Status: 08/30/2022 3:40 p.m
The federal government’s queer commissioner has presented a plan against queer hostility. Among other things, it deals with bans on discrimination, projects in schools – and a committee for gender-fair language.
The federal government wants to take extensive measures against queer hostility. The Federal Government Commissioner for Queers, Sven Lehmann, sent the draft for a “National Action Plan for the Acceptance and Protection of Sexual and Gender Diversity” to government associations and ministries for further approval.
Recognition, participation, security
In the paper, which is available to the dpa news agency, the various traffic light projects on the subject are summarized and suggestions made for implementation. This involves, for example, legal recognition, participation and security.
In the coalition agreement, the Ampel parties had stated that they would develop such an action plan. According to dpa information, it should be decided this year. A prioritization and implementation of the measures should then take place.
Call for a ban on discrimination based on sexual identity
According to the coalition agreement, the traffic light wants to add a ban on discrimination based on sexual identity to the equal treatment article in the Basic Law. The draft of the action plan proposes that the government seek a “dialogue with the Bundestag and the federal states about a corresponding draft law”, because a two-thirds majority in the Bundestag and Bundesrat is required to change the Basic Law.
According to the draft, security authorities should record hate crimes based on gender or against queer people separately in the future. Projects against sexism and queer hostility are to be promoted in schools and in sports. There are also plans for a regulation to cover the costs of artificial insemination if you want to have children, including for unmarried and same-sex couples. In the case of “gender-equitable language” the “establishment of a body to formulate recommendations for the public service” is proposed.
“Come far, but not nearly far enough,” says the federal government’s first queer commissioner, Sven Lehmann of the Greens.
Image: AFP
Lehmann: Are not far enough
“We’ve come a long way in terms of equality and acceptance, but still not far enough,” Lehmann told dpa. The plan of action is intended to decisively counteract queer hostility. “The action plan becomes the agenda for a politics of respect.”
Non-heterosexual people or those who do not identify with the traditional role model of men and women or other social norms relating to gender and sexuality describe themselves as queer.