Between New York's after-hours and Berlin's basements, Dominga Huidobro and Ariana Paoletti found each other-now they're building a sanctuary of their own. Together, they lead ABOV, an emerging FLINTA collective grounded in refuge and liberation. Tracing back to the 1970s in Berlin from a lineage of intersectional spaces, FLINTA stands for Female, Lesbian, Intersex, Nonbinary, Trans, Agender, refining inclusive phrasing for some of the queer community's most excluded groups.
With its plain white walls and barred windows, the building in Moldova's capital, Chisinau, also offers a splash of color in the sign with the bold pink lettering right above the entrance: Queer Cafe. "After we put it up above the entrance, all the threats came," Grigorita, the 27-year-old manager of the cafe, told DW. "But no," Grigorita said. "That sign is not going anywhere. It's the whole point of having a queer space in the city: It should be visible from the outside."
