The Bundestag hoisted the rainbow flag for the first time, which with its six colorful stripes is considered a symbol of the lesbian, gay and queer community. Such a flag has been flying on the southwest tower of the Berlin Reichstag building, the seat of the German Parliament, since Saturday morning. Two more were raised in front of the east and west portals of the building.
The occasion is the large demonstration planned in Berlin from noon on the occasion of Christopher Street Day (CSD), to which the organizers expect hundreds of thousands of participants.
As recently as April, the Ministry of the Interior officially gave permission for the rainbow flag to be hoisted in front of or on federal official buildings on certain occasions. Bundestag President Bärbel Bas (SPD) announced the flag hoisting at the Reichstag in June and stated that this would once again significantly increase the visibility of the commitment to variety and diversity.
Non-heterosexual people or those who do not identify with the traditional role model of men and women or other social norms relating to gender and sexuality describe themselves as "queer".
Christopher Street Day commemorates events in the United States in the late 1960s. On June 28, 1969, police stormed the Stonewall Inn gay bar on New York's Christopher Street. Days of heavy clashes between activists and security forces followed. The uprising is considered the birth of the modern gay and lesbian movement.
