After being recognized as an official party organization of the CDU Germany, the Federal Association of Lesbians and Gays in the Union (LSU) called for a more determined approach against LSBTIQ-hostile violence at its annual federal general meeting, which took place from November 5 to 6 in Saarbrücken. With the resolution of the motion "Saarbrücken Offensive against LSBTIQ-hostile Violence," submitted by LSU Saar, the federal association aims to draw attention to the severe events of this late summer, foremost the fatal transphobic attack on Malte C., who stood protectively in front of several participants at the CSD in Münster at the end of August when they were attacked by an unknown assailant. The case caused nationwide shock, both among politicians and many citizens. Even shortly after Malte C.'s death, LSBTIQ-hostile incidents continued to occur, for example in Bremen, Frankfurt am Main, and at the CSD in Dresden. However, these are not isolated cases; official figures are also rising, as shown by the joint report from the Federal Ministry of the Interior and the Federal Criminal Police Office for 2021. For the first time, more than a thousand crimes were recorded in one year targeting people's sexual orientation or gender/sexual identity. Compared to the previous year, the number of these crimes increased by over 34 percent.
LSU federal chairman Alexander Vogt and the state chairman of LSU Saar Thomas W. Schmitt jointly declare: "All these incidents show that open rejection, intolerance, discrimination, and violence against LSBTIQ still exist in 2022 and that we are by no means living in a society that accepts all people as they are. Therefore, we must not simply return to business as usual as in the past. These acts must have consequences. As LSU, we therefore demand an offensive against LSBTIQ-hostile violence and have outlined very concrete points that politics must now tackle. We are also forming an internal expert committee within the association, which, under the leadership of Julia Rost, a police officer and member of the LSU federal board, will intensively deal with the issue of LSBTIQ-hostile violence and develop and implement concrete ideas, positions, and actions in line with the demands associated with the Saarbrücken offensive against LSBTIQ-hostile violence."
In addition to intensifying anti-discrimination efforts, especially in schools and youth work, as well as implementing measures in the areas of law enforcement and violence protection—many of which are reflected in various state action plans for diversity and acceptance—the LSU aims to achieve more precise recording of LSBTIQ-hostile crimes in the criminal statistics of the federal states in the near future. An optimization of the recording system and low-threshold measures to increase the willingness of victims to report incidents are necessary. Furthermore, the LSU wants to establish contact persons or commissioners for LSBTIQ concerns within every state police force, the judiciary, and public prosecutors' offices as soon as possible, and to strengthen those already in place in their roles. Although this is already being implemented in some federal states, the intensity varies. LSU federal chairman Alexander Vogt adds in conclusion: "We must finally enshrine special protection against discrimination based on sexual identity in the Basic Law and use the resulting signal effect to sustainably strengthen societal awareness for the acceptance of LSBTIQ people."
At the federal general meeting, a new LGBTQI-political basic program was also adopted. After a several-month member participation process, the LSU federal association has programmatically repositioned itself under the title "Strong through Diversity" and set priorities in the areas of family, health, and social policy as well as on the legal situation of people with transgender identities. Vogt and Schmitt emphasize: "Strong through Diversity is our claim for a strong people's party CDU, whose goal must be to represent the entire societal breadth and diversity and to advocate for the interests of all people."
