LGBT rights in Germany

"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.

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The Nazi additions were repealed in East Germany in 1950, but homosexual relations between men remained a crime until 1968.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 East Germany through a 1987 court ruling, with West Germany following suit in 1989; it is now 16 for female-female, male-male and female-male activity.

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.

Laws against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation

In the field of employment, discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity is illegal throughout Germany. The country was the first in the world to include "gender identity" nationally in anti-discrimination laws. [http://typo3.lsvd.de/fileadmin/pics/Dokumente/Homosexualitaet/World_legal_wrap_up_survey._November2006.pdf]

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.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.ref|German_WK The Federal Diet, or Bundestag, finally passed the Equal Treatment Act on 29 June 2006. The Bundesrat (Eng.: 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.

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, alimony, health insurance, immigration and name change. In 2004, this act was amended to also give registered 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. Registered partnerships do not enjoy the tax benefits of marriages.

The European Court of Justice has ruled that refusing a widow's pension to the same-sex partner of a deceased person is direct discrimination if the partnership was comparable to marriage. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7324824.stm EU backs gay man's pension rights] "BBC News" 1 April 2008 (accessed 13 July 2008)]

ocial acceptance of homosexuality

In a December 2006 poll conducted by the Angus-Reid Global Monitor, regarding social, economic, and political attitudes for member-states of the European Union; Germany ranked seventh at 52% of the population supporting same-sex marriage. 52% is higher than the European Union average of 44% supporting same-sex marriage. Also polled, with similar averages were Czech Republic tying Germany with 52% in support, and Austria with 49% in support. Under the current leadership in Germany; it is difficult to ascertain the future of this issue, even with a percentage above fifty percent in support. However, with a percentage of the population this high, it is recommended that German recognition of same-sex relationships be merged with the debates in other regions and countries section of the same-sex Marriage category. [ [http://angus-reid.com/polls/index.cfm/fuseaction/viewItemID/14203 Angus Reid Global Monitor ] ]

Political parties

As of August 2006, there are three prominent German politicians who are openly gay, namely Berlin's mayor Klaus Wowereit (from the Social Democratic Party, having outed himself with the famous words "I am gay, and that is a good thing"), Volker Beck (from the Green Party) and Guido Westerwelle, the head of the liberal Free Democratic Party. In addition, Hamburg's mayor Ole von Beust (Christian Democratic Union) didn't deny anything but considered it private matter.In July 2007, Minister of Education for Hesse, Karin Wolff, came out as a lesbian. [ [http://www.bild.t-online.de/BTO/news/2007/07/04/cdu-politikerin-liebe/karin-wolff-heilpraktikerin,geo=2089838.htm BILD-Online vom 4. Juli 2007] ]

Gay rights legislation is generally supported by the Social Democratic Party, with more support coming from the 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 five most important cities of Germany (along with the capital Berlin, the country's largest harbour city Hamburg, Cologne 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.

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."ref|Evans

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."ref|Minning 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 an 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.

References

*German Wikipedia on the Equal Treatment Act (website [http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Allgemeines_Gleichbehandlungsgesetz&oldid=23460200 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

See also

*Civil unions in Germany
*LSVD
*Human rights in Germany

External links

* [http://typo3.lsvd.de/ LSVD] (Lesben- und Schwulenverband in Deutschland), The Lesbian and Gay Federation of Germany (site in German).
* [http://www.queer.de] Queer.de News from Germany and the world about gay issues (site in German).