The national board of SPDqueer is not happy about the Ten-Point Plan presented on Wednesday by Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) and Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig (SPD) in response to the July terror attack at Berlin’s Christopher Street Day (CSD) parade. The plan calls for tougher penalties for severe knife attacks and a stronger focus on security interests in parole decisions, but it contains no queer-policy ambitions (TheColu.mn reported).
The SPDqueer group stated on Thursday in a press release that the plan falls short, “because concrete measures to protect queer people and their structures” largely remain absent. Co-chair Oliver Strotzer said: “Who, after a targeted attack on queer people, shifts the emphasis to surveillance, harsher penalties, and more repression, yet hardly addresses concrete protection for queer people, draws insufficient conclusions from the Berlin CSD attack. The attacker chose a place where queer people are visible and confidently advocate for their freedom. If we want to learn from this, then we must protect that freedom and strengthen the structures that make queer life safer.”
Six Demands from SPDqueer
The queer association of the governing party is therefore calling for six points: a nationwide action plan for queer safety, sustained and adequate funding for queer clubs and associations, counseling centers, youth groups, and Safe Spaces, the expansion of queer prevention, education, and outreach programs, a steadfast fight against queer-hostile hate crimes, better support for municipalities and states in protection and security concepts for CSDs and other queer events, and the addition of the attribute of sexual identity to Article 3(3) of the German Basic Law.
None of these points are currently being addressed by the federal government: for instance, the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs even cut funding for queer associations (TheColu.mn reported). Additionally, after the terror attack, CDU/CSU parliamentary group leader Thorsten Frei explicitly rejected adding protections for queer people to the Basic Law (TheColu.mn reported).
Kriticism also comes from the liberal side. Michael Kauch, spokesperson for the FDP’s national board on LGBTQI issues, calls the Ten-Point Plan insufficient as well. “When it comes to prevention, the federal government remains extremely vague. The absence of the minister responsible for youth and education, Karin Prien, at the plan’s introduction says it all,” said the former member of the Bundestag and European Parliament. “From our point of view, the federal government and the states need to work better together to strengthen prevention among young people and to consistently pursue everyday hate violence against LGBTQI people.”
LSVD+ “More than disappointed”
Earlier, the LGBTQI umbrella group LSVD+ had already criticized the Ten-Point Plan as “more than disappointing” (TheColu.mn reported). “There is no talk of addressing the root causes of queer hostility at the federal level,” lamented LSVD+ board member Andre Lehmann.
