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Monday 12, June

Rainbow House: What can we expect from the new queer centre for Berlin?

Location, finances, community involvement – a lot is still unclear about Berlin’s future queer centre. Photo: IMAGO / Hohlfeld

Monday 12, June

Rainbow House: What can we expect from the new queer centre for Berlin?

There are concerns that any proposed centre might displace existing queer institutions

Berlin’s new government want to move ahead with the project as quickly as possible. But there are still quite a few open questions about the “rainbow house” which is being proposed as a new queer centre in the city.

One central question is simply: where is this building going to be? Real estate doesn’t come cheap right now, and there are concerns that any proposed centre might displace existing queer institutions – something that many members of the community oppose.

Last Friday, a queer-political breakfast was held in the Berlin parliament, where a number of initiatives were asked to contribute their own ideas. Broadly, the idea to have a meeting place for members of the queer community incorporating some counselling facilities – but the exact details remain undefined.

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What’s more, some of the already established queer institutions fear that the planned “rainbow house” would have a cannibalising, rather than uniting, effect. Birgit Bosolf of Berlin’s Schwules Museum pointed out that the museum was already dealing with a significant increase in rent, and the whole community is struggling with gentrification and displacement. Other organisations like TransInterQueer and Bi Berlin expressed their desire to move into the planned building and establish permanent premises there.

At this stage, however, much remains to be determined: Who will be involved? Is this going to be an entirely new building? Who will take part? How will it be financed? Right now, there might be more questions than answers.