Pride Month at Freie Universität Berlin: Flag Ceremony and Queer Histories Conference

University promotes tolerance, diversity, and taking a stand against queerphobia

Freie Universität Berlin will be participating in Berlin’s Pride Month with a series of activities, including a pride flag raising ceremony and an international conference on queer contemporary histories. In doing so, the university is publicly taking a stand in the name of tolerance and diversity, making it clear that there is no place for discrimination at Freie Universität Berlin, whether against the LGBTINQA++ community or against other individuals or groups.

The conference "Queer Contemporary Histories: International and Intersectional Perspectives" will take place from July 1 to 2, 2024, in the Henry Ford Building. Researchers from around the world will explore queer contemporary art forms; the criminalization and pathologization of sexual identities; and alliances, conflicts, and social questions within the LGBTINQA++ community. The conference is being held in both German and English and organized by the research network "Queer Contemporary History in German-Speaking Europe." The network is coordinated by historians Martin Lücke and Andrea Rottmann from Freie Universität’s Friedrich Meinecke Institute together with Benno Gammerl from the European University Institute in Florence. A range of internationally renowned researchers are expected to attend, including Canadian historian Jennifer V. Evans and North American historian Tiffany Florvil. Interested members of the public are invited to attend the pre-program event on June 30, 2024: a special showing of the film "Ester Newton Made Me Gay" at 4:00 p.m. in Berlin’s Kino Central - held in collaboration with the Spinnboden Lesbenarchiv & Bibliothek e.V.

On July 2, 2024, the university’s official flag raising ceremony will take place in front of the Henry Ford Building. This year represents the first time that the intersex-inclusive Progress Pride flag will be displayed centrally at the university - a newer version of the Pride flag that includes transgender, BIPoC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color), intersex, and non-binary individuals in its design. The ceremony will be attended by President of Freie Universität Berlin Professor Günter M. Ziegler, Executive Vice President Professor Verena Blechinger-Talcott, the Berlin Alliance Against Homophobia (Berliner Bündnis gegen Homophobie), and representatives from Freie Universität’s Queer Staff Network. Freie Universität Berlin has a long tradition of displaying a rainbow flag on campus during Pride Month. In recent years, the university’s Diversity and Antidiscrimination Office and the Queer Staff Network have helped organize the ceremony.

Pride Month is a movement that was developed to celebrate and commemorate LGBTINQA++ activism and culture, as well as to raise awareness of the discrimination that queer people continue to experience to this day. This year, Berlin will be celebrating Pride Month from June 26 to July 27. The highlight of the month is Pride Week, which includes the Lesbian and Gay Festival (July 20-21) and the Christopher Street Day parade (July 27).

The Latin words veritas, justitia, and libertas, which frame the seal of Freie Universität Berlin, stand for the values that have defined the academic ethos of Freie Universität since its founding in December 1948.