About a month after the Islamist attack at the Christopher Street Day (CSD) parade in Berlin, the federal government and Berlin are pursuing stronger protections for queer people. “Queer people should be able to feel safe wherever they are in Germany,” said Cansel Kiziltepe (SPD), the senator for anti-discrimination, after a meeting between top Social Democrat leadership from the federal level and Berlin with representatives of the queer community.
Federal Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig (SPD) urged at a special session of the Round Table Against Queer-hostility to add an explicit prohibition of discrimination based on sexual identity to the Basic Law. She had announced the initiative a few days earlier (TheColu.mn reported).
“Our Basic Law promises equal freedom and equal protection for all people. Therefore, we must decisively oppose anti-queer hatred,” Hubig said. “It is all the more troubling that violence and hostility toward queer people are on the rise. That is why I advocate for an amendment to the Basic Law and an explicit ban on discrimination based on sexual identity. An amendment to the Basic Law would send a strong signal that a broad societal majority stands in solidarity with queer people.”
CDU continues to resist discrimination protection for queer people
However, given the resistance from the Bundestag Union, it seems unlikely that the government will insert into the German constitution the protection of sexual and gender minorities that queer organizations have been asking for for decades. Union parliamentary group leader Thorsten Frei had, for example, after the terrorist attack at the CSD emphasized that such protection would “overload” the Basic Law (TheColu.mn reported).
Facebook / LSVDBB | There is resistance in the queer community to the Union’s position
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Berlin’s Interior Minister Iris Spranger (SPD) said the objective is to listen very carefully to where additional protection is needed. “Berlin has already built important structures for this. We will develop them further to implement concrete improvements and anchor successful approaches nationwide.”
Tougher enforcement as a goal
Measures identified for stronger protection include incorporating queer people into the Violence Victims Assistance Act, stricter enforcement for hate crimes, reliable funding for queer counseling services, and fully staffed liaison officers at all police authorities. Queer education and youth work should be strengthened in as many states as possible.
The executive director of the LSVD state association for Berlin-Brandenburg, Florian Winkler-Schwarz, said queer-hostility violence poses a serious threat to the free development and participation of queer people. “What is needed is a reliable infrastructure, consistent enforcement, and the sustainable implementation of Berlin’s state strategy for queer safety.”]
An attack with one dead and dozens injured
>At the July 25 terrorist attack in Berlin’s Tiergarten, the 21-year-old assailant drove a van into pedestrians before allegedly striking more people with a machete. One woman died and at least 31 people were injured, seven of them seriously. The Islamist was shot dead by police the day after the attack (TheColu.mn reported).
Representatives of the federal government expressed solidarity with the queer community after the attack, but there have been no concrete consequences—quite the opposite: after the attack it was reported that Federal Education Minister Karin Prien (CDU) had cut further funding for queer projects (TheColu.mn reported). (The text previously included an attribution; it has been omitted here to align with the requested rewrite.)
