What is the project about?

With this youth exchange, we want to bring together 26 young queer people living in Germany, Greece, Italy, Latvia and Slovakia to reflect about dating and relationships.

Dating is complicated. As queer people, we grow up with norms of all kinds that we don‘t fit into. We are not straight, not cis, not „normal“ enough. We internalize shame and mental health struggles that we have to work against all of our lives. Finding partners in this context, be it offline or online, can be with full of complications as well.

Let’s share our thoughts and ideas! How do I find someone who likes me? How do I deal with rejection and discrimination in the dating sphere? What is my own position around monogamy and polyamory? How can I feel happy, sexy, beautiful and satisfied in the capitalist times of Instagram, Grindr and Tinder? All of these questions become even more complicated if we experience other forms of discrimination as well (e.g. racism, classism, ableism).

As queers, we need community! We think it can be helpful to talk about these challenges in a safer space, both from a personal and a political perspective. We invite you to a youth exchange, where we can empower each other in our orientation, reflection and self-discovery around relationships. We want to encourage building queer families that give us support and love.

7 days of queer empowerment. In this youth exchange, we will explore different topics around dating and relationships through personal reflection, political education, storytelling, social media and activism.

Outcome. Together, we will develop campaigns on queer dating. Guided by the facilitators, you will create videos, social media posts or other creative and communication materials to share our own views and perspectives on queer dating, queer relationships and queer life.

Time commitment The exchange consists of 3 hours on Zoom every afternoon between 13:30 and 17:00 CET from 22-28 January 2022. There is also some invidivual assignments that you can on your own pacing (max. 1 hour). And in the evenings, if you’re interested, you can hang out with others on Zoom for non-mandatory evening activities 🙂

Who can apply?

Be queer or questioning! This project is made by LGBTQIA+ people for LGBTQIA+ people or those who are still on discovery for their sexual or/and gender identity. With this project we want to create a safer space for all of those of us who identify with being trans*, inter*, non-binary, lesbian, gay, bisexual, pansexual, asexual and queer.

People with multiple discriminations prioritized. We will especially prioritize applications by LGBTQIA+ people who experience other forms of discrimination as well (e.g. racism, classism, ableism). We will do our best to make the project a safer space and we will create the project based on the individual needs of the participants. Unfortunately the accommodation is not wheelchair-accessible.

Be between 18 and 30! We unfortunately cannot make exceptions here due to our funding.

Be able to participate in the whole period 22–28 January 2022. It’s okay to miss 1-2 sessions.

The youth exchange will take place in English. If you don’t feel so comfortable in English, we will support you in your understanding by translating or explaining in simple language.

Costs?

It’s for free. This project is funded by the European Commission through the program Erasmus+ and the City of Berlin.

Who are we?

We are a new queer organisation, Critical Queer Solidarity. We want to create alternative spaces within the queer community in Berlin and create connections with other queer people around Europe and the world. From our team, Queen Of Virginity and Thomas will be the ones coordinating this project.

Questions?

Feel free to write an email to Thomas at thomas@cqs.berlin