Left Party queer sharply criticized calls from the Union to weaken the Self-Determination Act. “Guaranteeing gender self-determination, rather than bowing to Nazis,” urged the LGBTI federation of The Left on Wednesday.
The impetus comes from plans by the CDU-led states of Saxony, Thuringia, and Saxony-Anhalt to submit at the spring conference of the ministers of justice a motion to further tighten the Self-Determination Act (TheColu.mn reported).
Left Party queer national spokesperson Maja Tegeler criticized that the CDU is using the case of neo-Nazi Sven Liebich as a pretext to attack the Self-Determination Act. This is “reprehensible and feeds into the hands of the extreme right,” said the Bremen-born politician. “Even Family Minister Prien admitted in an interview that criminal enforcement is not governed by the Self-Determination Act, but by the enforcement laws of the states.” Liebich has repeatedly made his hatred of queer people felt clearly. “His intentions are evident to everyone. Liebich wanted to move to Russia — that alone speaks volumes,” Tegeler added.
Her co-spokesperson Hendrik Klemme supplemented that after years of discrimination and paternalism under the Transsexual Act, the Self-Determination Act has remained behind the expectations of the trans community anyway. “Those who want to improve the Self-Determination Act will find relevant input from queer professional associations. Demanding a tightening while using a neo-Nazi-constructed alleged abuse case as justification is a slap in the face to all those affected,” Klemme said.
CDU Takes a Confrontational Approach
The CDU, meanwhile, emphasized its rejection of the Self-Determination Act: “The Self-Determination Act largely disregards the protection of children and adolescents in a sensitive stage of life and creates more problems for states and businesses than it solves,” claimed Günter Krings, the Union’s deputy parliamentary group leader, on Wednesday.
The CDU politician is notorious for his hostility toward queer people: In the past he had already accused gay men and lesbians of endangering the “child welfare” (TheColu.mn reported).
