I thought I’d found a place to be my true self. That illusion has been suddenly ripped away

July 28, 2026 — 7:00pm

You have reached your maximum number of saved items.

Remove items from your saved list to add more.

On Saturday, a man drove a van into a crowd at Tiergarten park in my home city of Berlin during its annual Pride celebrations, killing a woman and injuring 29 others. The Islamic State-linked attack was a devastating shock to me, my loved ones and to this entire open-minded city. From the first time I visited Berlin in the summer of 2017, it felt like a place that embodied the meaning of Pride: to simply be as you are, and to do what you want with who you choose.

Being queer isn’t always easy, as I was reminded soon after I moved here from Melbourne to be with my fiance. That realisation came via a message from a closeted 22-year-old Serbian on Instagram. He said he knew it was random, but he’d been imagining a visit to Berlin and said he was loving the updates of my “exciting life”.

Compared to some messages that I get on Instagram, this one was refreshingly quirky and wholesome. What really caught my attention was his “daydreaming about Berlin”. I myself had been doing this since I was 19, and was just coming to terms with how lucky I was to finally be here.

Oskar........

© Brisbane Times