A gender identity support group held at a state-funded LGBT organization for trans-identified people in Bremen, Germany, announced it was shutting down following multiple incidents of sexual abuse involving visitors and staff. In a statement, Trans Café admitted that the perpetrators had been able to find protection within the community.
Trans Café Bremen was a meeting group for trans-identified individuals that took place twice a month at KWEER, a bar and pub social space at the Rat & Tat Zentrum für queeres Leben in Bremen, an “action and advice center” for the LGBT community that was one of the first of its kind to be founded in Germany.
“At the [Trans Café], you can spend a pleasant evening, meet new people, and chat about hobbies, favorite TV shows, and all sorts of other things. Sometimes we even have cake,” Rat & Tat advertises on their website. “Questioning whether the gender assigned to you without your consent feels right for you raises complex questions. Sometimes the right words are hard to find… Behind the counter, you’ll find people you can talk to if you have any questions or uncertainties. We’ll do our best to support you and, if necessary, refer you to counseling services or other resources.”
While there was no explicit age requirement published for attending the café, some of the café’s followers on social media referenced referring “young people” to visit.
Based on their Facebook page, the event has been taking place since at least 2016. The group also advertised that they had both a Facebook group and a Discord server where members could connect. However, links to these groups were not publicly available, and anyone interested would have to message the organization or be invited directly.
On Friday, the Trans Café released a statement to their Instagram, following an announcement the previous week that the meetings had been “cancelled until further notice,” revealing that the reason for the shut down was because there had been “at least four known incidents” of sexual abuse.
“Three of these occurred in the vicinity of the Trans Café, and one incident is directly related to the Trans Café. This latter incident involves a perpetrator who was part of the staff at the time,” the statement read.
Safety concerns involving the café first arose in October of last year, when the meetings were temporarily cancelled. At the time, the group announced on their Telegram channel that there had been a number of “awareness cases,” which in Germany can refer from anything from “discrimination” to sexual violence. The Trans Café did not specify what had occurred at that time, and instead simply mentioned the need for a “code of conduct” for both visitors and staff.
The Trans Café proceeded to re-open at the start of December of last year, and was held on its regular schedule until February 23, when further meetings were abruptly cancelled once again.
“Reopening was initially a test for us, and unfortunately, it failed,” the Trans Café said in their Instagram statement. “After reopening, there were several minor incidents, such as a person with a ban from the premises showing up and a pepper spray discharge. Unfortunately, there was also a major incident, which we don’t want to discuss to protect everyone involved. This incident is what ultimately led us to close the café permanently.”
The staff not only admitted that they reacted “very slowly” and “inappropriately” in dealing with the incidents of sexual violence, but revealed that the space itself had “allowed perpetrators and their protectors to network.”
They claimed that all “perpetrators” they know of have been banned from the premises, and they are currently “trying to remove” anyone who defended the perpetrators from the café and surrounding structures.
Das „Trans Café Bremen“ schließt dauerhaft. Es soll zu mindestens vier Fällen sexuellen Missbrauchs durch Besucher des Cafés und ein Mitglied des Tresenteams gekommen sein. Die Täter sollen sich über das Café vernetzt und mit Personen umgeben haben, die sie schützen. 😱 pic.twitter.com/coUsbHgPE7
— R. Eder-Kirsch 🐡 (@EderKirsch) March 6, 2026
All known victims were provided with information about counseling services. Perpetrators, none of whom have been identified, were also offered assistance, but the café noted that they had not expressed an interest in “engaging in perpetrator rehabilitation work.”
There also appears to be significant overlap between those organizing the Trans Café, and the staff at KWEER itself. One Reddit user, u/brettimkopp, identified themselves as both “working behind the bar” at the Trans Cafe, and a “barkeeper from KWEER.”
On the webpage for KWEER, sometime between August 2022, and May 2024, a section was added, discussing how KWEER is “largely self-organized” by a volunteer team, and that the organizers are responsible for creating the “safest possible space” at the social area. “In other words, discrimination must not occur in any way during events. If this happens and we become aware of it from participants or organizers, we will take immediate action.” The need for such a statement that very obliquely shifted the blame away from Rat&Tat could perhaps be indicative of past incidents.
The Trans Café said they are currently focused on processing how the sexual violence occurred, and reflect on whether they bear any responsibility for it happening in the first place.
“It’s a bad time to close a trans* space right now. Nevertheless, the work we are currently undertaking is essential to making such a space safe. Unfortunately, we cannot tell you whether a trans* space will reopen, and if so, in what form,” they added. “In general, building solid awareness structures takes a very long time, and we are aware that the need for a genderqueer space is very high.”
The Rat & Tat Centre itself, having hosted the café for many years, receives most of its funding from the city-state government of Bremen, the smallest regional government in Germany. According to documents from the Bremen government, the Rat & Tat Centre received €446,470 a year directly from the German taxpayer in 2024 and 2025, an increase of €85,000 from the previous two years. The center also provides free support and counseling to “LGTBIQ* refugees,” which in 2022 and 2023, cost the people of Bremen €60,000 a year.
The German federal government supports a similar program, via their funding vehicle “Democracy Live.” In August 2024, the center was even the beneficiary of €5,000 from a German pastor, who was forced to hand over the cash by the Bremen Regional Court after he was found guilty of “incitement of hate against a people group,” for calling homosexuality “degenerative” and “demonic” in a 2020 sermon.
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