🏳️‍🌈 Phenix and Flo take a deep dive into the development of LGBTQIA+ representation on German television, uncovering milestones, controversies and new perspectives. In exciting interviews and discussions, they take you on a journey from the early beginnings to the current challenges and show why diversity in the media is becoming increasingly important.

In conversation: presenter Malcom Ohanwe, producer Mahide Lein and Manuela Kay, former editor-in-chief of Siegessäule magazine

Queer Story is a production of BosePark Productions from Berlin. We have also translated this podcast into other languages with the help of artificial intelligence so that you can listen to it in your native language.

🇹🇷 Queer Story in turkish - Queer Hikayesi - link to Spotify 🇹🇷

🇷🇺 Queer Story in russian - История “Квир” - link to Spotify 🇷🇺

🇩🇪 Queer Story in german - queer story - link to Spotify 🇩🇪

🪩 Chapter

00:00:00 Media's Influence on Queer Visibility

00:04:05 Historical Queer Media in Germany

00:06:18 Weimar Era Queer Publications

00:08:02 Challenges in Queer Media Representation

00:10:19 Evolution of Queer TV Characters

00:12:03 Influential Queer Magazines in Berlin

00:14:17 Siegessäule: Pioneering Queer Media

00:16:27 Broadcasting Queer Content to East Berlin

00:18:13 Launch of the First Lesbian Magazine

00:20:23 '90s German Queer Media Landscape

00:22:08 Private Television and Queer Representation

00:24:07 Lesbian TV: A Media Revolution

00:26:28 Behind-the-Scenes of Lesbian TV

00:28:50 Funding Challenges for Queer Projects

00:30:32 Current State of Queer Representation in Media

📔 Summary of this episode

In this episode, hosts Phenix and Flo take a deep dive into the development of LGBTQIA+ representation on German television. They look at the changes over the last few decades, from the first lesbian relationship in "Lindenstraße" to current TV formats in which queer characters are portrayed more prominently and in more diverse ways.

The hosts begin with a look back at "Lindenstraße" and how this series featured the first lesbian relationship on German television with Tanja Schildknecht's affair with Sonja Besirsky in 1996. The conversation moves on to other groundbreaking series such as "Hinter Gittern", where the character Walter was one of the first lesbian main characters to appear in a German series.

Phenix and Flo also discuss the changes in the 2000s, when more and more gay and lesbian characters appeared in series such as "Verbotene Liebe" or "Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten". In an interview with Mahide Lein, we learn how the world's first lesbian magazine programme, "Lesbisch TV", was broadcast from 1991 to 1993. Lein describes the challenge of financing such a format without the internet and almost exclusively through donations. The hosts emphasize how important this pioneering work was for the visibility of lesbians on television. The hosts discuss how ARD is working to bring queer characters to the forefront with new series such as "All You Need".

Malcolm Ohanwe, a prominent queer media creator, shares his perspective on the portrayal of LGBTQIA+ characters. He criticizes the stereotypical and exoticised portrayal of queer people in the media and argues for authentic and diverse representation.

🎙️About

Queer Story is a production of BosePark Productions from Berlin. This podcast was translated with the help of artificial intelligence so that you can listen to the episode in your native language. We originally recorded it in 2021, then only in German. We really wanted to try out the possibility of speaking with our voices in your language. So bear with us if we still have an awkward way of speaking sometimes. We are very interested to hear what you think. If you have any comments or questions, please write to us at [email protected] 

🏳️‍🌈BosePark Productions GmbH 2024 

www.bosepark.com