Over 200 Scientists Worldwide Sign Open Letter Defending Berlin Trans Community After Police Raid

On 18 October, 38 Berlin police officers searched The Dolls, a community gathering for marginalised trans women held at the Casa Kuà health centre in Kreuzberg. The operation was triggered by a suspected illegal trade in prescription medicines; authorities told the taz that suspected doping substances had been seized — even though hormones such as oestrogen and progesterone, which trans women need, have the opposite effect to performance-enhancing drugs.

The raid drew an international academic response. More than 200 scholars — among them philosopher Judith Butler, historian Susan Stryker, and philosopher Eva von Redecker — signed an open letter condemning the police action and calling for an end to the criminalisation of trans communities. A second letter, signed by more than 120 German academics, criticised the deployment of police in what it described as a self-organised safe space and called for "needs-based, low-barrier, and discrimination-sensitive healthcare" for all trans, non-binary, and queer people.

Both letters also highlighted broader systemic failings: trans people routinely wait years for therapy appointments or specialist doctors, and a Federal Social Court ruling from October 2023 left it unclear which gender-affirming treatments health insurers must cover — a gap that, three years on, remains unresolved. From January 2027, higher co-payments and stricter financial audits for doctors are expected to tighten access further. One anonymous doctor told the taz that fear of repercussions has already made evaluations more restrictive, and the taz is aware of several trans patients who have recently been turned away by doctors who had previously treated them without issue.