All over the world gays, lesbians, bi- and transsexuals are still fighting for equal rights. Berlin’s leading daily newspaper DER TAGESSPIEGEL is one of Germany’s first major press outlets to offer dedicated LGBTI content and newsletters. For Gay Pride 2018, DER TAGESSPIEGEL wanted to take a stand by publicly declaring solidarity with their queer readership and the LGBTI movement.

The target group of the #queerformat are all people who want to take a public stand for the equal rights of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders. With its publication “QUEERSPIEGEL”, DER TAGESSPIEGEL is one of the only major news outlets, that is firmly anchored in the LGBT community and thus a credible ambassador.

By turning the front page of their weekend issue into life-sized pride flags, DER TAGESSPIEGEL made every one of their readers a flag-bearer for equality – just by reading or carrying the newspaper. Instructions on the bottom of the page urged readers to put the newspaper to use and make the #queerformat their own. The #queerformat was also handed out to attendees of Berlin’s Pride Walk.

The target group of the #queerformat are all people who want to take a public stand for the equal rights of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders.

By turning the front page of their weekend issue into life-sized pride flags, DER TAGESSPIEGEL made every one of their readers a flag-bearer for equality – just by reading or carrying the newspaper. Instructions on the bottom of the page urged readers to put the newspaper to use and make the #queerformat their own. The #queerformat was also handed out to attendees of Berlin’s Pride Walk.

With the campaign #queerformat, DER TAGESSPIEGEL published 117,424 life-sized pride flags, creating 47,740 m² of its own media space, that was carried and seen all throughout Berlin and Germany in a span of two days (July 28th and 29th – the weekend of Berlin’s Pride Walk).

The weekend issue was well received throughout Berlin and all over the world. The readers put the front page to use, either as flags, posters or sun protection and made it part of the Christopher Street Day - Germany’s biggest pride walk. By using the hashtag #queerformat, readers also shared the creative ways of how they put the #queerformat to use.

It was even given a place for eternity: The Gay Museum of Berlin added the #queerformat to their collection.

“DER TAGESSPIEGEL (…) has expressed its solidarity with the long-standing tradition of the Pride Movement in a very perceptible way – It’s a manifestation of the deep roots queer culture has in our city” – Peter Rehberg; Archive and Collection Manager, Gay Museum Berlin