Two surgeries later and fearful of being attacked again, the openly gay 52-year-old taxi driver -- who doesn't want to be identified because of concerns of another attack -- avoids public spaces and always takes pepper spray with him. He and his partner have also been forced to move neighborhoods in the northwest German city of Bremen following mounting costs as a result of being injured.
Police identified the attackers as two locally known Muslim extremists. They were never arrested and later fled to Syria. After demanding answers from local prosecutors and the mayor's office and not getting a response, Karsten turned to Germany's far right party, the Alternative for Germany (AfD).
"I don't like everything they say," Karsten says, "but this is too dangerous for gay people to live openly here, if we get attacked like that. We need a party that's talking openly about this."
Campaigning on a vociferously anti-immigration platform, the four-year-old AfD party now has seats in 13 of the country's 16 state parliaments. It has proposed a ban on mosque minarets and cutbacks on migration, from within the European Union and beyond, while its party manifesto says that "Islam does not belong in Germany."
The party is polling around 9% in recent days, which could put it in contention for third or fourth place, well behind Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-right Christian Democrats and the center-left Social Democrats, who have ruled out entering into a coalition with the AfD.
People like Karsten and Sven aren't alone in supporting the party. There is even a German term for gay support of the far right: "homonationalism." A 2016 survey from "MEN," a monthly magazine for gay men, showed that 17% of respondents openly supported the AfD, higher than the national average.
Welsch points out that he was once one of the 130 or so openly gay AfD members. That number now stands at 20, says Alex Tassis, the man who is now responsible for the AfD's gay outreach.
Tassis heads up Alternative Homosexuals, the AfD group that reaches out to the LGBT community. A gay immigrant from Greece, Tassis says he strongly believes that "Islamization" is a threat to Germany and Europe and that the AfD will soon become the most popular party among gay men. There's no contradiction in the party's stance against gay marriage, he says. And it's clear he views the LGBT community as an overlooked source of votes this election.
Tassis was the one who answered Karsten's email for help after he and his partner were attacked. Within three hours of reading it, Tassis met the couple in a downtown Bremen cafe and connected them with a lawyer, encouraging them to sue the local prosecutor, something the pair are looking into.
"Cases like Karsten's or similar cases have unfortunately happened in Bremen amongst citizens before," Tassis says. "This case was particularly dramatic. Every citizen has a right to be heard, every citizen needs an ear and this is what I did In Karsten's case."
That swift response turned Karsten from someone who used to vote for the left-wing Green Party into an AfD supporter.
"It has nothing to do with being a Nazi or being totally right. I'm not against every foreigner. And I'm not against every Muslim. But I'm against the criminals," Karsten explains. "This was the only way we could get some help. Because the other parties didn't care."
2/2
Blake Rivera
Perhaps it's because their "allies" chose to side with people that would kill all gays if they were given the chance
Now that there's a new oppressed kid on the block, they found that their support group eroded around them
Elijah Williams
...
Thomas Morgan
As a fan of the techno scene on Berlin, I'm glad you fags are joining AfD. See you in the toilets at Berghain
Easton Baker
Islam is enough.
Brandon Sanchez
The Nazi SA were very gay until the Night of the Long Knives. Germany has always had a potentially violent homosexual underground and it should be put to use.
If you fail to unite against Muslims you are all doomed. I don't care if you smoke cock if you fight the sand niggers.
Evan Foster
So are fags in Germany rare?
Ryder Lopez
They're the majority
Jeremiah Ward
Gay rights are no longer a partisan issue. Men in general lean conservative. Liberals like to import people who throw faggots off rooftops. Why wouldn't gay men start now becoming conservatives on a rather large scale?
Were liberals so delusional to think that just because they supported gay rights in the 2000s they owned faggots votes now?
Wyatt Brown
I honestly have doubts there are that many gay men voting far right because they genuinely fear Muzzies are going to kill them though. There are far far more plausible ways to die than a Muzzie throwing you off a rooftop. I would think they'd vote far right more because it's the only way to save society in general.
Christopher Harris
Well an argument used here in the United States is that we already have gay marriage so technically that is the conservative position now.
I am surprised AfD is not just declaring German gay marriage a matter of settled law that they oppose on principle, but will not act against because they don't think they can succeed. I mean that is the truth.
If far right meant I wouldn't lose any individual rights re: childrearing and marriage I would have no issues with it whatsoever. As it stands they have a fairly uneasy position of saying they would sue the government over gay marriage which is now the policy.
>Germany's far right party, the Alternative for Germany
Topkek. Opposing islamic savagery has now somehow become "far right", should be no more than common sense.
James Jones
Go on I'm interested in hearing about what got the Nazi's to get rid of the gays during the night of the long knives.
Connor Richardson
...
Ethan Foster
bump
Levi Gonzalez
>gay skinheads God, Germany is turning into a country from Russia's 90s memes.
Asher Bailey
because people see the (((left))) is a bullshit contrived movement by the kikes to destroy their nation
Wyatt Cook
We aren't far off from getting the headline of a Homonationalist killing a sand niglet.
Parker Bennett
bump
Luis Peterson
What's the problem here mad fag? If someone can spot you as a faggot, if you're so blatantly gay that it makes a real man angry. Let him be you fucking fag and accept your place as a lesser man and accept your domination. Isn't it what you were in for when you took the D up the butt anyway you fucking cunt? Why do you come on pol thinking I am going to take your defense. Fucking based muzshits beating up blatant queers lol. In my ideal republic being a fruity would be enough to get a death sentence. Charges : relativizing manhood. That would be in my criminal code and it would b punishable by death. It could include feminists, trans and homos. Relativizing your man's role is a crime. A crime against your people. Period. Fuck you fruity.
Sebastian Nguyen
Wow they're /ourfaggots/ Just kidding, faggot traitors should hang
Ryan Green
Was this fruitloop among those progressive morons holding "refugees welcome" signs? It's great to see karma come full circle.
Cooper Robinson
Not trolling here.. you are just... fascinating
Juan Flores
>they owned faggots votes now? That's how they felt about blacks in the 1960's, Johnson aid almost verbatim that the democrats would own niggers for the next fifty years. And the dems can probably keep on owning fags if they can keep them terrified that the republicans are going to take away gay marriage/adoption/etc, they just need a bogeyman to scare them.
Camden Peterson
Oh man, watching you come to /lgbt/ for the skittles will be the highlight of my month.
I'mma save this gem of repression right here. When you come begging, be sure to mention it.
Brayden Anderson
LeL
You made your choice faggots dykes and trannies now live with it
Lucas Rivera
I don't even know what you're talking about
Ethan Wilson
It was a power struggle. The gays controlled the brownshirts who, at that point, numbered over three million. So the Night of Long Knives happened. Afterwards Himmler used "muh gays" as an excuse, but the real reason was they considered Ernst Rohm a threat due to the fuckhuge numbers he commanded.
Ayden Wright
by this logic whites should die because the dominant voice of white guilt is from whites
Julian Miller
you're the faggot here m8. GO suck a dick, you know you want it
Jonathan Walker
Why? Because nowadays the left is pandering to people that want to gays dead, the left no longers represents gays interests. Shit, if Buddhists hate Muslims it's not surprise that even fags start attacking them.
