How an LGBTQ+ cafe's neon sign became a beacon for hate in Berlin

BERLIN (AP) — A neon sign inside the Das Hoven cafe in a trendy Berlin neighborhood proudly proclaims “QUEER AND FRIENDS.”

The sign was intended to show the cafe is a safe space for LGBTQ+ people. But it has also become a beacon for hate and homophobic attacks.

Owner Danjel Zarte said there are 45 pending criminal investigations related to the cafe over the past year and a half, ranging from verbal and physical attacks on patrons and workers to windows being broken or covered in feces and Nazi graffiti. One person even stood outside the cafe with a gun.

“An act of terror,” Zarte said. "I sometimes have panic attacks in the morning and am afraid to look at my cell phone because I’m afraid that something has happened again.”

Attacks against LGBTQ+ people and gay-friendly establishments are rising across Germany, including in Berlin, a city that has historically embraced the community, members of which often use the word queer to describe themselves.

Last year saw a 40% increase in violence targeting LGBTQ+ people in 12 of Germany's 16 federal states as compared to 2023, according to the Association of Counseling Centers for Victims of Right-Wing, Racist and Antisemitic Violence.

Activists say those figures only show a fraction of the problem's scope because victims are often afraid to come forward. They partly blame the rise of the far-right across Europe, including in Germany where the Alternative for Germany party made significant gains in the February election.

Hostility toward LGBTQ+ people serves as a “rallying cry” for believers in right-wing extremism, according to Judith Porath, the association's managing director. Experts have seen an increase in demonstrations and violence among neo-Nazis, most of whom are young men.

Bastian Finke, the head of MANEO, an organization tracking anti-gay violence in the capital city, said those who are openly queer on Berlin’s roads “automatically run a very, very high risk simply because of who they are. To be attacked, to be insulted, to be spat on. We have these scenarios every day.”

The fear was palpable at Saturday's Christopher Street Day parade in Berlin. The annual Pride event commemorates the 1969 Stonewall rebellion in New York City, when a spontaneous street uprising was triggered by a police raid on the Stonewall Inn gay bar on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village.

“The mood is actually tense: People are afraid, they are unsettled," Thomas Hoffmann, a member of the event's executive board, said Saturday.

Hundreds of thousands of people showed up for the celebration, dancing to techno beats as they marched to the iconic Brandenburg Gate.

"That is really a powerful, wonderful sign for more equality,” Hoffmann added.

Hoffmann and others have long wanted German lawmakers to amend the constitution to explicitly include the legal protection of LGBTQ+ people from discrimination based on gender identity. But that looks unlikely to become a political priority.

For Zarte, the stress of hate crimes and politics is nonstop, except during the Christopher Street Day parade, which always brings him to tears.

"It is very moving to feel completely accepted once a year," he said.

Pietro De Cristofaro in Berlin contributed to this report.

Exterior view of the 'Das Hoven' cafe with a neon sign reading 'Queer And Friends' in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, July 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Fanny Brodersen)

Interior view of the 'Das Hoven' cafe with a neon sign reading 'Queer And Friends' in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, July 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Fanny Brodersen)

Exterior view of the 'Das Hoven' cafe in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, July 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Fanny Brodersen)

Participants in the Internationalist Queer Pride for Liberation demonstration face police officers in Berlin, on Saturday, July 26, 2025. (Michael Ukas/dpa via AP)

Two men embrace during Christopher Street Day at Berlin Pride on Saturday, July 26, 2025, in Berlin, Germany. (Carsten Koall/dpa via AP)

People attend the LGBTQ annual pride march in Berlin, Germany, Saturday, July 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

People dance as they take part in the LGBTQ annual pride march in Berlin, Germany, Saturday, July 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. forces in the Caribbean Sea have seized another sanctioned oil tanker the Trump administration says has ties to Venezuela, coming as part of a broader U.S. effort to take control of the South American country’s oil.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote Thursday on social media, “Motor Tanker Veronica had previously passed through Venezuelan waters, and was operating in defiance of President Trump’s established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean.”

A social media post from U.S. Southern Command on the capture said that Marines and sailors launched from the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford to make the capture while Noem’s post noted that, like in previous raids, a U.S. Coast Guard tactical team conducted the boarding and seizure.

Noem posted a brief video that appeared to show part of the ship’s capture. The black-and-white footage showed helicopters hovering over the deck of a merchant vessel while armed troops dropped down on the deck by rope.

The Veronica is the sixth tanker that has been seized by U.S. forces as part of the effort by President Donald Trump’s administration to control the production, refining and global distribution of Venezuela’s oil products, and the fourth since the U.S. ouster of Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro in a surprise nighttime raid almost two weeks ago.

Noem, in her social media post, said that the raid was carried out with “close coordination with our colleagues” in the military as well as the State and Justice departments.

“Our heroic Coast Guard men and women once again ensured a flawlessly executed operation, in accordance with international law,” Noem added.

This story has been corrected to show the Veronica is the fourth, not the third, tanker seized by U.S. forces since Maduro's capture.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks during a press conference, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks at a news conference at Harry Reid International Airport, Nov. 22, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Ronda Churchill, File)