From June 20 to 26, 2022, the first »Campus Pride Week« took place at Bauhaus-Universität Weimar on the occasion of »Christopher Street Day (CSD) Weimar« (June 25). For one week, sexual and gender diversity were celebrated on campus and queer art and culture were put in the spotlight. The diverse program invited people to engage with the complex realities of queer people's lives, provided opportunities for exchange and encounter, and offered spaces for networking and strengthening queer communities on campus.
The program was organized by the StuKo department »QueerYMR«, the student initiatives «QueerLit« and »Campus.Garten«, students from the course »Gender Readings in Texts, Films, Comics, Pictures and in Everyday Life« taught by Dr. Simon Frisch (Department Film and Media Studies) as well as by the Equal Opportunity Office and the Diversity Department of the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar.
On Tuesday, June 21, a banner with the so-called »Intersex-Inclusive Progress Pride Flag« was placed on the central balcony of the main building. The banner hung there until the end of the »Campus Pride Week« and sent a signal for diversity and acceptance.
»By displaying the ›Inter*-inclusive Progress Pride Flag‹, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar is sending a visible signal that queer students and employees are welcome at the university and that discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity has no place here. At the university, we are committed to continuously reducing the barriers that currently still exist — especially for trans/intersex/non-binary (TIN*) students and employees«, explained Prof. Dr. Jutta Emes, Interim President of the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar.
Here you can learn more about the history and meaning of the »Intersex-Inclusive Progress Pride Flag«.
From June 21 to 25, the »Menstruating Bodies« exhibit on campus explored the topic of menstruation from a variety of perspectives. Several information panels problematized menstruation myths, presented period articles, and provided information about the broad gender spectrum of menstruating bodies. The exhibition was developed by a project group of students from the seminar »Gender Readings in Texts, Films, Comics, Pictures and in Everyday Life« under the direction of Dr. Simon Frisch in the Media Culture degree program.
The program continued with two open-air cinema events in the courtyard behind the Campus.Office and the Van de Velde Building: On Wednesday, June 22, the student initiatives «QueerLit« and «Campus.Garten« showed the film »Glück/Bliss« [1]. On Thursday, June 23, the Equal Opportunity Office and the Diversity Department presented the film »Futur Drei«, which had been selected by the StuKo department »QueerYMR«.
On Sunday, June 26, the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar participated for the first time in the memorial service for the »Pink Triangle prisoners« of the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora concentration camps, which is organized annually by the AIDS-Hilfe Weimar and the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation. The event commemorates the men persecuted and murdered by the Nazis as homosexuals, some 650 of whom were deported to the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora concentration camps between 1937 and 1945. During the ceremony, Dr. Miriam Benteler, Diversity Officer at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, and Dr. Michael Wallner, Equal Opportunity and Diversity Advisor, laid a mourning bouquet in front of the memorial stone for the homosexual men imprisoned and killed in Buchenwald.
On Wednesday, June 29, the StuKo department »QueerYMR« organized a »Campus Pride Party« [2] in the open space between the main building, Campus.Office and the students' house M18. Various acts of the queer-feminist Weimar DJ collective »Metaware« provided a joyous atmosphere. The party had originally been planned for Friday, June 24, but had to be postponed due to bad weather.
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[1] [2] The film screenings and the Campus Pride Party were funded by the Equal Opportunity Office.