Christopher Street Day in Berlin
The Kurfuerstendamm is Berlin's main drag, and today drag is probably the right word. You can't move for queens dressed up to the ninety-nines for this, our very own special day. There's a party about to start and the whole town has come along to join in the fun. Today the sun is shining,
the Sekt is flowing, and the rain most definitely isn't going to rain on this parade.
Klaus Wowereweit, the gay mayor of Berlin, is marching with us. German national telly is broadcasting the event live. Loads of shops on the Ku-damm have special CSD displays. Café Kranzler, home of sexagenarian German gentility, is flying the rainbow flag. The main branch of H&M is offering last-minute hair-cuts and beauty advice.. For f**k's sake, even the shop windows of C&A are full of models clad in tight blue lame and camp easy-to-rip-off briefs.
A team of straight firemen sit astride their parked fire engine. A flounce of pink-clad, bubble-butted disco dollies surround them and throw them up a dozen red plastic fans. Getting into the spirit of things, our butch fire-fighting lads flutter their eyelids coquettishly behind the fans. The crowd whoops. Some cream their jeans. Party Boy passes me a tissue.
While Party Boy goes off in a vain search for our mate, Jason, I grab the cute blond next to me who works for the city's transport authority. Nothing to do with my thing for men in uniform. Not this time anyway. What I need is a U-Bahn travel pass. Just for today, the ticket's in the form of a black cotton thong. I suddenly have visions of the prime of Teutonic youth ripping off its jeans just to be allowed to get onto an underground train. This is a nice thought. I fumble in my shorts for another tissue.
In front of me is a seriously sexy man – you know the sort of thing: tattoos, muscles, combats, Number One crop, diamante choker around his neck. He is waltzing with a midget dressed in taffeta and tulle. Sailor boys right out of a
Pierre et Gilles painting are knocking back the bottles of Sekt. Even the cops are getting in on the act, flirting with the drag queens, and takings photos of the rainbow crowd. Everyone is out to have the time of their lives, and to tell the world that we're here, we're queer and… and.. and can I please have another bottle of Sekt?
It's noon. It's Berlin. And the Christopher Street Day parade hasn't even started yet.
To be concluded
