Pride or Prejudice? LGBTIQ+ Public History, Eurovision and anti-Gender Mobilization

Dominique Grisard, University of Basel

As LGBTIQ+ visibility increases, so do the popularity of anti-gender movements and the calls to ban so called “gender ideology.” In a climate marked by political polarization, gender based violence and hate speech on the one hand and pride of gender diversity beyond the binary on the other, what does it mean to create public memory of queer histories? What do educators and students experience when engaging with the public in a community history project on LGBTIQ+ themes? My contribution will explore these questions by drawing on my students’ experience as public guides of “Pride Tour. Queer City Tours through Basel”, a collaboration between the University of Basel's Center for Gender Studies and Basel Tourism. On the occasion of the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest being held in Basel, students developed a 90 minute-walking tour on the LGBTIQ+ history and present of Basel which they learned to present to an non-academic audience in an engaging manner. The guided tours were held in German and English and could be booked through the local tourist office. When the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) was launched in 1955, it was part of the political project of bringing together post-war Europe. With around 200 million viewers, it has become the most watched television program in Europe with a particularly big LGBTIQ+ following. Indeed, the ESC is often referred to as the “largest gay pride parade in the world”. To date, the many local civic groups committed to LGBTIQ+ causes hardly ever reach mainstream society. The Pride Tour’s goal was to change this by conveying knowledge in accessible, dialogic ways. It showed how rooted LGBTIQ+ initiatives were in Basel's history and that it was high time to write these into public memory, fostering understanding and acceptance of LGBTIQ+ peoples.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 13. Queer Communities, Social Controversies