The idea I’ve had since the start of the semester is Muslim Berliners and the city’s nightlife. Through the few weeks we have had together, the topic of migrants and navigating LGBTQ+ identities’ and spaces has been quite. Particularly as I think about this in the context of Berlin, the city is known as maintaining a strong queer community especially in its nightlife. Recent news gives multiple examples of evidence I can explore. For example, in July a van was driven into a crowd at the edge of the Pride parade, killing one woman and injuring 31, and the Interior Minister called it an Islamist attack. The parade’s organizers warned against using it to stir up hatred of Muslims, which tells me they expected that. Two days later G\u00fcner Balc\u0131, the\u00a0 integration officer of Berlin’s SE Neuk\u00f6lln borough, said on the radio that the district has had a massive problem with anti-gay attacks for years. So I can see how a club would say it is protecting the people inside, and how that could end up looking the same as profiling to the person in line. I want to know if anything changed at the door of these historically exclusive places pre and post migration waves of demographics that are not allowed to be openly gay, especially for queer Muslims and for Arab and Turkish men who were already getting turned away.<\/p>\n
A bouncer’s decision doesn’t leave a record, so I’d probably have to stand in lines and talk to people. I grew up in New York and have some sense of how doors work, but I don’t know how to read one in Berlin yet. I’d start by contacting DJ Ipek, who founded Gayhane, a monthly queer Turkish and Arabic night that has run at SO36 in Kreuzberg since 1997, because the people around it would know both sides of this. I also plan to contact the Club Commission and ADNB, the Turkish Federation’s anti-discrimination network, which takes complaints about club doors and has used test visits to document discrimination.<\/p>\n
My second idea is Turkish Berliners and the election. Die Linke won on September 20 with 25.7 percent, and its lead candidate, Elif Eralp, is the daughter of Turkish immigrants. If she finds coalition partners she would be the first head of Berlin’s government with a migration background. Her party has invited the Greens and SPD into exploratory talks, but the SPD is divided and the CDU could still govern with those same two parties. A Turkish broadcaster covered the result as a win for the Turkish-origin candidate, but post-election polling found that housing and social security drove the vote. I’d like to ask people in Kreuzberg or Wedding which of those it was for them, and whether it would matter to them if she ends up in opposition anyway. I’m especially interested in older guest workers who have lived there for decades and still can’t vote. The recruitment agreement with Turkey turns 65 on October 30, which could be a way into those conversations. Berlin also naturalized about 39,000 people last year, around 4,100 of them Turkish citizens, so there are first-time voters to find too.<\/p>\n
I’m still most attached to the nightlife story, but it’s also the harder one to get people on the record for and the time commitment is a little different than a normal article’s reporting, so I want the election idea ready in case it doesn’t come together once we’re there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The idea I’ve had since the start of the semester is Muslim Berliners and the city’s nightlife. Through the few weeks we have had together, the topic of migrants and navigating LGBTQ+ identities’ and spaces has been quite. Particularly as I think about this in the context of Berlin, the city is known as maintaining<\/p>\n