Lüdenscheid - Guide for Gays, Lesbians and Queers

Lüdenscheid is the administrative seat of the Märkischer Kreis district in North Rhine-Westphalia and has a little over 70,000 residents. There are no queer bars or cafés in the town. The nearest permanent places for queer people are in Hagen and Dortmund.

In Hagen, the key address is Aidshilfe Hagen, the local AIDS service organisation. It offers counselling and testing for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, runs youth work in schools and groups, and hosts Queerschlag, a youth group for young LGBTIQ people. Dates and testing evenings are listed in the calendar on the association's website.

Dortmund has a wider range of options. The queer youth centre Sunrise on Geschwister-Scholl-Straße runs a youth meeting space with its own programme and offers queer, trans and intersex counselling. It also has a trans meetup, information events and advice for parents, relatives and professionals. Aidshilfe Dortmund has a dedicated queer life department aimed at gay and bisexual men as well as trans, non-binary and intersex people. It offers HIV and STI testing, counselling and a drop-in space called caféplus where people can meet and talk.

A fixed date in the regional calendar is Pride in Dortmund, held in late summer with a march, a street festival and an after-show party. For anyone living in Lüdenscheid and looking for contact, these associations and groups are the most reliable way to connect. For young people, Queerschlag in Hagen and the Sunrise youth space in Dortmund are the obvious places to start.