The Federal Association of Lesbians and Gays in the Union (LSU) increasingly questions the "Queer Political Awakening" announced by the traffic light coalition government a year ago: "A quarter of the legislative period is already over, and for many projects, only hesitant progress in implementation is visible so far. The initially self-formulated 'Queer Political Awakening' has so far been reflected less in actually implemented projects than in personnel decisions. As is well known, a Queer Commissioner was appointed just one day after the start of the traffic light government," the federal board of the LSU jointly emphasized.
From the LSU's perspective, the best example of the dilution of their own demands is the reform of legislation for people with transgender identities. The self-determination law aimed for by the traffic light coalition was only outlined at the end of June – seven months after the government took office – with a key points paper, only for it to be announced three months later and after a request by a Left Party member in the Bundestag in early October by the federal government's Queer Commissioner Sven Lehmann that the draft bill was currently being developed and that inter-ministerial coordination and stakeholder consultation should take place by the end of the year. The cabinet decision and parliamentary consideration of the law are expected to take several more months. As recently as March, the Queer Commissioner himself announced that by the end of the year, the forty-year-old Transsexual Act, introduced by a social-liberal coalition at the time, would be abolished and replaced by a self-determination law. The LSU criticizes that new timelines are constantly being named in the legislative reform and sees this as playing with the community’s expectations. "Those affected are helped the least when they face constant uncertainty about how to make decisions about their lives and their identity because they have to navigate between a law that will soon no longer be valid and one that is not yet in effect," LSU Federal Chairman Alexander Vogt sums up the increased insecurity experienced by many affected persons.
In other projects as well, the LSU notes that the initial enthusiasm over a "queer political upsurge" has soon given way to the realization that the self-proclaimed "progress coalition" is not making any major leaps. The new government's first actions initially revolved around positions. It not only appointed a queer commissioner but also controversially restructured the leadership of the Magnus Hirschfeld Federal Foundation. Alongside the Self-Determination Act, other major projects like the national action plan against LSBTIQ hostility are only gradually taking shape. At the Interior Ministers' Conference in December 2021, the ministers responsible for internal affairs and the senators of the federal states had already addressed prejudice-motivated hate crimes against LSBTIQ persons and tasked the Federal Ministry of the Interior with convening an independent expert commission for this purpose. This commission was to present an initial report with concrete recommendations for action by the autumn conference of 2022 at the latest, outlining how the fight against violence towards LSBTIQ people can be further improved. However, the convening of this expert commission took a long time to materialize. It was only on September 20, 2022, that the office of Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) invited to the inaugural meeting of this expert panel, convened under the working title "Combating homophobic and transphobic violence." The joint report by the Federal Ministry of the Interior and the Federal Criminal Police Office, published on May 10, 2022, had already shown that LSBTIQ-hostile crimes nationwide had reached a record high with at least 1,051 offenses—essentially an alarm signal that requires not only targeted but above all swift action.
"We are aware that the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine and the resulting energy crisis currently dominate political action in Germany and consolidate corresponding forces, but it is also noticeable that other desired projects of the coalition are being pushed forward with determination, while LGBTIQ political initiatives are rather being postponed. This creates the impression that the prioritization actually lies elsewhere and that the community is being kept waiting for results until shortly before the next federal election, so that reasons for re-election can then be presented to them," fears Alexander Vogt.
