Gay rights in Germany

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For extensive information regarding historical legislation against homosexuality in Germany, see Paragraph 175.

In the last decade, Germany has become one of the most progressive European nations on the issue of gay rights. This change came despite Germany's long history of anti-gay legislation and persecution. Today, homosexuality is well tolerated, particularly in major cities such as Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne, Frankfurt, and Munich.

Contents 1 Laws against homosexuality 2 Military laws 3 Laws against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation 4 Recognition of same-sex relationships 5 Social acceptance of homosexuality 6 Political parties 7 East Germany (1949 - 1990) 8 References 9 See also 10 External links

[edit] Laws against homosexuality

There are currently no laws against same-sex sexual activity in Germany.

Male-male sexual activity was prosecuted under sodomy laws throughout Western Europe from the middle ages, and was made a crime nationally under Paragraph 175 in 1871, the year the federal German Empire was formed. The law was extended under Nazi rule, and convictions multiplied by a factor of ten to about 8,000 per year. Penalties were severe, and 5,000 - 15,000 suspected offenders were interred in concentration camps, where most of them died.

The Nazi additions were repealed in East Germany in 1950, but homosexual relations between men remained a crime until 1968. West Germany kept the more repressive version of the law, legalizing male homosexual activity one year after East Germany, in 1969. The age of consent was equalized in West Germany in 1989, and in East Germany upon the unification with West Germany in 1990; it is now 14 for female-female, male-male and female-male activity.

[edit] Military laws

Homosexuals are not banned from military service (conscripts and enlisted).

The Bundeswehr maintained a "glass ceiling" policy that effectively banned homosexuals from becoming officers until 2000. First Lieutenant Winfried Stecher, an army officer demoted for his homosexuality, had filed a lawsuit against former Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping. Scharping vowed to fight the claim in court, claiming that homosexuality "raises serious doubts about suitability and excludes employment in all functions pertaining to leadership." However, before the case went to trial, the Defense Ministry reversed the discriminatory policy. While the German government declined to issue an official explanation for the reversal, it is widely believed that Scharping was overruled by former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and former Vice-Chancellor Joschka Fischer.

[edit] Laws against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation

Some states have anti-discrimination laws, including the constitutions of Berlin (since 1995), Brandenburg (since 1992) and Thuringia (since 1993), and Saxony-Anhalt in the public sector since 1997. Germany is the first country in the world to include "gender identity" nationally in anti-discrimination laws. See [1]

As a signatory to the Treaty of Amsterdam, Germany was required to amend its national anti-discrimination laws to include, among others, sexual orientation. It failed to do so for six years, due to discussions about the scope of the proposed laws. Some of the proposals were debated because they actually surpassed the requirements of the Treaty of Amsterdam; the final version of the law, however, has been criticized as not fully complying with some parts of the Treaty, especially with respect to the specifications about the termination of work contracts through labor courts.^[2] The Federal Diet, or Bundestag, finally passed the Equal Treatment Act on 29 June, 2006. The Bundesrat (engl.: Federal Council) voted on it without discussion on 7 July, 2006. Having come into force on 18 August, 2006, the law bans discrimination in employment and certain services.

[edit] Recognition of same-sex relationships

There is legal recognition of same-sex couples. Registered life partnerships (effectively, a form of civil union) have been instituted since 2001, giving same-sex couples rights and obligations in areas such as inheritance, health insurance, immigration, name change and maintenance. In 2004, this act was amended to also give same-sex couples adoption rights (stepchild adoption only), as well as reform previously cumbersome dissolution procedures with regard to division of property and alimony.

Later that year, the Social-Democrats (SPD) and The Greens proposed allowing same-sex marriage.

[edit] Social acceptance of homosexuality

Homosexuality is widely accepted in Germany. Public opinion showed great support for same sex marriage in 2003, with 65% agreeing with a law allowing same-sex marriage, and 57% agreeing with gay adoption. This represents an increase over the acceptance in May 1999, when only 54% favored gay marriage, with 37% opposed.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Political parties

As of August 2006, there are three prominent German politicians who are openly gay, namely Berlin's mayor Klaus Wowereit (from the socialdemocratic SPD, having outed himself with the now famous words "I am gay, and [being] that is a good thing"), Volker Beck (from the Green Party) and Guido Westerwelle, the head of the liberal FDP. In addition, Hamburg's mayor Ole von Beust (CDU) didn't deny anything but considered it private matter.

Gay rights legislation is generally supported by the center-left Social Democratic Party, with more support coming from the liberal Free Democratic Party, the Green Party and the Left Party. The Christian Democratic Union tend to oppose the expansion of gay rights in the area of marriage and family law, but in light of strong public support for gay rights, tend to put on a public image of supporting tolerance.

In the Bavarian city of Munich, the gay-rights party Rosa Liste (Pink List) is one of the governing parties (together with SPD and the Greens), a first in German history. Rosa Liste is also part of some local borough assemblies in the city. Munich is the third-largest city in Germany, capital of the Free State of Bavaria and among the four most important cities of Germany (along with the capital Berlin, the country's largest habour city Hamburg and Frankfurt, the country's financial centre). The government participation of Rosa Liste is generally seen as a good sign and landmark for gay rights by gay-rights activists.

[edit] East Germany (1949 - 1990)

Both East and West Germany inherited the anti-gay law Paragraph 175. Communist gay activist Rudolf Klimmer, modeling himself on Magnus Hirschfeld and his Scientific-Humanitarian Committee, campaigned to have the law repealed, but was unsuccessful. However, the law was reverted back to the version found in the 1925 criminal code, which was considerably milder than the version adopted in 1935 under Nazi rule. Meanwhile, West Germany kept the 1935 formulation of the law.

In the five years following the Uprising of 1953 in East Germany, the GDR government instituted a program of "moral reform" to build a solid foundation for the new socialist republic, in which masculinity and the traditional family were championed while homosexuality, seen to contravene "healthy mores of the working people", continued to be prosecuted under Paragraph 175. Same sex activity was "alternatively viewed as a remnant of bourgeois decadence, a sign of moral weakness, and a threat to the social and political health of the nation." ^[3]

In East Germany, Paragraph 175 ceased to be enforced in 1957 and remained on the books until 1968, with West Germany repealing it one year later. According to historian Heidi Minning, attempts by lesbians and gays in East Germany to establish a visible community were "thwarted at every turn by the G.D.R. government and SED party."^[4] She writes:

Police force was used on numerous occasions to break up or prevent public gay and lesbian events. Centralized censorship prevented the presentation of homosexuality in print and electronic media, as well as the import of such materials.

Ironically, the Protestant church provided more support than the state, allowing meeting spaces and printing facilities. The Protestant Church in the GDR supported fringe groups, such as gay rights groups and punks, throughout the 1980s.

Towards the end of the 1980s however, just before the collapse of the iron curtain, the East German government opened a state-owned gay disco in Berlin. On August 11, 1987 the East German Supreme Court affirmed that "homosexuality, just like heterosexuality, represents a variant of sexual behavior. Homosexual people do therefore not stand outside socialist society, and the civil rights are warranted to them exactly as to all other citizens."

In 1989 the German film titled "Coming Out" directed by Heiner Carow was exhibited on the night that the Berlin wall came down, and tells a story of a East German man coming to accept his own homosexuality, with much of it shot in the local gay bars. This was the first and only East German gay rights film.

Jürgen Lemke (often spelt "Jurgen Lemke" in the English-speaking world) is considered one of the most prominent East German gay rights activists and has published a book on the subject (Gay Voices from East Germany, English edition published in 1991). Lemke advocates the belief that the gay community was far more united in the GDR than it was in the West.

[edit] References

• ↑ German Wikipedia on the Equal Treatment Act (website version as of 6 November, 2006)
• ↑ Jennifer V. Evans. The moral state: Men, mining, and masculinity in the early GDR, German History, 23 (2005) 3, 355-370
• ↑ Heidi Minning. Who is the 'I' in "I love you"?: The negotiation of gay and lesbian identities in former East Berlin, Germany. Anthropology of East Europe Review, Volume 18, Number 2, Autumn, 2000

[edit] See also

• Civil unions in Germany
• LSVD
• Human rights in Germany

[edit] External links

• (German) LSVD (Lesben- und Schwulenverband in Deutschland), The Lesbian and Gay Federation of Germany (site in German).