The government will protect the rights of the LGBTQ+ community with the Constitution, conservatives oppose

Hundreds of thousands of people protested in July in Berlin at the "Christopher Street Day" demonstration for the recognition of the rights of LGBTQ+ people. This abbreviation includes lesbians, homosexuals, "queer" people, but also those with other sexual identities, such as intersexuals, asexuals, people with double gender, bigender, or non-gender, who identify with a third gender.

Wanja Kiber is one of them, originally from Kazakhstan. He told DW his story: "We came to Germany and here I quickly revealed my sexual orientation. The parents' first reaction was to take sedatives, shut up, cry and not talk about it. What was this feeling, not telling anyone, not being yourself? Feeling like a criminal, pretending to be sick? Not to exist."

Christopher-Street-Day wants to change the constitutional law

But now my father is proud of me and commits to the rights of the LGBTQ+ community, continues Wanja Kiber. Wanja's story has a happy ending, but not everyone has the patience and luck of Wanja. Therefore, one of the main demands of Christopher-Street-Day was to include in the basic law the prohibition of discrimination due to sexual orientation. The basic law is the German constitution.

Herbert Grönemeyer, the famous German pop singer, said in his speech at the LGBTQ+ demonstration, that the basic law should be supplemented with the appendix: "no one should be discriminated against because of their gender and sexual identity." For this, patience and courage are needed, the singer appealed to the people.

Constitutional change with a two-thirds majority

 

Until now, Article 3 of the constitution states that "no one should be discriminated against or favored because of gender, origin, race, language, homeland and origin, religious belief, religious or political views". The problem is that a two-thirds majority is required in both the Bundestag and the Bundesrat, the representative body of the states, to change the Basic Law. However, Germany's three governing parties do not together hold two-thirds of the seats in parliament. 

They need the approval of the largest opposition parties, the conservative CDU and CSU. But these two parties do not approve of this, as they consider the mention of gender in the current Article 3 to be sufficient. And above all, they want to prevent the expression "sexual identity" there. Quite a few observers think that the conservatives do not want to impose this term on their more conservative electorate.

Thorsten Frei, the executive leader of the Bundestag parliamentary group, told the editorial network, "Germany", that "very special reasons are needed to change the basic law, that is, the heart of the constitution. But I don't see any reason for changing the basic law, because the protection against sexual orientation discrimination is elaborated in the meantime in article 2 of the constitution."

The social democratic politician Dirk Wiese counters: "Unfortunately, the CDU/CSU parliamentary group has rejected talks on this. Therefore, it is to be welcomed that some CDU politicians in the states take a different position." It is about the Berlin politician, the mayor of the German capital, Kai Wegner, CDU. The state government, the Berlin Senate started in 2023 an initiative to change Article 3 of the constitution. Even conservative politician Wegner said a year ago that "we want to change Article 3 of the Basic Law. Sexual identity should be entered there. That is my promise.” But so far this promise has not been fulfilled.

After the rejection by the CDU, some representatives from the coalition said that changing the basic law would be a signal for acceptance in society. The liberal deputy, Konstantin Kuhl, FDP said for the German editorial network that "this would be an important signal for acceptability in society and politics. Changing the constitution at this point is even overdue."

Homosexuals in Germany were discriminated against until 1994

The Association of Lesbians and Homosexuals in Germany (LSVD) recalls that such a change would put an end to discrimination against homosexuals and bisexuals in post-war Germany.

 When the Basic Law was established in 1949, homosexuals and bisexuals as victims of National Socialism were not included there. For this reason too, homosexuals were persecuted for many years after, based on paragraph 175 of the penal code, which was repealed in 1994.

There have been many improvements in the world regarding the rights of the LGBTQ+ community. But not everywhere. in Europe, marriage for all is approved in 22 countries, outside Europe in 16 countries. 

In Germany, same-sex marriages can take place since October 1, 2017, after a heated debate of several years. By itself, in 20 countries in the world there are laws of self-determination of gender recognition. But the reality is that in a quarter of the countries in the world, the rights of LGBTQ+ people are discriminated against by law./dw