Post by sublime92 on Sept 22, 2017 3:34:02 GMT
Bremen, Germany (CNN)Karsten P. empties a test tube filled with metal pieces into the palm of his hand. They're the tiny screws and bolts that held his face together after he and his partner Sven were violently assaulted in a life-changing attack outside their local store.
Two surgeries later and fearful of being attacked again, the openly gay 52-year-old taxi driver -- who doesn't want to be identified because of concerns of another attack -- avoids public spaces and always takes pepper spray with him. He and his partner have also been forced to move neighborhoods in the northwest German city of Bremen following mounting costs as a result of being injured.
"I went outside and saw someone kicking my partner's head. I was trying to stop him and right at that moment, I got hit from the side," Karsten recalls about the attack. "I kind of lost consciousness and when I got up again, I thought my partner was dead. He was all covered in blood and he didn't move at all."
Police identified the attackers as two locally known Muslim extremists. They were never arrested and later fled to Syria. After demanding answers from local prosecutors and the mayor's office and not getting a response, Karsten turned to Germany's far right party, the Alternative for Germany (AfD).
"I don't like everything they say," Karsten says, "but this is too dangerous for gay people to live openly here, if we get attacked like that. We need a party that's talking openly about this."
Two surgeries later and fearful of being attacked again, the openly gay 52-year-old taxi driver -- who doesn't want to be identified because of concerns of another attack -- avoids public spaces and always takes pepper spray with him. He and his partner have also been forced to move neighborhoods in the northwest German city of Bremen following mounting costs as a result of being injured.
"I went outside and saw someone kicking my partner's head. I was trying to stop him and right at that moment, I got hit from the side," Karsten recalls about the attack. "I kind of lost consciousness and when I got up again, I thought my partner was dead. He was all covered in blood and he didn't move at all."
Police identified the attackers as two locally known Muslim extremists. They were never arrested and later fled to Syria. After demanding answers from local prosecutors and the mayor's office and not getting a response, Karsten turned to Germany's far right party, the Alternative for Germany (AfD).
"I don't like everything they say," Karsten says, "but this is too dangerous for gay people to live openly here, if we get attacked like that. We need a party that's talking openly about this."
In some ways, the AfD is an unlikely place for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) voters. The party has threatened to sue the government for allowing the recent vote to legalize same-sex marriage, and the AfD manifesto advocates the "traditional family as a guiding principle."
Yet one of the AfD's top candidates, Alice Weidel, is an openly gay woman raising children with her partner. Weidel, an economist, was brought in as the softer, moderating face of the party, but her campaign speeches show she can deliver an angry rant on immigration as well as her AfD peers.
"Merkel's refugee policy will destroy our welfare state of the Federal Republic of Germany!" she said in a recent campaign post. "We, as AfD, will make sure that this comes to an end. Because open borders do not work with a sustainable social state."
Yet one of the AfD's top candidates, Alice Weidel, is an openly gay woman raising children with her partner. Weidel, an economist, was brought in as the softer, moderating face of the party, but her campaign speeches show she can deliver an angry rant on immigration as well as her AfD peers.
"Merkel's refugee policy will destroy our welfare state of the Federal Republic of Germany!" she said in a recent campaign post. "We, as AfD, will make sure that this comes to an end. Because open borders do not work with a sustainable social state."
