Germany wants Gays to visit - and maybe stay?

[Rand]

As part of a new online promotion especially for gay and lesbian travellers from the UK and Ireland, the German National Tourist Office are offering you the chance to win free Air Berlin tickets to Germany.
MyGayGermany is a new promotion by the German National Tourist Office designed especially for UK and Irish residents. Visitors to www.GayGermany.co.uk get to choose their favourite Germany photo from a wide range of images showing many of the reasons why Germany is one of the global gay travel hotspots

 

[Andross]

Domain Name: MYGAYGERMANY.COM
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Hm I wonder why the official German national tourism office would register this website in the Netherlands? Doesn't look overly trustworthy to me.

 

[Rand]

Are you saying we should not trust the Germans?

Or are you saying that the Dutch are the ones not to trust?

 

[ronnie_h]

Hm I wonder why the official German national tourism office would register this website in the Netherlands? Doesn't look overly trustworthy to me.

It's not unsual to run your business in another country of the European Union nowadays. And even the national tourism office is a private company and no longer state owned. Especially if you are running an internet business, it's easier to do it from the Netherlands instead of putting up with the german internet laws, which are a litte.. hmm.. let's say.. out of this world..

When I deal with companies in the U.S.I find it very often that they don't understand that even though I live in Germany, my company has it's headquarter in another country of the European Union and is not doing business where I live. However, it's absolutely normal here.

 

[Andross]

Still strikes me as odd. Our official bureaucracy is not known for being overly gay-friendly. Indifferent maybe and self-absorbed, but this is a surprising development, if it is indeed genuine.

 

[lonestar]

Welcome and enjoy your stay

 

[Corny]

nah this isn't official, they are just kinda imitating the look

 

[Nonimus]

Cool, are they providing the 'special camps' again?

 

[Andross]

Only for drag queens. The cute guys are being deported right to my door.

 

[drhladnjak]

Berlin was the original gay mecca back before WW2. I was at the Gay Museum (Schwules Museum) a few weeks ago and they had an interesting permanent exhibit about those times. They had some neat stuff like gay newspapers with personal ads on display from as early as 1880. By the late 1920s, there were over a hundred gay businesses (bars, cafes, baths, etc.) Unfortunately, that all came to a very horrible and quick end when the Nazis came to power. Having come out in the US, I just erroneously assumed that gay life didn't start coming out of the shadows until Stonewall.

Today Berlin is still a pretty happening gay city. Germany in general is pretty progressive on gay issues (there are anti-discrimination and civil union laws), but not as much as many of its neighbors. There are still some political battles being fought over gay civil unions in more conservative parts of the country although certainly not on the same scale as here in the US.

Once you get out of the bigger gay cities (Berlin, Cologne, Hamburg, some say Munich) gay life drops off fairly quickly (or so I'm told). I lived in Germany for about two years--mostly in Saarbrücken but also in Bayreuth--and both were pretty dead when it came to finding other gay people. I'm a lot happier in general in Seattle now, although sometimes I entertain the thought of moving back but to somewhere bigger like Berlin.

 

[RationalLunacy]

Cool, are they providing the 'special camps' again?

Only if you're American and you tick the "I support President Bush" box.