Letter in Support of the Dolls of Berlin, Casa Kuá and Trans and Queer People Facing State Repression Worldwide
We reprint the open letter below in support of the Dolls of Berlin. To add your name as a signatory, follow the link at the bottom of the page.
On the afternoon of Sunday 18 October a large police squad forcibly entered Casa Kuá, a queer community center in Berlin, Germany, where at that point The Dolls of Berlin, a transfem social collective, was gathering. Police detained several women for hours while ransacking Casa Kuá. We, the undersigned, stand in support with The Dolls of Berlin, Casa Kuá, and queer and trans people facing state violence, repression and erasure everywhere. We are demanding that the German State drop the case and immediately stop the criminalization of trans spaces and solidarities. We are urging everyone to contribute to the fundraiser, to help our comrades continue their essential work and activities, and keep nourishing much needed survival spaces for the most vulnerable communities.
The attack against the Berlin Dolls comes at a time of unprecedented rise of state fascism, both in Germany where the AfD recently won local elections in Saxony-Anhalt, in neighbouring European countries, and in India, Brazil, Argentina, the United States and elsewhere. This rise of the far right has been accompanied by a massive increase on attacks on queer and trans people. In Turkey between 12-14 September, in coordinated overnight raids across five cities, Turkish police targeted seven LGBTQI+ rights organizations, two groups supporting people living with HIV, and 13 bars and clubs where queer people gather. Board members of some of the country’s oldest LGBTQI+ associations, including Kaos GL and Lambda Istanbul, were taken from their homes. Human Rights Watch reports that at least 112 people were arrested and that 82 remain in detention by court order. On 3/4 October Taiwan police raided a Taipei queer bar detaining 51 persons and abusing disabled customers.
At the same time, increasingly authoritarian states, including Germany, are seeking to erase trans existence through administrative violence, putting barriers in front of access to trans healthcare. As European governments divert public spending to remilitarisation efforts, access to housing, welfare, jobs and education become circumscribed. In the UK, the drastically curtailed access to trans healthcare in recent years has led to trans suicides on an unprecedented scale. Recent government guidelines on so-called 'single sex spaces' are likely to cause more deaths such as that of trans woman, Joelle, who died after being denied cancer care for 16 days. A stark example of the hypocrisy on the part of the ruling elite came on 21 October when openly gay Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jette and his partner celebrated the expected arrival of their child, while his government denies queer refugees the right to family reunification. The attacks on queer and trans people are accompanied by attacks on, and further marginalisation of the disabled, migrants and refugees, precarious workers, poor Black, Brown and Indigenous communities, the unhoused and incarcerated, compounded for those in multiple of these categories. It is a tell-tale sign of fascism when particular communities are rendered vulnerable, disposable and presented as scapegoats for the various harmful effects of racialised capitalism.
That the relatively small community of queer and trans people, and racialised trans femmes in particular, has become a target for (proto-)fascist and authoritarian regimes globally is no surprise. Transness especially stands out as a visible transgression of cis hetero patriarchal norms on which fascist authority is built. It forms a thorn in the eye of regimes dependent on popular internalisation of its structural "truths". Transness thus becomes a powerful wedge issue that allows states to whip up fear and distrust of trans people which is consolidated through state carceral and administrative violence. It is also no surprise that state attacks on queer and trans people are on the rise globally at a time when Gen Z, along with older social movements are rising up in France, Albania, Brazil, India, Argentina, Indonesia, Greece and across the planet. Time and again, queer and trans people have stood at the helm of social movements and popular struggles for liberation.
The 18 October attack on The Dolls of Berlin at Casa Kuá is historic. Coming at this conjuncture in history, it is signaling the moment that demands we all stand up not only with and for our Queer and Trans siblings, but for humanity itself. We, the undersigned, stand with the Dolls of Berlin, Casa Kuá, and Trans and Queer people facing state repression worldwide, and heed their call to get organised! Be enraged! Stay glamorous! If you would like to stay informed, spread awareness or become more involved, you can follow on Instagram @thedolls_ofberlin and @casakua. Support committees are forming in Berlin, in Europe and worldwide to gather endurance and momentum for this struggle that is just starting. To add your signature to this letter add your details in the form linked at the very bottom of the page. [Auf Deutsch]
Signatories :
Susan Stryker, Visiting Scholar, Clayman Institute for Gender Research, Stanford University, and Professor Emerita of Gender and Women’s Studies, University of Arizona
Lilly Wachowski, Filmmaker, Chicago
Judith Butler, Distinguished Professor, University of California, Berkeley
Jack Halberstam, Professor, Columbia University.
Eric A Stanley, Associate Professor and Vice Chair for Research, and Haas Distinguished Chair in LGBT Equity, University of California, Berkeley
Paola Bacchetta, Professor and Chair, Department of Gender and Women's Studies, University of California Berkeley; Co-Director, Decolonizing Sexualities Network
Dean Spade, Professor, Seattle University School of Law
Jordy Rosenberg, Professor, Department of English, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Dr Nat Raha, Glasgow School of Art
Dr Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Independent Scholar
Dr Clare Hemmings, Professor in Feminist Theory, Department of Gender Studies, LSE
M.E. O'Brien, independent scholar, New York City
Juliana Gleeson, author, Berlin
Dr Mijke van der Drift, Royal College of Art, London
Dr River Baars, Reader in Law & Social Change, SOAS, University of London, and organiser with the QTHoMo Collective
Professor Vanja Hamzić, Professor of Law, History and Anthropology, SOAS University of London
Dr. Sophie Lewis, independent scholar, Philadelphia
Eva von Redecker, HfbK Hamburg
Isabel Boni Le Goff, Sociologist, Senior Lecturer University Paris 8
Koda Sokol, Lecturer, University of North Carolina Greensboro
Jesse Darling, artist and educator, Oxford
Dr Sarah Lamble, Professor of Criminology and Queer Theory, Birkbeck, University of London
Dr. Shuli Branson, Mellon Teaching Fellow in Trans Studies, Dartmouth College
Vicky Osterweil, author, Philadelphia
Dr Clair Quentin, Loughborough University
Dr. Mikki Stelder, University of Amsterdam
Joseph Salloum, Organiser, QTHoMo Collective
Dr. Tris Hedges, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Copenhagen
Alan Sears, Professor Emeritus, Department of Sociology, Toronto Metropolitan University
Laurie Marhoefer, Professor, University of Washington
Hil Malatino, Associate Professor of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Philosophy, Penn State University
ALOK (Artist)
Eric Fassin Emeritus professor of sociology and gender studies, Université Paris 8
Dr Sara Bragg, UCL Institute of Education
Dr. Blase A. Provitola, Assistant Professor of Francophone Studies & Women, Gender and Sexuality, Trinity College (Hartford, USA)
Dr Ashkan Sepahvand, Junior Research Fellow in Fine Art, St. John's College, University of Oxford
Virgil b/g Taylor, artist, Berlin
Dr. Asli Zengin, Associate Professor, Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Department, Rutgers University
Professor Dr. Tamás Jules Fütty, Institute of Educational Science, University of Klagenfurt, Austria
Melanie Richter-Montpetit, Associate Professor, Department of International Relations, University of Sussex
Prof. Dr. Mike Laufenberg, Fulda University of Applied Sciences
Dr Ruth Pearce, School of Education, University of Glasgow
Professor Dr. Yv Nay, Centre for Transdisciplinary Gender Studies, Humboldt University Berlin
Dr Daniel Loick, University of Amsterdam
Prof. Dr. Utan Schirmer, Alice Salomon Hochschule Berlin
Professor Dr. Gundula Ludwig, Center for Interdisciplinary Gender Studies, University of Innsbruck
Natascha Sadr Haghighian, artist, Berlin
Prof. Vika Kirchenbauer, Kunsthochschule Kassel
Rheim Alkadhi, artist, Berlin
Pauline Clochec, associate professor of philosophy, University of Picardy
Dr. Ben Miller; Writer, Historian, Vorstand, Schwules Museum Berlin
Vanessa E. Thompson, Associate Professor, Department of Gender Studies, Queen’s University, Canada
Evren Savcı, Associate Professor, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Yale University
Prof. Grace Lavery, University of California, Berkeley
Abigail Boggs, Wesleyan University
Luce deLire, University Cologne
Doireann O’Malley, Artist/Filmake, Berlin.
Dr. Melanie Brazzell, Postdoctoral fellow, Harvard University + Universität Hamburg
Hayan.A
Dr Michele Masucci
Dr Suzana Rahde Gerchmann, postdoctoral researcher - Centre for Law & Social Change (SOAS)
Fabricio Maia (Actvist)
Dr Séagh Kehoe, University of Westminster
Chiara De Cesari, Professor and Chair, Cultural Studies, University of Amsterdam
Max Strassfeld, University of Southern California
Dr. Yolande Jansen, Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, University of Amsterdam
B Noite
Dr. AntkeAntek Engel, Institute for Queer Theory, Berlin
Dr. Sofia Varino, Berlin, Germany
Camille Sapara Barton, Writer and Educator
Annerienke Fioole, Assistant professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Amsterdam
Angela Anderson, artist, Berlin
Dr. Ryan Stillwagon, University of Victoria
Indy River, Trauma Informed Bodyworker, London
Sarah Bracke, Professor of Sociology of Gender and Sexuality, University of Amsterdam
Bobbi Jaggon
Ash Thornton
Sandeeep Bakshi, Associate Professor of Decolonial, Postcolonial and Queer Studies, Université Paris Cité, France
Lara Sheehi
Stephen Sheehi
Doireann O'Malley, Artist filmaker, Berlin
Zuzana Feltham, Psychotherapist and Activist, London
Dr. Hannah Franzki, researcher, Freie Universität Berlin
wendelien van oldenborgh, artist and educator, Rotterdam/Vienna
Dr. Joss Greene, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of California Davis
Professor Thomas Kemple, Central Eastern & Northern European Studies, University of British Columbia
Dr Lilith Acadia, Academia Sinica and National Taiwan University
Ana Vivaldi Sessional Instructior University of British Columbia
Javier Sáez del Álamo, queer sociologist and translator. Spain.
Laura Cull Ó Maoilearca
Gianfranco Rebucini, Senior Researcher in Anthropology at CNRS, Paris
Lucas Platero, trans activist and scholar
João Florêncio, Professor of Gender Studies, Linköping University
Başak Ertür, Reader, Centre for Research Architecture, Goldsmiths
Margriet van Heesch, University of Amsterdam
Ilana Eloit, Professor, University of Geneva
Professor Stephen Guy-Bray, English Language and Literatures, University of British Columbia
Erica Meiners, Northeastern Illinois University
Dr Cynthia Kraus, philosopher of science, Senior Lecturer, Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
Sébastien Chauvin, Associate Professor, Center for Gender Studies, University of Lausanne
Agnieszka Soltysik Monnet
Jill Toh, PhD candidate, University of Amsterdam
Caroline Rusterholz, professor University of Fribourg
Isabel Boni Le Goff, Sociologist, Senior lecturer University Paris 8
Dr Tomás Ojeda, Centre for Gender Studies, Université de Lausanne
Leonore Vuissoz, queer artist and PhD student, University of Lausanne
Véronique Mottier, Associate Professor, Centre for Gender Studies, University of Lausanne + Jesus College, Cambridge
Hinemoana Baker
Gloria Wekker, professor emerita, Gender Studies, University of Utrecht, the Netherlands
Willa Smart, University of California Davis
Dr. Marija Cetinic, Assistant Professor, Literary and Cultural Analysis, University of Amsterdam
Kama La Mackerel, Author, Montreal, Canada
Prof. Dr. Jan Simon Hutta, Professor of Political Geography, University of Münster
Ashley Bohrer, Assistent Professor of Gender and Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame
Dr. Todd Sekuler, University of Zurich
Linda Devo
Míša Stekl, Assistant Teaching Professor in Race, Gender, and Ethnic Studies, Colorado State University
Emrys Travis
Madeline Lane-McKinley, writer
Callen Langford
Jean-Baptiste Flamin, translator
Samuel Solomon, Associate Professor of English, University of Sussex
Layal ftouni, assistant professor of gender studies and critical theory
Lieks Hettinga, Utrecht University, QTHomo Collective
Thekla Molnar
Theresa Martens, University of Münster
Zoë Claire Miller, artist / organizer, Berlin
Alejandra Ortiz, writer and community builder.
Prof. Dr. Gen Eickers, Philosophy, Technische Universität Berlin
Astrid Johnson, Co-founder of London Leatherdykes, International Ms Bootblack 2026, United Kingdom
Lily Wolf, The Ohio State University
Lola Fischer-Irmler, Freie Universität Berlin
Dennis Dita Kopp
Alexandre Simõs, Rehearsal Director, Staatsballett Berlin
Emily Kho, Board Member, Den Haag BIJ1
A Pollicino Rutgers University
Dylan Kerr, Artist, Berlin
Andria Nyberg Forshage
Dr Pauline Milani, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
Maria Dębińska, Polish Academy of Sciences
Katrin M. Kämpf, Assistant professor/Queer Studies, Academy of Media Arts Cologne
Brooke Hailey Hoffert, Glasgow
Dr Samo Tomsic, Professor of Philosophy/Aesthetics, University of Fine Arts Dresden
Simon(e) van Saarloos
Ava L.J. Kim, Assistant Professor, University of California Davis
Clem Mondot
Lain Iwakura, artist
F Agard
Rakel Jylha-Vuorio, Doctoral Researcher, University of Helsinki
Prof. Dr. Francesca Raimondi, Professor for Philosophy and Aesthetics, University of Arts and Design, Offenbach
Charlott Markus, Artist, Amsterdam
Dr. Maral Jefroudi, Utrecht University.
Lalu Ozban, Postdoctoral Fellow, Northwestern University
Dr. Ed Kiely, Leverhulme Research Fellow, Queen Mary University of London
Rede MILBi+| Rede de apoio a migrantes internacionais LGBTQIA+ no Brasil
Dr Lani Hanna, Department of Arts and Culture, University of Amsterdam
Dr. Lola Olufemi, Goldsmiths University of London
Ira Hybris, queer marxist writer and organiser
Moxie Silverberg, trans activist for 25 years
Lucile Marion, PhD student, Université Paris Nanterre
Lizzie Homersham, Writer and editor
Jony Wegewijs
Gry Stokkendahl Dalgas, Writer, Copenhagen
Elle Zwinkels, University of Groningen
Giselle Bernard
Lou Mallet Université Vincennes Paris 8
Elorri Harriet, Phd student, University of Geneva
Mine Pleasure Bouvar, political educator
Camille Campos Fragoso, EHESS (Paris)
Mos Lisowska, Amsterdam
Jillian Bruns, adjunct professor, Université Paul-Valéry
Camille Laufer, PhD candidate University of Geneva
Jannot - activist, Belgium
Leda Raia, doctorante, EHESS
Hugo Soucaze, PhD candidate, EHESS/UCLouvain
Jules Falquet, Philosopher, University of Paris 8 St Denis, France
Dr Ombre Tarragnat, EHESS
Dr Celestine S. Kunkeler, historian
Prof. Emma Bigé, Performance Studies, Lyon School for Fine Arts
Nathaniel Bui, graduate student, Ecole des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales
France Frigot, research assistant at SESSTIM and trans health activist, Marseille
Liz Escalle-Dyachenko, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Geneva
Anne Cremieux, Prof., Univ. Montpellier Paul-Valery
Adrian Daub, Professor, Stanford University
Nicolai von Neudeck, Berlin
Ryan Ruby, author, Berlin
Tiffany Florvil, Associate Professor of History, University of New Mexico
Joan Bienaimé, PhD candidate
Sacha Bordes, writer, performing artist, houseworker, student at CY Paris Cergy University
Joshua Sammet, University of Oxford
Pierre Niedergang, PhD in philosophy (Paris Nanterre University) and psychoanalyst
Sophia-Charlotte Grub, Café Pride Offenburg
Dr. Rachel Griffin, postdoctoral researcher, Duisburg-Essen University
Michele Gurrieri, Director of photography, Paris
Luca Greco, Sociolinguist, Full Professor, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales
NICOLAS Hélène, Anthropologue, Université Paris8
Aisha Iwa d'Ath, artist, Berlin
Mama Ganuush
Dr. Lucile Richard, Associate Researcher, Cevipof, Sciences Po
Antoine Thiollier, artist
Jian Neo Chen, Associate Professor, Department of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies, The Ohio State University
Alexis Crimmins
Paula Chaves
FACT (Festival des Arts et Création Trans)
Prof. Dr. Isabell Lorey, Academy of Media Arts Cologne
Dr. LaVelle Ridley, Department of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Ohio State University
Dr. Kim Calder, writer
Mya Byrne, performing songwriter & filmmaker, New York City
Ariel Ajeno
ingrid schacherl, coordination office for diversity, academy of fine arts vienna
Qianfei Gu
Sign the letter by entering your name and details at the link below:
Letter in support of the Dolls of Berlin, Casa Kua, and Trans and Queer people facing state repression worldwide.