Queer POC Solidarity in West Berlin in the 1980s: Survival as Struggle

With the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the first Christopher Street Day (CSD) in West Berlin, the eighties began. With the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua(1979), the military coup in Turkey(1980), the anti-capitalist Gwangju student uprising in South Korea(1980), the imperialist intervention in Central America(1980s), the second intifada in Palestine(1987), the massive protest against the IMF and World Bank in West Berlin, while thousands of revolutionary anti-imperialist political prisoners were executed and buried in mass graves in Iran(1988), and the fall of the Berlin Wall(1989), the eighties continued. These social and political developments continued with the AIDS crisis in the mid-eighties. In the 1980s, how did these developments affect transnational solidarity with the Global South among the queer diaspora in West Berlin?

As part of this panel, I will discuss the initial findings of my research on tracing PoC transnational queer solidarity with the Global South among West Berlin’s diaspora communities. I will examine the traces of diaspora PoC communities in West Berlin, their understanding of the divided city and their own sexuality, and their struggles against racism and homophobia. This presentation will provide an opportunity to reflect on the complexities of queer transnational solidarity in the 1980s beyond the Euro-American centering historiographical approach and align with the history from the periphery and highlight the importance of centering the experiences of marginalized communities within these movements. With my transatlantic comparative project on Berlin and New York City, I aim to contribute to a deeper understanding of how queer diaspora communities have shaped transnational solidarity movements in the past and present.