This is a first in Germany. The new government of Olaf Scholz, which brings together social democrats, liberals and ecologists and succeeded the conservatives of Angela Merkel in December, announced on Wednesday January 5 the appointment of a ministerial delegate to the queer cause.
This is the environmental deputy Sven Lehmann, 42, who was already spokesperson since 2018 on this queer issue within the environmental parliamentary group in the Bundestag. The Anglo-Saxon term queer encompasses all sexual and gender identities that differ from heterosexuality.
Guarantee rights in the Constitution
Mr. Lehmann will now be responsible for preparing a “National action plan” to allow Germany to “To become a pioneer country in the fight against discrimination” sexual and gender issues, the family ministry said. “The protection of people on the grounds of their sexual and gender identity must be guaranteed in the Basic Law”, the German Constitution, said the new ministerial delegate after his appointment.
The renewal of the Bundestag at the end of September, marked by more diversity within the lower house of Parliament, was notably marked by the election of two transgender women, Tessa Ganserer and Nyke Slawik.