taz: Ms. Otte, what are your feelings? the Sunday club started the new year? As recently as December, it was feared that significant funding would be needed for 2026 Women*Lesbian Friday and also the Queerhome* project, Housing advice for LGBTIQ+ in Berlin would be missing. The budget for 2026/27 is now a done deal. How did the fight for the funding that has been flowing regularly for ten years turn out?
Nicole Eight: Thank God it didn’t turn out as bad for us as we feared. We fought and had many conversations, mainly with the queer political speakers and equal opportunities officer Sebastian Walter from the Greens, and Franziska Breitenstein and of course Klaus Lederer from the Left, and received a lot of support. But also from the SPD – Wiebke Neumann, the spokeswoman for queer politics, gave us a lot of support from the Green, Left and SPD factions. And in the end, the CDU – in particular the queer policy spokeswoman Lisa Knack – submitted the application together with the SPD to move the money from the equality area to the anti-discrimination area.
taz: What does this reallocation of funding mean exactly?
Otte: That the funding for the Sunday club from the anti-discrimination area could be increased. This means that for the year 2026 we will receive a supplement of 75,000 euros – a so-called increase – for one of our two LADS projects in psychosocial counseling…
Im Interview: Nicole Otte
Project management of the Sunday Club since October 2024.
taz: … LADS stands for State Anti-Discrimination Act.
Otte: Yes, and the anti-discrimination area now includes a new focus on “women, lesbians and bisexual women”. This is very pleasing for us.
taz: Because that means that Women*Lesbian Friday and the associated office that is responsible for organizing and implementing it is secured?
Otte: Exactly. All women’s work continues to be funded. This is what it says in the House of Representatives’ decision minutes for the 93rd session on December 3rd. I have it in front of me right now, but on page 66 there is the decision that we will get 75,000 euros more.
taz: So that makes it official.
Otte: Yes, that can’t be taken away from us now. That was a very pleasant surprise.
taz: Congratulations! If things had turned out differently…
Otte: … We would have had to cope with a total reduction of 81,000 euros. 20,000 euros less for Project Queerhome*6,000 euros less for psychosocial counseling, 55,000 euros would have been the position for the Women*Lesbian Friday. But instead of these cuts, we now have 75,000 euros available with a focus on “women, lesbians and bisexual women”. That means we actually got more money at that point.
on Greifenhagener Straße in Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg is one of the capital’s oldest queer institutions (with a GDR past) and one of the most important centers for events, information and advice for queer people. Over 30 self-help groups have their domicile here. There are three projects financed by the Senate – from different funding sources – including: psychosocial counseling and that Project QUEERHOME*the housing advice for LGBTIQ* in Berlin and the FrauenLesben*Freitag. After protests and a reallocation of funding, the continued existence of the Sunday club is secured. (attach)
taz: So Women*Lesbian Friday continues – and uninterrupted?
Otte: Yes, we planned well because we didn’t know what would happen next. We have a wonderful volunteer organization group that organizes and runs the Fridays with the full-time person. They started planning and implementing the first quarter of 2026 together in September and October. There are now slightly fewer events than usual, but the basic program is running. But we won’t be really active again until March.
taz: This shows that it is worth going to the barricades.
Otte: In any case, the fight was worth it. It was great to see the broad support we received from the public, including from you, the press. The solidarity was very great.
taz: Also among each other, i.e. other projects that were threatened with cuts.
Otte: Yes, and also in other projects, such as this one BerTa advice center in Buch (sponsored by the Albatros non-profit organization for social and health services mbH – editor’s note) the cuts were reversed. So there was a political backtracking and perhaps then the realization that working for equality and equal rights for women* is an important sign
taz: Can the Sunday Club compensate for the missing 20,000 euros for Queerhome*? Or is the project about to end?
Otte: We need to discuss and clarify this now. We hoped until the end that we could divide these 75,000 euros accordingly. But according to the minutes of the decision, that is not the case, and I suspect that the Senate administration will adopt this decision in exactly the same way.
taz: What does that mean for the project?
Otte: That we can pay fewer freelance workers and volunteers. Which means that we will lose some visibility with the project this year. Yes, it remains feasible and there is a lot we can do. We have redesigned the project a bit because the work in homeless counseling is very dynamic at various levels. And also because dealing with queer people with or without a refugee background is becoming increasingly problematic. The situation on the housing market is becoming increasingly worse.
taz: What does reknitted mean?
Otte: That we now have fewer full-time and more part-time positions and more freelance workers so that we can be active on several construction sites at the same time. At the same time we have to focus.
taz: So you’re going into the new year with one laughing eye and one crying eye?
Otte: Yes, you can say that. We had planned for two scenarios anyway, with and without cuts. With the pooling of funding, administration is now also simplified. We’ll save a bit of costs. The position for Women*Friday is now part of the psychosocial counseling team. This means that we can expand the women’s position and provide more advice. In the area of women*, we are much more capable of acting than before, which is very good. And perhaps we can compensate a little for certain areas that we are now losing at Queerhome*. We now have to clarify all of this with everyone involved in the project and the board.
taz: Good luck and strength in the implementation.
Otte: Yes, we first have to find a way forward after this very stressful year with the looming cuts. This uncertainty represented a high level of stress for the entire team. A burden that not only the Sunday club, but the entire social, cultural and educational structure had to endure. It has to be said that the way in which this budget was drawn up was very difficult.
taz: To say the least…
Otte: How people are treated is critical. The budget could have been structured differently from the outset so that we don’t have to live with existential fears for six months. The additional psychological stress makes work extremely difficult and illness levels skyrocket. The horror scenario has lasted the whole year, we’re all pretty exhausted. Especially since with this current government you don’t know at all whether it is really serious or whether it might not be said in the summer, now we’ll cut off your funding… There’s never been a situation like this in the last 20 years that we’ve been working with the Senate, even if there have always been difficult budget situations. In the past, promises were kept.
taz: The Senate made it too easy for itself.
Otte: Exactly. The Senate outsources state tasks that must be fulfilled by law to third parties and then leaves them hanging. If this continues for a few more years, the entire project landscape will eventually collapse because this is not a sensible way to work together.