Being gay in farm country is still a taboo

Bruno has known it early on. While his classmates began to rave about her, he realized that he the guys a lot more interesting place. Long as he did not talk about it. In the small town where he grew up, nobody talked about such a thing, "Bruno said.
Only when he was 13, he realized, that is his preference for boys, that he is gay. With his best friend he could talk about it, but it took another four years before he dared to tell even his mother. "It has taken me a hug and told me that she loves me," recalled Bruno, now 21 years old.
"In general, the experience much more positive than the outing we expected," says Thomas. Along with Bruno and Tom directs the 33-year-old group SchwuB ("Queer to Biberach), a focal point for gay youth from Biberach and environment. SchwuB is neither a brokerage or as self-help group. meet once a week the young people to meet other, make friends and together to do something, says Thomas. The youth group offers a safe space where everyone can speak freely without having to dissemble. Not self-evident, as Thomas, Tom Bruno and find again and again.

"Maybe it's in the city not as critical because it is anonymous, but especially in the villages it is difficult," says Thomas. "There is a latent fear that one is expelled from the community and that jokes are made about a". Offensive and discriminatory slogans are still liable to everyday life.
"There is a double standard," says Tom. At the Christopher Street Day in Stuttgart, a known gay and lesbian parade and got the 30-year-old on the one hand seen how the homosexuals are celebrated, but just a few blocks of it, he and his partner were attacked openly, because they went hand in hand . Even before his boss wants to come out Tom is not why he and the other people mentioned in the text only by their first names or changed names.
It should Biberach been about 15 years ago such a thing as the gay and lesbian stronghold of Upper Swabia, says Thomas. took place in 1995, the gay and lesbian culture days in Biberach, there was full support from the city. At that time the group Helb "was (gay emancipation in Laupheim and Biberach) still active. From it emerged eight years ago the youth group SchwuB. In Baden-Württemberg SchwuB is the only youth group for gay men in a small town on the order of Biberach, Thomas says.

Source: schwäbische.de