Following the AfD’s record result in the Saxony-Anhalt state elections, LSVD+ Verband Queere Vielfalt warns of an already difficult situation for queer and other marginalized people growing even tougher. The past election Sunday was described as a historic turning point by Alva Träbert, a member of the LSVD+ national board based in Berlin: “On the recent election Sunday in Saxony-Anhalt we witnessed a historic breach. For the first time since the founding of the Federal Republic, a regional party that the Verfassungsschutz classifies as clearly right-wing extremist is this close to political power.”
Although the appointment of a minister-president remains unsettled, people in Saxony-Anhalt already report a noticeably changed social climate, Träbert added: “Hostile positions are not only imaginable anymore; they are now openly and unapologetically supported. The hard-won rights for LSBTIAQ* are already being questioned constantly and actively threatened.”
Not only queer people affected
According to LSVD+, growing insecurity and overt hatred toward minorities have long been part of daily life. “For many queer people, but also racialized, migrantized individuals or people with disabilities, growing insecurity, rejection, and increasingly open hatred have become everyday experiences — in Saxony-Anhalt and beyond,” Träbert said. “We have not only since Sunday been asking ourselves: where and how can we be ourselves safely without exclusion, threat, or persecution?”
We know from our own history how quickly hard-won rights can be taken away, Träbert continued: “From our history we know how swiftly rights and freedoms can be stripped from us again, and what devastating consequences that can have. We know that many of us simply do not have the option to be less visible, less vulnerable in daily life. And we know that fear-driven invisibility erodes our joy, our dignity, and our communities, and in the end it does not protect us. We stay visible, we stay loud, and we stand shoulder to shoulder.”
Trävert: “We all have a role to play”
The LSVD+ called on democratic civil society to stand together — across the boundaries of our own experiences: “Political change can only succeed if we as democratic civil society really come together beyond the limits of our own experiences. Many of us have decades of experience in helping others, now many are looking for ways to push back against the political shift to the right. It takes all of us.”
Specifically, the association urged people to organize locally and nationwide in associations and clubs, to support them through memberships or funding, and to share resources with initiatives against racism and ableism, for reproductive self-determination, as well as for safe pathways to asylum: “It is up to all of us to shape and defend a diverse democratic society, to look out for one another, and to stand up for our rights and the rights of our fellow human beings.”
The LSVD+ named among others the following organizations that currently need support: Saxony-Anhalt. Weltoffen!, the Mobile Victim Counseling Saxony-Anhalt for people affected by right-wing, racist, and anti-Semitic violence, the Flüchtlingsrat Saxony-Anhalt, the AWO Saxony-Anhalt, the Landesnetzwerk Migrantenorganisationen in Saxony-Anhalt (Lamsa), the Dachverband der Migrant*innenorganisationen in Ostdeutschland (DaMoSt), Lambda Mitteldeutschland, and the state association LSVD+ Saxony-Anhalt.
“We stay visible. We stay in solidarity. And we stay loud. Now more than ever!” Träbert concluded.
