The Checkpoint on Mainzer Straße is the office and drop-in centre of the Saarland state association for queer people, and the first address in the region for advice.
Counselling covers coming out and experiences of discrimination and violence, and it is open to lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex people, to their relatives, and to professionals who need to ask something. Appointments can be made by mail or through an online platform.
A set of regular groups meets around it: Come Together as the general get-together, a youth group called Qwir, a trans group, a FLINTA group, one for gay and bisexual fathers and husbands, one for queer people getting older, and Strangers are Friends. There is also a walking group that meets out in the countryside rather than in the city.
The association organises CSD SaarLorLux, the cross-border Pride that fills Saarbrücken city centre and draws people from the German, French and Luxembourgish corners of the region. For a visitor the Checkpoint is less a night out than a way in, which matters in a state with few fixed queer venues left.
The people in this picture are AI-generated.
