Giessen - Guide for Gays, Lesbians and Queers

Gießen has no gay bar, queer café or gay sauna with a fixed address. The community here meets mainly through associations, counselling services and groups that share rooms. That is less visible than a bar with a rainbow flag outside, but it is easy to get talking to people.

The main address is the Hans-Peter-Hauschild-Haus at Diezstraße 8 in the city centre. It houses the local AIDS service organisation, Aids-Hilfe Gießen, which also offers HIV test counselling there. The meeting space on the ground floor hosts counselling for trans people and for queer refugees, and several groups use the rooms, among them the TIN+ Treff Mittelhessen for trans, inter and non-binary people, which meets once a month on a Friday afternoon.

Younger people have Café Queer at the Jokus youth and culture centre, Ostanlage 25a. It is open to queer people aged 16 to 27 on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, except during the summer and Christmas school holidays. At Justus Liebig University, the gay, trans and queer office of the student union is the contact point for students.

If you like sport, SV Regenbogen is a queer sports club that plays badminton in gym A of the Herderschule at Gleiberger Weg 33, usually on Monday and Thursday evenings, and beginners are welcome. For singers there is Aqueerious, a lesbian and gay choir that rehearses on Mondays in the parish hall next to the Pankratiuskapelle on Georg-Schlosser-Straße.

The nearest gay bar night is in Marburg, where the Schwule Theke opens every Monday at the KfZ on Biegenstraße. Opening times change, so check the groups' own pages before you go.