GAY WIEN - Pride Weekend

The visibility and role of LGBTQIA+ people in Vienna life has increased massively in the past 20 years. 10% of visitors to the city now identify as queer, and this is symbolised in the Ampelpärchen crossings all over the city. We will explore and celebrate the role and contribution of gay people to the cultural, political and business life of Vienna. We will recognise their bravery, and the right to individuality and dignity, but also see the struggles they have been through, to live and love the way they want. And this is an opportunity also to see the diversity inside the scene, from clubs to food, fashion to media. This tour is about respect and learning, but also dialogue and joy. How have laws changed, where are the tensions right now, why do people react so strongly to trans-rights, and what are the insider details more of us should know. What do those eight digits, LGBTQIA+ mean? Presented by a queer girl and straight-ish boy.

Very few establishments welcomed openly gay people in the 1950s and 1960s. Those that did were often bars, although bar owners and managers were rarely gay. The Stonewall Inn (Greenwich Village, NYC) was owned by the Mafia and catered to an assortment of regulars, popular among the poorest and most marginalized people in the gay community: drag queens, representatives of a newly self-aware transgender community, effeminate young men, hustlers, and homeless youth. Police raids on US gay bars were routine in the 1960s, but officers quickly lost control of the situation at the Stonewall Inn and attracted a crowd that was incited to riot. And so the pride movement was born, resulting in the pride parades we see today.

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