The department

Team

Our diverse team consists of individuals of different social positioning and professional competences. We combine knowledge of gender and sexual diversity with perspectives of critical racism and migration education. Our areas of expertise include anti-bias approaches, gender-sensitive pedagogy, social justice concepts, and anti-discrimination work. Some of us are trained as empowerment trainers, systemic therapists and are skilled in dance and movement therapy or supervision. As a team we have a scientific background in social work, social pedagogy, education and various social sciences.

 Stance

At #MAQ we work with the following stance:

• We want to facilitate a change of perspective through dialogue and exchange of experiences. We strive to strengthen commonalities through the simultaneous recognition of differences within and between different LGBTIAQ*, migrant, BPoC and refugee communities.
• The acceptance of religious beliefs and life perspective as well as a sensitivity towards all forms of discrimination instead of victimization Is important to us.
• In our practice, we consider our own experiences regarding privilege and discrimination, as well as those of the people and groups with whom we work with, in solidarity and in a power-critical manner.
• We are a team consisting of people with and without own experience of racism. Our teamwork is a shared process of learning and reflection, which we see as a resource for our work with other teams.
• The empowerment work for queer people with experiences of racism is designed and conducted by queer staff members with their own experiences of racism.
• We strive for recognition and resource orientation instead of deficit orientation.
• We work confidentially, need-oriented throughout NRW.

Goals

“Are you a lesbian or a migrant? – No!” -that was how a poster advertised a study initiated by an organization in Berlin “LesMigraS” in 2009 on multiple affiliations and was one of the first of its kind. The topics of migration and racism experiences as well as LGBTIAQ* identities are otherwise usually considered individually and in isolation from one other. Even at the socio-political level, in self-help organizations and social work institutions, these topics are often treated separately. This makes people who are affected by racism as well as LGBTIAQ* hostility and discrimination invisible. At the same time, people who are affected by different and intersecting discriminations have specific experiences that cannot so clearly be assigned to only one level of discrimination. In NRW, these experiences are shared by an estimated number of quarter million people.

In public discourse, the intersection of LGBTIAQ* and BPoC, with a history of flight and migration, are often not only seen as opposites, but also perceived as problematic. Right-wing populists locate homophobia and transphobia among immigrants and continue to ignore existing stereotypes and discrimination against LGBTIAQ* in German society.

#MAQ wants to create visibility and understanding for intersectional discrimination, empower people with multiple affiliations and raise awareness for sexual and gender diversity in connection with racism.

Our counseling and awareness-raising services are aimed at agencies or organizations and individuals of:

• Main and voluntary LGBTIAQ* self-help organization and communities.
• Social work, counseling, and educational work
• Migrant self-organizations
• Empowerment structures for people with experiences of racism
• Associations and organization of religious communities
• Institutions of migration and integration work

#MAQ promotes and organizes networking of local LGBTIAQ* migrants, refugees consisting of BPoC self-organized groups, integration agencies, religious associations, and clubs with the aim of perspectively carrying out joint events and projects. The central goal is empowerment, especially the creation and strengthening of own structures of and for queers of color in NRW.

With the increased flight and migration of people to Germany in 2015 and 2016, offers for queer refugees have already been created in NRW. In doing so, it is important to move from acute emergency aid and support for LGBTIAQ* refugees to long-term participation, advocacy, and representation. Furthermore, #MAQ wants to make the diversity of migration stories visible and bring people who have newly fled or migrated to Germany with people of other migration generations and biographies together.