Showing posts with label Germany. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Germany. Show all posts

Monday, June 28, 2021

You Can't Stop Pride

In Germany, Munich’s Allianz Arena [above] has worn the colors of the LGBTQ+ Rainbow flag, and looks beautiful doing so, the last time during the city’s Christopher Street Days pride celebration. But citing a policy on “political and religious neutrality”, the Union of European Football Associations [UEFA ] forbid the planned protest lights.

Not so good, the surge of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in Hungary—desperate I guess to follow Russia’s lead—which has targeted that country’s LGBTQ population under authoritarian leader Viktor Orban. The country recently passed a banning the “promotion” of LGBTQ identities to minors, among other hate-filled new rules, like that age old chestnut of comparing homosexuality to pedophilia.

And that lead to Allianz Arena wanting to display the rainbow during a recent soccer game between Germany and Hungary, which lead to UEFA saying, ‘No’ which lead to other German Stadiums going all full rainbow and soccer fans filling Allianz Arena with Rainbow flags and rainbow face paint and rainbow arm bands.

Denmark coach Kasper Hjulmand spoke to the German press about blocking the rainbow:

“The rainbow colors are a tribute to diversity and to the fact that we are all equal. It has nothing to do with politics. I pay respect to the fact that [German team captain] Manuel Neuer and the German national team want to take social responsibility [and] I find it shameful that UEFA forbids us to send a sign for cosmopolitanism, tolerance, respect and solidarity with the people of the LGBT community,” 

A fan in a German soccer jersey ran onto the field waving a Pride flag as the Hungarian national anthem was played; Rainbow flags were flown by fans throughout the stadium and a collection of soccer stadiums throughout Germany lit up their buildings in rainbow lights during the match.

Many in the soccer world pointed out the hypocrisy of the UEFA, because the organization inserted a rainbow Pride flag into its logo for Pride month saying that, “for the UEFA, the rainbow is not a political symbol, but a sign of our firm commitment to a more diverse and inclusive society.”

But they called it a political statement in Munich. Apparently the UEFA is one of those pro-LGBTQ+ groups only during Pride month? Still, try as they might, Hungary and the UEFA, Pride, and the rainbow, were all over the stadium during the game. 

Oh, and Hungarian leader Viktor Orban canceled his plans to be at the game because, well, homophobes are chickenshits.

So, again, the Rainbow won.

Monday, February 22, 2021

We're Gonna Need a Lot More Toaster Ovens

This week in Germany 185 actors staged a mass coming out in a public statement of visibility in order to inspire more diversity in the entertainment industry. In a statement the actors said:

“We’re here and there are a whole lot of us! We are actors who identify as lesbian, gay, bi, trans, queer, inter and non-binary, amongst many other things.

Until now, we haven’t been able to be open about our private lives without fearing professional consequences. All too often, many of us have been cautioned – be it by managers, casting agents, colleagues, producers, editors, directors, etc. – to keep quiet about our sexual orientations and gender identities to avoid jeopardizing our careers. We are putting an end to this – once and for all!

Until now, we’ve been told that if we revealed certain facets of our identities, namely our sexual and gender identities, we would suddenly lose the ability to portray certain characters and relationships. As if the knowledge of who we are in our private lives would somehow invalidate our ability to convincingly embody roles for the audience. Nothing could be further from the truth.

We are actors. We don’t have to be the characters we portray. We act as if – that is the very quintessence of our job. We play wives and fathers, lovers and politicians, heroes and creeps. And often enough, characters whose ideas we’d never agree with. That’s why we can play murderers without having murdered anyone. We can save lives without having studied medicine. We can play people with sexual identities different from the ones we live out.

And, by the way, this is something we’ve been doing for a very long time, the entire time, in fact, because it is the nature of our profession.”

Bravo to all those who stepped forward and came out, and let’s see this happen all over the world.

DW

Friday, February 10, 2017

Europe Trolls _____

It all started when _____ said, during his wee inauguration, that he wanted to Make America First ... which was a riff on his make America Great Again campaign mantra. I took it to mean that he wanted to make his bank account first, his businesses first, but Europe had another idea.

Dutch satire show, Zondag met Lubach, created a new, high-larious tourism ad—perfect for Hair Furor—asking for a very simple thing: Make the Netherlands second.

 

And now others are following suit ...


In Switzerland a show called Deville Late Night put together their own video:

 


Then Denmark jumped in on their show, Natholdet, and trolled _____’s executive orders and destroying years of environmental policy ...



Germany’s late show Late Night show ZDF jumped on the bandwagon—get to the video at the [01:47] mark—where they openly joked about those pesky two World Wars:




Belgium’s De Ideale Wereld” used _____’s own words to give them the opportunity they’ve been waiting for ... ABBA is Belgian [#FakeNews]:




Then came Portugal’s 5 Para a Meia-Noite who took on America in saying, "We abolished slavery in 1751—more than 100 years before the United States. Deal with it. And consider doing the same in your companies. Well, your sons’ companies.”




And Lithuania, not to be outdone, took on a little something called “conflicts of interest”:


It’s all in good fun—and many other European countries have gotten in on it—until it becomes true and America is no longer first, but is ravaged and destroyed by Hair Furor. But we’re a scrappy lot and when he’s reduced to rubble, er, impeachment, we’ll come back stronger than ever.

And first.

Good

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

The Stuff Of Nightmares ... At Least Mine

American Ends Up Trapped in Giant Vagina

Yes, that’s the headline and I’m still shuddering. I mean, sure, for some of you it might be heaven, but for me it’s a place I’ve never been and hope to never visit, like Oklahoma.

But last week in Germany, an American exchange student — his name ALLEGEDLY withheld out of embarrassment — found himself in need of rescuing when he became trapped inside a giant vagina … sculpture. Apparently he tried to climb inside it, and apparently he’s a straight young man because, well, gay men, and got himself stuck.

A total of 22 rescue workers with special equipment were deployed to the scene to birth the young man from the vagina with their bare hands.

I’m still sh-sh-sh-aking just writing about it.


via NBC News