How can we break down stereotypes about queer people? The Rainbow Collective is not only exploring this question at the HSZG, but also discussed it with participants at the Speakers’ Corner of the Fokus Festival 2026 at Rabryka. A first step in this process is to make stereotypes visible. In a speed-dating format, queerness was promptly declared the social norm – and from this perspective, questions were posed that people from the LGBTQAI* community still hear far too often in real life:

• Which of you is actually the ‘man’ in your relationship, and who’s the other ‘man’?
• Have you told your parents yet that you’re heterosexual?
• Is it actually fashionable now for everyone to want to keep the gender they were assigned at birth?

The exercise had an impact: “I always thought I knew quite a lot about queer issues, but this change of perspective has shown me that there are still a few things I need to think about,” summed up one participant.

Through the Queer Area and discussion forums such as the Speakers Corner, the Fokus Festival actively contributes to local networking within the LGBTQAI* community in the Görlitz district. Queer students thus experience visibility and acceptance beyond the university community.

The Rainbow Collective is the queer student advocacy group at the HSZG and is supported in its activities by the TRAWOS project QueerPeer. The aim of the project is to connect queer students at universities in Saxony and to encourage them to remain in the Free State’s higher education system in the long term.

Students interested in finding out more can find the Rainbow Collective on Instagram at regenbogenkollektiv_gr. Enquiries regarding collaboration within the framework of the QueerPeer project can be sent to julia.ochmann@hszg.de.