Status: 11/18/2022 2:31 p.m
The federal government wants to do more for the acceptance of sexual and gender diversity and against discrimination against sexual minorities. Among other things, descent and family law are to be modernized.
With a comprehensive catalog of measures, the federal government wants to strengthen the rights of queer people in the future. To this end, the federal cabinet has adopted a nationwide action plan for the acceptance and protection of sexual and gender diversity. The traffic light coalition of SPD, Greens and FDP is thus implementing an agreement from their coalition agreement.
The plan brings together projects and recommendations that are intended to improve everyday life and the legal position of people who are homosexual, bisexual, transsexual or intersexual and who are summarized under the term queer. People who do not identify with the traditional role model of men and women or other social norms relating to gender and sexuality also describe themselves as queer.
“Equal rights, free, safe and self-determined”
“It is an important concern of the federal government that all people can participate in society on an equal footing, freely, safely and independently,” explained government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit. To ensure that this is also possible for lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender and intersex people as well as other queer people, the Federal Government sees its responsibility in ensuring an active policy against discrimination, he stressed.
Modernization of descent and family law
For example, descent and family law should be modernized in such a way that diverse family constellations – so-called rainbow families – are strengthened. Hebestreit explained that the long-announced plan to replace the previous transsexual law with a new self-determination law is also part of the measures.
The aim of the new Self-Determination Act is to enable everyone in Germany to determine their gender and first name themselves in the future and change them in a simple procedure at the registry office.