as apolitical, they have clear overlaps with the fascist scene. Accordingly, homosexuality is equated with pedophilia here.

It happens again and again that LGBTI+ dating platforms are used to lure people into a trap. This was also the case with the 16-year-old trans girlBrianna Gheyfrom England. She was also ambushed on a dating app before being brutally murdered with 28 stab wounds.

Visibility no protection

LGBTI+ have become increasingly visible in public in recent decades. And today more LGBTI+ people dare to live out their identity. Hundreds of CSDs take place every year, and here and there you can sometimes spot a Pride flag in public. However, more publicity also attracts more violence.

Police violence at the “International Queer Pride” in Berlin

And visibility does not mean the end of oppression. The increasing violence and the increasing legal attacks on the self-determination of LGBTI+, which have increased in recent years, clearly bear the stamp of the shift to the right.

In recent years it has become normal that, with the exception of most large cities, fascists are increasingly mobilizing against CSDs. According to thatQueer Diversity AssociationAt least 110 of 245 CSDs nationwide were attacked in 2025 - often by organized fascist groups.

The speed with which the political will to protect LGBTI+ is disappearing also raises doubts as to whether it ever existed. The SPD and CDU stated in their coalition agreement that theyReview the self-determination lawwant to leave, even though it was the SPD itself that passed the law under Olaf Scholz.

Ignored, instrumentalized, deported: LGBTI+ as a political football

The government apparently thinks more of protecting LGBTI+ people if it can use it to justify and expand its deportation plans. The well-known fairy tale of imported LGBTI+ hostility is often used for this. After the attack on the CSD in Berlin, calls for more deportations became louder. It was only last Saturday that thedomestic policy spokesman for the Union factionIt is known that they now also want to deport people who have committed anti-women, LGBTI+ and anti-Christian crimes.

The case of shows how honest politicians actually are about protecting LGBTI+ peopleAngel, a lesbian woman from Uganda. She was deported to Uganda a few months ago, although she faces the death penalty there because of her sexual orientation. The court in question had denied her homosexuality.

The postIncreasing violence: Six anti-LGBTI+ attacks in Berlin in ten daysappeared firstperspective.