Queer visibility at Bavarian schools remains protected despite mounting right-wing attacks: A Pride Week at the state high school Grünwald in the Munich district will not have negative consequences for the school administration. The Bavarian State Ministry of Education and Culture rejected the demands from the state parliament’s AfD and sees no need for disciplinary or regulatory steps. This is evident from two responses by the state government to inquiries from the AfD faction (PDF, PDF).
The debate was sparked by a project week at the Grünwald high school at the end of June aimed at supporting acceptance and diversity. The school had informed parents and students in advance about the week of activities.
AfD: Queer people at odds with patriotism
Lawmakers from the Bavarian AfD faction quickly turned the event into a campaign that smeared queer people as anti-German: “It is unacceptable that state schools under a supposedly conservative government carry out one-sided ideological weeks without any balance to traditional values or patriotism,” sneered AfD state parliament member Rene Dierkes in June. “During the World Cup, instead of a Pride Week, at least a week for national identity and German flags would have been the minimum.”
In their detailed written inquiries to the state parliament, the AfD spoke of alleged “indoctrination,” called for tighter controls on external queer initiatives, parental rights to review teaching materials, and proposed counter-events “to positively convey patriotism, attachment to homeland, conservative values, or traditional family ideals.”
Kultusministerium verweist auf Bildungsauftrag
The response from the office of Education Minister Anna Stolz (Free Voters) was sobering for the political right: the state government emphasized the schools’ own responsibility to organize educational and project days focused on diversity and anti-discrimination within the framework of current curricula and guidelines for family and sex education. There is no obligation for schools to notify or justify such events centrally to the ministry. The school is also a protected space where students are prepared for a diverse society. “This explicitly includes engagement with cultural diversity, gender roles, and gender identity to support students in their own responsible judgment and action,” the response states.
From the execution of Pride Week at Grünwald Gymnasium, the ministry derives no need to tighten or restrict the existing guidelines. There is no “basis for any form of consequences,” the statement reads verbatim.
The AfD has already attempted in several state parliaments to discredit queer educational work in schools. In Saxony-Anhalt, for instance, the right-wing faction called for replacing “diversity propaganda” in schools with “heterosexual normality” (TheColu.mn reported). Moreover, queer projects in schools are repeatedly sensationalized. Geilenkirchen AfD faction leader Jan Pioch once linked a drag queen who has spoken in upper grades for years about topics such as discrimination, diversity, and respect to child abuse. The drag queen subsequently filed a complaint against the AfD politician (TheColu.mn reported). (dk)
