The German federal government’s “rainbow portal” informs prepubescent young people about the possibilities of gender reassignment. The CDU in particular is upset – but the corresponding entry was created under Chancellor Merkel.
At a demonstration for “queer visibility” in Augsburg.
Not all excitement on social media spills over into the real world. Most waves of indignation peter out as quickly as they arise. It seems to be different in the case of the “rainbow portal” operated by the German Federal Ministry for Family Affairs. A user on Twitter referred to a guide for children offered there on how to prevent the development of sexual organs. With the help of “puberty blockers”, according to the “rainbow portal”, the little ones could gain time to “consider in peace: Which body suits me?”. The criticism of the ministry of the Green politician Lisa Paus has not wanted to end since then.
The portal, financed with tax money, sees itself as an “information source, database and knowledge network”. It was launched in the late phase of the grand coalition of CDU and SPD, in May 2019, by the Social Democratic Minister and current Governing Mayor of Berlin, Franziska Giffey.
At that time, the primary target group was identified by the abbreviation LSBTI*, today LSBTIQ is the acronym of choice. “Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people” became “lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans*, inter* and queer people”. The request has remained. The Family Ministry wants to provide information about gender diversity.
The feeling should determine the gender
Does the portal fulfill its self-imposed task? The doubts grow. The CDU member of the Bundestag, Marc Henrichmann, sees child welfare at risk if a government addresses prepubertal minors in this way and trivializes “medications that have a lifelong effect”.
Henrichmann’s party colleague, the former Minister of Agriculture Julia Klöckner, calls it “crazy” that the federal government recommends puberty blockers for “very young, insecure people”. Of course, the objected entry with the heading “Young and transgender” can be traced back to August 2020. At that time, the Chancellor was called Angela Merkel and belonged to the CDU.
After the public indignation, the Ministry of Family Affairs has reacted. A paragraph about “good doctors” was added beforehand, adding the note that children should ask a doctor “whether puberty blockers might help”. The thrust of the entry and the direct salutation have remained: “We have tips for you.” According to the “Rainbow Portal”, children around the age of ten are generally allowed to put their feelings above their biological characteristics: “Do you feel more comfortable as a girl? Or do you feel better as a boy?”
If you are “still very young” and cannot answer this question conclusively, there are medications available that “ensure that you don’t hit puberty”. And if your body “really doesn’t fit the feeling”, hormones can make you more male or female. Adults would have surgery to alter their private parts.
The family ministry disagrees
Puberty blockers, the use of which counts among the ministerial “tips”, are not without risk. They cause the blood level of sex hormones to drop. Anyone who even undergoes a gender reassignment can later experience this measure as a great liberation as well as a catastrophic failure. Recently, reports of people regretting their conversion have been piling up. Some psychiatrists see gender dysphoria in children and adolescents primarily as an “expression of failure in the challenges of puberty”.
A gender clinic in London recently had its license revoked after children were urged to convert. Also because of such excesses, the deputy chairwoman of the AfD, Mariana Harder-Kühnel, accuses the federal government of seducing children to “manipulation of their own bodies that is harmful to their health” and of motivating them “to downright rebel against their possibly protesting parents”.
The Ministry of Family Affairs insists in a statement that tips are not recommendations. Puberty blockers could only be prescribed “after careful medical indication based on scientific guidelines by specialists”. The federal government in no way recommends taking them. The article, which has been public for several years, provides information in “age-appropriate, easy-to-understand language on which questions affected children, young people and parents should seek advice”.
In the “rainbow portal” itself, however, the child is consistently addressed directly on the subject of “young and transgender”. For example, the question “Do I have to be either a boy or a girl?” receives the answer: «No, you don’t have to decide. Many people are not only male. And not only woman. You can be both.”