Queer is not Anti...queer is more. Reclaimed from a slur, queer is a word with more than one meaning. Queer is used by individuals to describe their gender or sexual identity as non-conforming with mainstream society. Simultaneously, queer is used as an umbrella term referring to the whole group of people who experience discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation or identity, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics. Queer is the unclear making it clear. Queer is other. Queer is all the lgbtqia and all the plus. Queer is punk. Queer is used as a battle cry against the structural disadvantages society throws at us. It’s gender neutral. It’s intersectional. It is all of us. It allows us to acknowledge identities left out by the acronym. Queer is not one thing – it is the spectrum. The spectrum of everything that was not wanted. But we want it – we want all of you to be part of the family. Queer is the single word inviting all the uninvited. But can a single word be so inviting? Is the single word queer restoring the binary? Is it a straight versus a queer? Or is it more – and the binary seen only by the ones who always and forever want to see the binary? We are queer, we are trans, we are gay, bi, butch, femmes, we are enbies, two-spirited, we are pan, aros and aces, we are queer, we create our own spaces. We are queer and so much more and all at the same time. Queer is anti because you made us the anti. Queer is anti because we are angry. Queer is not just anti because we are more. More than queer, but still queer. Inviting all that is more and still queer. Inviting all the identities to a diverse coalition. Inviting all that is love and sometimes a mess. How do we want to identify? The right answer again ranges on a spectrum, we guess.

This year, Queer Festival Heidelberg is again opening its call for its annual exhibition. We welcome submissions from all over the world. Queer Festival Heidelberg is a non-profit organization founded in 2009 in Heidelberg, Germany. Professional and amateur photographers are invited to submit a solo or group project. Projects may contain 5-20 photos and must have the contests title „Queer Is Not Anti“ as a central theme. Judging criteria are originality, composition, expression of theme and personal expression. The winners projects/works will be shown in a public exhibition during May 2021 in the city of Heidelberg, as well as in a timeless digital version of the exhibition on https://queer-festival.de. Queer Festival Heidelberg is also currently working on potentially showing the exhibition at further European queer festivals.

Juror information

• Busch, Frederik (media artist, photographer and university teacher)
• Corda, Margaux (photographer, visual artist)
• Cubelic, Danijel (head of Office of Equal Opportunities Heidelberg)
• Hauser, Dominic (founder of Queer Festival Heidelberg)
• Iacolutti, Giulia (photographer, visual artist)
• Müller, Martin J.V. (founder of Queer Festival Heidelberg, curator of Kulturhaus Karlstorbahnhof)
• Smart, Ngadi (photographer, visual artist)