Heidelberg - Guide for Gays, Lesbians and Queers

Heidelberg has no permanent gay bar. Queer life in the city is built around a community centre, a set of counselling services and a long list of groups, most of them easy to reach for newcomers and visitors.

The heart of it is Queer Space Heidelberg at Am Karlstor 1 in the old town. Heidelberg's first queer centre occupies the former Karlstorkino cinema and is run by Queer Space Heidelberg e. V., an association that grew out of the Queeres Netzwerk Heidelberg. It is self-managed: decisions are taken at a monthly community meet-up that anyone from the community can join. The rooms host group meetings, workshops, parties and the Queer Space Café on Sunday afternoons, which is open to queer people and allies alike.

For advice and support, PLUS Rhein-Neckar runs a psychosocial counselling centre on sexual and gender diversity. Its Heidelberg office for visits is at Alte Eppelheimer Straße 50 A, and it offers counselling for queer people, families and professionals, support after discrimination or violence, coming-out and empowerment groups and peer advice on starting a rainbow family. Aidshilfe Heidelberg at Rohrbacher Straße 22 provides advice on sexual health, STI testing and workshops. The city has its own unit for queer affairs, the Fachstelle Queeres Heidelberg at the Office for Equal Opportunities on Eppelheimer Straße 13.

There are also many smaller groups: Queer Youth for young people, a regional group of the trans association dgti, a TransMann regional group, a TIN meet-up for trans, inter and non-binary adults, ILSE for queer parents, Bunte Kreide for queer teachers and a large WhatsApp community that started as the university group QueerCampus. The Karlstorbahnhof cultural centre in the Südstadt hosts the Queer Festival every May.