October 30, 2019

"'In the beginning, especially, sometimes Americans would come in S.S. uniforms, and it was always a big, big problem,' said Alain Rappsilber, a chimney sweep..."

"... and a Folsom board member who described himself as 'kink-free.' (When asked his profession, he emphasized that being a chimney sweep was 'not a fetish, it is actually my job.') The ban on Nazis appeared to be more widely respected this year than the prohibition on nudity and public sex, which became more loosely observed as the crowd got drunker and the afternoon turned to evening. Organizers said the people who act out each year tend to be tourists. 'Here in Berlin, people don’t need to go crazy because it is normal for us to have a beer in public or to walk around and see someone’s uncovered backside,' said Mr. Ruester, the festival co-founder."

From "Classical Music and Fetishes Unite in Historical Center of Gay Culture/Folsom Europe, a five-day festival of concerts and street parties, celebrates gay life, the leather scene and hard-won freedoms in Berlin" (NYT).

(Folsom is the name of a street in San Franciso, there's a Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco, and that's why this is Folsom Europe.)

31 comments:

iowan2 said...

Strange, I thought our host was not going to write about Congresswoman Kate Hill's, problems.

Laslo Spatula said...

"... the leather scene and hard-won freedoms in Berlin"

They just weren't won hard, they were won big and hard.

I am Laslo.

daskol said...

Tyrone Rontganger is a terrific name for a fetish concert organizer.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

Gay people just want to get married, buy gametes and rent womb space, and renovate historical homes! There’s nothing repellent or disordered about gay culture, ya hater!

Don said...

Many good people. Many sick ones as well.

Laslo Spatula said...

"...he emphasized that being a chimney sweep was 'not a fetish, it is actually my job.'"

The Nazi-chimney-sweep thing that IS a fetish is related to cleaning up ovens.

The ass-less striped pajamas are fabulous.

I am Laslo.

Phil 314 said...

#MeToo has pushed back hard on the objectification of women. Will we ever see a similar movement in the gay community?

If a guy is wearing ass-less chaps is he “asking for it”?

Craig Howard said...

Reminds me of that evergreen “Onion” headline: Gay-Pride Parade Sets Mainstream Acceptance Of Gays Back 50 Years

Doug said...

Ah, the wonderful world of gayness! Shoving it in normal's faces at every opportunity. Aren't gays cute, edgy, dangerous, and above us all? Just can't wait until every classroom in America has gay-informed curricula for every pre-schooler on up. What a fabulous GAY world it will be.

William said...

Christopher Isherwood and I Am a Camera. Wasn't Berlin there for the opening act of gay decadence? History unfolds first as tragedy and then as cosplay.

John henry said...


Here's some pics of the san Francisco folsom street fair.

Extremely nsfw


http://www.zombietime.com/folsom_sf_2007_part_1

But hey, just gays having fun in the sunshine

John Henry

n.n said...

Trans pride. Trans social.

buy gametes and rent womb space

To be fair, the sperm bank, including friends with "benefits" and more clinical schemes, and rent-a-womb, were normalized before transgender spectrum relationships (e.g. couplets), but there is a distinct correlation of special and peculiar interest advocates and activists of female chauvinism and transgender pride.

n.n said...

#MeToo has pushed back hard on the objectification of women

#MeToo #HerToo #SheProgressed has sustained the objectification of women, not feminists, female and male, with advocacy of the Chamber and its Pro-Choice quasi-religion that denies women, and men's, faculty and moral character, a progression of human dignity, value, and worth.

MacMacConnell said...

Talk about gay kink in Berlin,

'I fried a piece of rump steak from his back and ate it with sprouts': German cannibal who ate his gay lover 'with his permission' describes how he went about killing and eating him
Armin Meiwes killed and ate lover Bernd Brandes after the pair met online
Brandes posted an advert on cannibal site offering 'the chance to eat me'
Meiwes described his first bite of human flesh as 'very strange' in interview
Gave graphic insight into the shocking 2001 killing for a new documentary
After having sex, chopped off Brandes' penis which the pair ate together.

narciso said...

and they wonder why the moslems hate them?

Roughcoat said...

Forget it, Jake, it's Germany.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Years ago, a German acquaintance of mine told me that when he was a university student there, it wasn't uncommon to meet American students or tourists who would make pro-Nazi statements at parties and bars. They'd tell anti-Semitic jokes or praise those cool Hugo Boss SS uniforms. He understood it as more of a craven attempt by insecure people to win German approval than actual pro-Nazism, but of course the underlying assumption was that praising Nazis would win over Germans, which was pretty offensive. The attitude was "oh, you say you're anti-Nazi now, but nudge, nudge, wink, wink, we know better now don't we? Hey, say what you really think, we're all friends." When the room fell silent, the American would usually say "Gee, you guys really don't have much of a sense of humor, do you?"

robother said...

Dick VanDyke's chimney sweep character is now being emulated in Berlin's leather scene? Do they all talk in bad cockney accents?

HoodlumDoodlum said...

And people say America doesn't have a culture to export!
We sure showed 'em.

Ken B said...

American classical music is dominated by gays. I especially recommend
Symphony 1 Samuel Barber
The Feast Of Love Virgil Thomson (orchestral song)
Appalachian Spring and Rodeo Aaron Copland

Sebastian said...

Wait, I thought "gay life" was now all about getting married. Am I to infer that it's actually more about unrestrained sexuality, acting out anti-bourgeois predilections, and sexualizing the public sphere? That SSM advocacy was a sham?

Howard said...

Aren't they just celebrating Fleet Week?

Annie said...

Not able to read the article so I don't know how tame the pictures are.

There used to be a photojournalist called 'Zombie' who lived in San Francisco and would send her/his people out to take pictures of such events. The Folsom Street Fair, like most other gay festivals/fairs there, is pretty much a open air pornfest. From their own special kind of handshakes with friends/strangers, to street demos of the newest sex toys/gear, to sex trains in the streets with many a camera running.

And we're supposed to feel sympathy and spend unlimited millions of our tax dollars towards AIDS research on this culture's lack of self control or prevention. GayPatriot (who looks like he may have re-started his blog) used to link discussions from gay boards where many complained that others, who were on drugs for HIV, would get their 'load' numbers low enough that they then felt like they didn't need to 1. use protection, and 2. inform their multiple partners.

PM said...

They have no problem with leather in SF - as long as you don't eat what was skinned.

Gospace said...

The Onion headline quoted above by Craig Howard pretty much sums up normal everyday people's reactions to their public displays.

One of the cases of satire veering into real news, something the Babylon Bee has been doing with increasing frequency.

RigelDog said...

My overall take: Nope. Not a thing against gays, but I do have a thing against public "celebration" of kink.

Tidbit take: Why isn't BDSM slave-display verboten as being insensitive to African Americans? Items with far less connection to slavery (such as using cotton plants in a decorative centerpiece)are routinely denounced. But dragging someone along in chains while insulting and whipping them isn't re-enacting actual slavery?

Marc in Eugene said...

I wonder what percentage of people who identify as 'gay' pursue the 'marriage, family with children' route and what percentage of such people have opted (like so many heterosexual people) for the serial fornication option? I expect I wouldn't much trust such statistics even if they existed.

Marc in Eugene said...

I hadn't read the article in the Times.

While I don't follow Russian domestic nonsense at all closely, my understanding of the situation in Poland is that what the great majority of the people want is that the government be able to enforce laws against such public exhibitions or demonstrations, in other words that 'liberty' not be redefined in such a way that would require the civil power to permit 'Folsoms' (as has happened in this country since the 60s and 70s). The Evangelical Church in Germany (as at Twelve Apostles Church in Berlin) is more than happy to encourage such 'redefinitions', alas.

vanderleun said...

I can guarantee you that anything in that German city for the next week and for a month or so after will be "celebrate" some of the most repulsive acts of flesh and feces that the human race can get itself up to.

It's all part of the Western effort to normalize the perverted. It will end like Weimar, in the pit.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

Les boys got leather straps
Les boys got SS caps
But they got no gun now

Unknown said...

Understand this, deplorables. A male ramming his fist up another male's rectum (fisting) is EXACTLY the same as a man putting a ring on a woman's finger. It's called marriage.