[EN] Where it all began: Our statement on the Dyke March Cologne 2 July 2022
Events
Reactions
Outlook
Updates
1. Events
On 2 July 2022, a demo for women’s sex-based rights took place in the city centre of Cologne from 2pm-4pm.
As we were already gathered as a group, some of the women-loving women decided to visit the Dyke March, a few minutes’ walk away.
Here are our clothes and the flags and signs we had with us:
Also “Stop Transing The Gay Away” and “Lesbians don’t have penises” as cardboard signs. We explicitly stand behind the statement “Stop Transing The Gay Away” and did not want to hide the sign at any point. It so happened that the person holding the sign, even before the organisers arrived, had put it upside down on the outside left of the parapet to have her hands free to defend herself in case of emergency. The other participants were sitting and standing much further to the right of and on the parapet, so the sign is only visible in a swing to the left and unfortunately, there was no good close-up shot in which we could all be seen.
We were standing or sitting on top of the parapet. In the following, directions such as “left” or “right” refer to the left or right of the position of a viewer from this position, except in the picture descriptions.
The people in the action below us showed mixed reactions. We got some middle fingers, head shaking, “Fuck you!”, “Fuck TERFs!” and confused faces, but also applause and thumbs up.
When some trans activists below started shouting something at us, we countered from above with “lesbians don’t have penises.”
At first, a group accompanying the procession at the front became aware of us. In the following we will refer to this team as the “soli[darity] team”, because they rushed together when called with “soli team!” It is yet unclear who gave this shout.
It consisted of at least two men (man 1 and man 2) and a group of women.
At the same Dyke March there was a “Soliblock” for which people “of all genders & sexualities” were called to apply.
Understandably, there was a confusion between the soli team and the Dyke March organisers or stewards on site, because these groups mixed, while the soli team wanted to “support” the organisers, as the latter noted itself1. We will come to that.
The steward team wore white armbands. Among them were, as far as we know, three organisers: Annette (in the middle), Madeline (bottom left) and Maria (centre front, with sunglasses).
The organising and stewarding team also joined us on the bridge a little later via the stairs on the far left.
We were told by the soli team that we had “transphobic shit [...] hanging around” and were “behaving in an unsolidary way” (video of the LGB Alliance).
Then the black DIN A2 sign saying “LESBIAN homosexual, not queer” was stolen by a woman wearing a white cap. Man 2 cut off one of our women who wanted to give chase to allow the woman with the stolen sign to escape.
Afterwards, an attempt was made to steal a bag from us. Man 2 also took part in this action again. As one of our fellow women gave chase, the theft was abandoned and the woman who had stolen the bag threw it into a bush and ran away.
The organisers did not reprimand or warn any of the people involved in the (attempted) thefts. On the contrary, the woman with the white baseball cap returned to the side of the organisers and the situation escalated further.
The Dyke March organisers now attempted to use their “Dykes* Against Transphobia! Self-determination now!!!” banner to cover our Labrys flag. Not lowering their banner next to ours, but aggressively, physically if necessary, displacing us and preventing us from showing ourselves on the parapet. Our women sitting on the parapet left it because they feared falling.
Dyke March organiser Annette Rösener was not above first pinning down the Labrys flag with her elbow and then pushing the fellow woman holding the Labrys flag away with her elbow.
Several times people tugged at the Labrys flag, often several at once.
A woman from the soli team told the Labrys flag bearer: “You can keep it, just don't show it.”
This turned out to be a false promise. The Labrys flag was stolen during the assault on the flag bearer.
The Labrys flag is a lesbian-feminist flag whose symbolism has been displayed in a lesbian-feminist context since the 1970s. The two halves of the double axe (=Labrys) stand for the two female lovers and the vulval lips. The double axe is also said to have been used as a weapon by the Amazons. Purple is the colour of feminism. The black triangle is supposed to recall the identification markings that female homosexuals, among others, had to wear in the concentration camps of the Third Reich.
Bitter irony, then, that while the Labrys flag was flying on the parapet, we were insulted as “untermenschen” by an unknown man (in the video Lesben bei #dykemarchcologne tätlich angegriffen at minute 13:12).
Just as bitterly ironic as the attempts to brand us as “right-wing radicals”, “fascists” or “nazis” afterwards in order to discredit us (more on that later as well).
The final escalation came when a woman with medium-length blonde hair and a black shirt approached the woman holding the LGB rainbow flag from behind. She grabbed the “Lesbians don’t have penises” sign.
The LGB flag bearer left the parapet to retrieve the sign but was too slow; the woman tore it. After the assaults on her, she therefore shouted: “The only thing you can do is break things!”
The LGB flag bearer approached the woman who had torn the sign to ask what that was about.
Another woman with short platinum blonde hair then attacked. She grabbed the LGB flag bearer, who tried to break free of her grip. The steward with the sunglasses left her seat and stood next to the attacker.
At the same time, a second assault occurred to the left. Probably encouraged by the violence of the women of the soli team, man 1 (striped shirt, masked, with “D*MC” sticker on his mask) first walked towards the LGB flag bearer with his fist raised and visibly aggressive, punched the air several times,
then turned around and brutally pushed the Labrys flag bearer, who had half turned towards the LGB flag bearer and who wanted to de-escalate, backwards from the side several times unprovoked.
He then grabbed her right arm by the wrist while he put her in a headlock under his right arm.
A headlock is a potentially life-threatening situation. If the blood supply to the brain is cut off, it can lead to fainting and brain damage. In addition, injuries to the cervical spine can occur. The attacker was a good head taller than the attacked lesbian.
At the same time, the man said, “Easy, easy.”
As soon as the LGB flag bearer was free, she was attacked from behind by the woman with the white cap who had stolen the black sign. The woman with the white cap grabbed the LGB flag bearer by the elbows and pushed her down.
After the LGB flag bearer managed to turn 180° within the grip, the attacker struck her with an open hand from the front, first against her throat
and then her lower jaw. With the second blow, her head jerked back.
The LGB flag bearer then raised her fist as a deterrent - without striking, mind you - which was her only way of stopping her second attacker.
With the realisation that no blow would follow, the second attacker grabbed the LGB flag bearer’s neck again, but the LGB flag bearer stopped her arm. The LGB flag bearer then removed herself from the situation.
The Labrys flag bearer managed to free herself from the grip by reflexively grabbing the man with her free hand. He then loosened the stranglehold.
Realising that she was free again, the Labrys flag bearer also let go of the man. She was not helped by the organisers, although the organiser with the grey cap was standing right next to her. The same woman had also tried to steal signs from us the year before.
Afterwards, the attacker was comforted by the bystanders.
The organisers’ idea of “de-escalation” here was to “protect” the attacker of the LGB flag bearer and, of course, to keep us away from the parapet, where we could have shown our flags, with their arms outstretched.
None of the attackers were removed or admonished by the organisers.
The man experienced no consequences for this violent and potentially life-threatening homophobic assault. Instead, he returned to the organisers and soli team completely unhindered.
We left the square and decided to report everything to the police immediately.
Eight of us filed a collective complaint for robbery, theft, intentional simple bodily harm, insult and damage to property. We were told that we probably had become victims of an anti-lesbian hate crime.
2. Reactions
Instagram influencer Ulla Scharfenberg, or der_hase_im_pfeffer (around 21 tsd. followers on Instagram), applauded the assaults and thefts.
That we supposedly had “provoked” violence, as claimed not only by Hase im Pfeffer, but also by the Dyke March Cologne and the Lesbenring e.V. (“As participants and eye witnesses* we explicitly support the statement of the DYKE MARCH Cologne organisers about the calculated provocation by transphobic disturbers* at the sidelines of this year’s #Dykemarch:s. We won’t be divided! #LwiththeT” liked by the government’s commissioner for queer, Sven Lehmann),
implies two things:
that we are dealing with a violent counterpart who can be “seduced” into violence, which is an admission of their own violence,
that being openly and loudly homosexual and standing up for homosexuality, being born exclusively attracted to the same sex and standing up for it publicly, is a “provocation” to which it is appropriate to respond with violence.
“Terf” or “TERF” is a misogynistic2 and lesbophobic3 insult that legitimises violence against women, especially feminists and homosexual women, and not a political position.
To correct false statements made by the “Dyke* March Köln” organisation in Schwulissimo:
Here they claim that we work “hand in hand with right-wing populists and Christian fundamentalists(...).” Neither the individual women who were present in Cologne on 2 July, nor the WDI Germany, nor the LGB Alliance work together with right-wing populists or Christian fundamentalists. The WDI stands for the gender-based rights of girls and women and the LGB Alliance stands for people who are same-sex attracted. Baseless accusations like this only serve to discredit lesbian feminists and victims of assault so that no one will listen to us for fear of being considered right-wing. This is a tactic to steer the discourse and silence gender role rejecting (= gendercritical) women.
The article also omits that as soon as we sat on the subway with just our signs and flags, we were met with middle fingers and booing and other hostile shouts, so the verbal provocation did not come from us. Contrary to the claims of the organisers, we did not "physically escalate" the situation.
From above, we had no influence on the physical course of the DMC. When the organisers and soli team decided to leave their line of march, they actively went up to us, so it was an active intervention on their part. The organisers had no intention of holding talks or anything like that.
To correct the statement of the organisers’ Stellungnahme des Orga-Teams zu der transfeindlichen Störaktion [on the transphobic disruptive action] of the “Dyke* March Cologne 2022”
The “Dyke* March” organising team is not consistent in their statements and values. They write that their concept aims to de-escalate “disturbances” in a non-violent way. They have condoned the attacks by participants in the form of thefts and attempted thefts. They just stood by and, with one exception, did not even try to intervene, not even verbally. Moreover, when the stewards wanted to hang their banner over the Labrys flag and push us off the parapet, they aggressively pushed one of our women to the side, using her elbow, among other things. By their actions, by their jostling, they risked a fall of women sitting on the parapet.
Furthermore, they concealed the fact that a male participant pulled down the same woman who was physically attacked by an organiser and fixed her neck between his arm, in his elbow. A very dangerous and threatening situation that could have resulted in unconsciousness, lasting health damage or worse, and from which the Labrys flag bearer had to extricate herself.
Contrary to what the organisation portrayed, the LGB flag bearer immediately lowered her fist again without the need for external intervention; “We stood between them with our arms outstretched [...]” here also implies, firstly, false violence on both sides, and secondly, this gesture was only made when the LGB flag bearer had already de-escalated the situation herself.
It was obviously more important for the organisers to show their banner, i.e. their ideology, than to worry about the attacks on lesbians right next to them.
The man was not detained by the organisers, nor were the police called to take his particulars.
The organisers also distort the term “hostility.” None of our comments included a hostile statement.
The sign “stop transing the gay away” belonged to a detrans woman. Many transgender cult4 dropouts report that their environment made them think they were “in the wrong body” because they were same-sex attracted and had internalised societal homophobia. This sign, then, tells the story of a young woman’s personal experience of suffering under a homo-averse society.
But of course, that was not the only sign the DMC organisers had a problem with:
“Apart from that, of course, the rainbow flag with the inscription ‘LGB’ [...] clearly expresses the attitude of the disruptors*.”
Our group consisted exclusively of women.
“Apart from this writing, the posters also included the hashtags ‘#LesbenXX’ and ‘#GettheLout’, as can be seen in all the photographs. These are clear references to trans-hostile positions.”
No, they are clear references to our homosexuality and belonging to the same-sex loving (LGB) community, not the so-called “queer” community. Queer from the English “queer: sick, strange”, an insult still common in the US for homosexuals.
Messages that were obviously welcome at the Dyke March Cologne and that appear to not be considered hostile by the organisers:
Naming what a lesbian is is not “hostile.” In a world that communicates through language, there needs to be terms and associated definitions. Statements like “Get the L out” and “Frauen sagen Nein [women say no]” are a reaction to the rape culture that exists in LGBTQ+. The rape culture of men claiming to be women towards lesbians is called cotton ceiling, a term coined by a man who calls himself a lesbian. Cotton Ceiling is a reference to the “Glass Ceiling.” These men claim to stand in front of an almost impenetrable barrier that is to be broken through.
The “cotton ceiling” refers to lesbians’ underwear.
Men call themselves lesbians and coerce lesbians into sexual interactions with them because anything else is “discrimination.” This is a common problem in the LGBTQ+ scene, where “trans women are women.” Thus, women who are only sexually attracted to women are demanded to recognise “transwomen” aka men as “sexual partners” and sleep with them. This is accompanied by the emotional blackmail of being defamed as “transphobic” and the danger of being ostracised from one’s own community if a lesbian woman only wants to date her own sex.
We were there to be visible as lesbians and to stand against the accessibility of lesbian spaces for everyone, because we need and deserve a space that exists only for us gay women. This can only exist if it is clearly defined.
We demand a space of our own for same-sex loving girls and women and want a society where the interests and needs of girls/women and (body modifying) men can co-exist.
We demand that trans activists refrain from trivialising Nazism.
We demand from the Dyke March Cologne organisers to distance themselves from the attacks on us and to admit mistakes in their own actions.
At no time did we pose a danger, despite the massive threats and attacks to which we were exposed. So far it is unclear how the organisation is connected to the attackers. In their statement they write of “people who wanted to support us”, which is a vicious euphemism given the dangerous attacks against us. An organisation that sees itself as committed to lesbians must not tolerate an attack on a lesbian woman by a man.
Should this not happen, we demand the resignation of the Dyke March organising team, as it no longer does justice to its task. Then the Dyke March Cologne is no longer a safe place for lesbians.
3. Outlook
We have decided, as the Real Dyke March, to attend Dyke Marches regularly from now on, even if it means putting ourselves in physical danger.
From character assassination5 to murder6, trans activists have shied away from no crime in the past.
Therefore, as lesbians, we want to send a strong message against this behaviour, for our community.
We are the real Dyke March, because a dyke is a lesbian who fights, a lesbian who fights fearlessly for her rights, who says no to men and defends that no.
#LesbenSagenNein #LesbiansSayNo
4. Updates
On 1 September 2022, the DMC organisers sent cease and desist letters to several organisations that reported on what happened on 2 July.
WDI Germany has also released video footage, but unfortunately WDI Germany has been banned from Twitter. You can donate for the restoration of the WDI Germany account here: