Slogan for CSD Cologne / Cologne Pride 2009

We take a proud and appreciative look back at 40 years of CSD history. Since the first uprising against police battery on 28.06.1969 in New York's Christopher Street up until today, a lot has happened. Numerous activists have had a share in this in the last four decades. In the process of a long and sometimes painstaking development, gays and lesbians in Germany are today free from prosecution and ostracism, are extensively legally equal and increasingly socially accepted.

It is obvious to us, that the achieved level of social and political integration is by no means guaranteed for good. Like all social minorities, old and young gays and lesbians lack a concrete image of their collective identity and their history. Cologne Pride is more than just a party. It also commemorates the roots of the emancipation movement and ensures solidarity in the present and the future.

We know that our fight for equality and recognition is not over for a long time yet and perhaps it may never end. In many important areas, lesbians and gays are still legally unequally treated. Either individually or structurally, many gays and lesbians are often still discriminated against in day to day life. Therefore, in the coming years and decades we will also advocate that gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders will be completely emancipated and socially accepted. And that not only in Cologne, but also in the whole of Germany, in Europe and the rest of the World.

In 2009, Germany celebrates two large, positive jubilees: firstly, 60 years of the constitution and secondly 20 years of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Our 40 years of CSD is quite unusual because the cause for this jubilee is resistance against violent police raids. Nevertheless, in the past 40 years, out of a rather sad origin gays and lesbians have made a success story of growing self confidence and social change. As organisers of the event, we therefore wish to show just what makes CSD so diverse through this years events within the framework of Cologne Pride and the CSD weekend, and in particular all participants of the parade: demonstrating self confidence, calling for pertinacious political and social changes and at the same time having fun, which is bound to the content.

Our freedom. Your freedom. My freedom. Freedom has history. The 2009 slogan addresses itself to you, to me, to us all. We, you and I, are every lesbian, every gay and every single CSD visitor. And naturally the broader community. Therefore, the slogan will appear in different facets. Depending on the medium it will be called "our freedom has history", "your freedom has history" or "my freedom has history".