“Freedoms are always fragile”
Fabian Grischkat is dedicated to promoting queer rights and he speaks about political topics on social media. He seeks to protect freedoms through education.
Say what you think. Research what you want. Make art the way you like: everybody in Germany has these freedoms. They are the basis of democracy and protected in Basic Law. Meet young people from Germany who reveal the different ways they experience this freedom.
Tall tale or reality? In social media it is often difficult to distinguish between what is fake and what is real. Fabian Grischkat is well-aware of this. He would like to educate and uses social media to reach young people in particular. “Generation Z does not wait for the newspaper to arrive the next morning but wakes up and checks the phone. Content must be available on TikTok and so on at that point,” the 24-year-old explains. The goal of his fact checks is to debunk fake news on the internet. “The information they see should ideally be in line with journalistic standards and comply with the press code. Sadly, this is frequently not the case.” The content that Fabian discusses on social media tends to be political and critical of society. He considers himself queer and speaks openly about his sexual identity, as well as advocating for the rights of the LGBTQIA+ community.
Everybody in Germany is allowed to freely express their sexual identity. The state accepts and respects all gender identities. This is provided for in the General Equal Treatment Act that guarantees equal rights to all citizens, regardless of their gender and sexual orientation. In addition, marriage equality was introduced in Germany on 1 October 2017, enabling same-sex couples to get married.
Democracy means to tolerate the opinions of others
“I appreciate the legalisation of queer life as a great freedom,” Fabian says. However, there are other freedoms in Germany that he finds very important, too, such as freedom of opinion, gender equality, a diverse political party landscape and free elections. “Those are freedoms that are often taken for granted, despite the fact that this is exactly what they are not. We should remind ourselves of this a lot more often,” he points out.
To him democracy also means pluralism of opinions. That is to accept views that differ from your own. He is frequently criticised for his videos in which he addresses socio-critical topics and informs about LGBTQIA+ rights. “I believe that anyone who takes a stand on any topic on the internet will experience hostility relatively quickly.” He stresses that this exchange in particular is essential to him and to his work. “You have to take the time to engage in constructive exchange. I have had some amazing discussions and received positive feedback,” he recalls. Fabian explains that the positive side outweighs the negative at the end of the day and that this shows that a constructive exchange of opinions can strengthen democracy.
Just under 150,000 people are following his Instagram channel by now. “I seek to break down the complexity of topics in such a way that young people will find them interesting,” Fabian says. In his videos he explains in 60 seconds, how a state election works in Germany or talks about human rights in Afghanistan, to name just two examples.
Freedoms are always fragile. We must not take them for granted and have to keep standing up for them and for democracy.
Appreciating personal freedoms
Fabian first started to appear in videos when he was still in school and set up a YouTube channel with his friends that primarily featured comedy videos. However, they quickly started to include political and socially relevant topics. “We tried to communicate political content in a humorous way,” he says. It was by coincidence that he ended up presenting a social media format for a public television station between 2019 and 2021.
He stresses that politics are not limited to the online sphere for young people. This is why he uses his publicity to seek direct contact with young people, too, for example at schools. He also takes part in public events, panels and discussions. In addition to this, he started his own fashion label called Stolzmonat. Right-wing groups used to use this term that is a literal German translation of “Pride Month” in smear campaigns on social media. Fabian wanted to counteract this and had the name patented. He donates his brand’s profits to a queer charity foundation.
One of the goals of his work is to deliberately protect his freedoms. “Freedoms are always fragile. We must not take them for granted and have to keep standing up for them and for democracy,” Fabian says. Taking care of each other, mutual encouragement and to never give up when it comes to standing up for the topics he cares about are the things that Fabian finds the most important.
