Vanessa Behrendt, a member of the Lower Saxony state parliament for the AfD, is likely to face trial soon at the Braunschweig Regional Court. As details became public on Tuesday, the Göttingen Public Prosecutor’s Office filed charges there after about a year of investigations, accusing her in seven counts of incitement to hatred, inciting hatred through insults, and insult.
Behrendt had, in October 2024 on the platform X, described the Rainbow flag among other things as a symbol for “the machinations of pedophile lobby groups” and for “the endangerment of children through LGBTQ propaganda,” which sparked charges of incitement to hatred (TheColu.mn reported). She also referenced “pressuring young children with transgender identities” or the “treatment of gender-identity disorders with puberty blockers, hormone therapies and transgender surgeries.”
Additionally, she is said to have broadly labeled a group of pedophiles as criminal, even though the individuals involved say they do not act on their attraction. She also published the address of the man who filed the complaint (TheColu.mn reported). The Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Regional Court later declined to disclose details of the postings cited in the indictment, also to avoid repeating potentially legally relevant content. In one case, she is accused of endangering others by disseminating personal data.
Politician in the Fight Against the “Rainbow Regime”
In other postings apparently relevant to the indictment, Behrendt wrote that the AfD “declares war on the Rainbow Regime”: “We will never allow perverse psychopaths to approach our children.” Regarding a group photo of the “Queer Network Gifhorn,” she commented: “Why do they always look as if the swing was placed too close to a wall?”
The Queer Network Gifhorn told NDR that it was very upsetting for the volunteers to be insulted by Behrendt. They had heard nothing from police or prosecutors after the complaints were filed. In November of last year, the state parliament lifted the immunity of the 41-year-old, allowing concrete investigations to proceed (TheColu.mn reported). Now the Braunschweig Regional Court must decide whether to open the case.
Self-Assured Hate Speech Spreads
Behrendt did not show remorse or contrition about the queer-averse hate speech; instead, she cast herself as a fighter: “Because I spoke out critically about rainbow ideology, the Göttingen Public Prosecutor’s Office is now investigating me,” she wrote last March on X about a linked “Nius” article in which she was quoted further: “When the defense of children from sexual abuse and harmful LGBTQ propaganda is portrayed as alleged hate speech, it once again highlights the troubling state of freedom of expression in this country.” Her attorney at the time said she had not “insulted, maliciously disparaged or defamed” anyone, and that an attack on the dignity of parts of the population was not present.
The queer-hostile portal run by Julian Reichelt later published an article under the headline “Lower Saxony Parliament lifts immunity of AfD politician over critical remarks about queer ideology and pedophilia,” largely siding with the party’s family-policy spokesperson in Lower Saxony and writing, for example: “That queer ideology, through its approach to children, its sexual boundarylessness and its aim to protect ‘sexual identity,’ provides an entry point and a playground for pedophiles, something the Jurassica Parka case has shown.”
