“Questions about masturbation”: Sven Lehmann: Trans law will be abolished

“Questions About Masturbation”
Sven Lehmann: Trans law will be abolished

Transgender people in Germany have to go through lengthy procedures in order to be allowed to change their civil status in their passport. The fact that the dusty transsexual law needs to be reformed has been discussed for years. Now the queer officer wants to create facts.

The federal government’s new Queer Commissioner, Sven Lehmann, has pledged to abolish the controversial Transsexuals Act (TSG) by the end of the legislative period. “The transsexual law has been in existence for over 40 years. And for over 40 years it has violated human dignity because it is based on the assumption that transgenderness is a disease,” said the Green politician in an interview with ntv.de. “The World Health Organization also said this very clearly a few years ago: Transgenderity is a completely natural variant of sexual development.”

According to Lehmann, the TSG, which was passed in 1980, is discriminatory and has in part been classified as unconstitutional by the Federal Constitutional Court. Among other things, it allows trans people to adopt new first names and change their marital status, for example, from male to female or diverse. For years there have been discussions about reform or even abolition. Previous attempts by the FDP and the Greens in the Bundestag to bury the TSG in its current version have so far failed due to the resistance of the governing parties. Since the 2021 federal election, however, the traffic light parties SPD, Greens and FDP have had a majority.

If people discover at some point in their lives that they are transgender, the TSG forces them to to submit two psychiatric reports in order to be allowed to change their marital status in the passport, explains Lehmann. These procedures are not only very lengthy and expensive, but above all very degrading. “There are questions about how you masturbate, what type of underwear you wear, really intimate questions.” The coalition is therefore planning to abolish the procedure. “We want the question of civil status in identity documents to be able to be answered in a self-determined manner and that no psychiatric reports are required for this.”

The level of suffering in those affected is high

A corresponding regulation on self-determination was agreed in the coalition agreement. “That means we can promise that this law will pass in this legislative period. Finally, after more than 40 years!” said Lehmann. “However, passing a law doesn’t happen overnight, of course.” However, this topic has a high priority because there is a high level of suffering among the people affected. “I can’t yet say exactly when it will start. But I can promise that we will abolish the transsexual law in this legislative period.”

Sven Lehmann has been a member of the Bundestag for the Greens since 2017. In the September 2021 election, the 42-year-old won the direct mandate in his Cologne constituency. In January it became known that the Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Minister for Family Affairs was the new Federal Government Commissioner for the Acceptance of Sexual and Gender Diversity, or Queer Commissioner for short.

Read the entire interview with Sven Lehmann on Saturday on ntv.de.

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