The CSD movement in Leipzig is political.
A huge number of events and the protest march through the city centre focus on the current societal situation of intergender and asexual people, transgender people as well as gay and bisexual people. But the CSD association also gives a voice to people who don’t feel like they belong to any of those categories. The artistic, scientific, health political, critical and international discourse about topics of diverse living and identity concepts are focus points of the CSD Leipzig. The political content is more important than the entertainment factor. Social injustices are dealt with during events and change is demanded from political decision makers. It is hereby important to us that we always monitor and reflect our own work and, for example, do not serve as a commercial platform for big companies. The CSD Leipzig has the goal to make unfairness transparent and deconstruct it. In order to gain an equal togetherness of all people it is necessary to review and ask questions about societal, social, structural and political power balances. Another goal of the CSD Leipzig is to support local self-help structures. The public has to be made aware of the meaning of this important and essential work. We will use any kind of democratic and peaceful form of political influence in order to sustainably put our needs and goals into practice.
Fifteen years ago, the German Bundestag (parliament) decided to pass the Lebenspartnerschaftsgesetz (Civil Partnership Act) to end the discrimination of same sex relationships. But the lawful equality with marriage was hard-won step by step against fierce political resistance. Fifteen years were needed by committed lawyers to enforce the lawful right to equality in survivor’s pension, the inheritance tax, the income tax and other laws.
And still, gay people, transgender and intergender people face inequalities and violation of their personal rights by public authorities, organisations or medical institutions. Unfortunately, there are still many reasons to take to the streets and protest for the CSD movement.
The dignity of men is unimpeachable. Every person shall have the right to free development of his personality insofar as he does not violate the rights of others. Every person shall have the right to life and physical integrity. Freedom of the person shall be inviolable. All persons shall be equal before the law.
We demand that every human being, homo-bi-trans-inter-gay-hetero, can walk freely in Leipzig and anywhere else. Nobody should have to be scared of physical, psychological, verbal or structural violence!
This is what the constitution says, but reality often looks more like this:
The fulfillment of the wish for a child by same sex partners via insemination or in-vitro-fertilization is refused by the directive of the Bundes- und Landesärztekammer (German Medical Association), in contrast to married couples, with the reasoning that there is no positive right to non-marital reproduction. In view of the child, it is out of the question to fulfill this wish of a single woman or same sex couples; semen donation is seen as a form of therapy to cure sterility of a marriage, it says there.
Without a lawful basis, gay couples are excluded when it comes to access to reproductive medical treatments. The costs for artificial insemination have to be paid entirely by the couple. The Free State of Saxony is the first and only state in Germany that supports artificial insemination of same sex couples financially (Married couples who want to meet their desire to have children via artificial insemination only have to pay the fee for the first therapy session. For the second and third session they get a subsidy of 900 EUR each. The fourth session is even subsidised with a sum of up to 1600 to 1800 EUR).
Children who are born into a civil partnership basically only have one mother. The registered life partner can only gain the parental status lawfully through a stepchild adoption. In married couples there is no need for an adoption for the father, even if the child came to life via a semen donation or reproductive medical treatments. Children who are born into a rainbow family sometimes have two mothers and one father or two fathers looking after them. It has to be possible in our pluralistic society to also lawfully provide legal security of social parenthood.
Therefore we call for the equality of civil partnerships and married partnerships in adoption law and in personal status law and the full acceptance of rainbow families as well as legal custody for more than one person.
Almost all forms of society in the world show structures that can be considered as “heteronormative”. Heteronormativity, which means the unquestioned acceptance of a system that is considered as naturally consisting of a man and a woman who attract each other and exclusively each other, leads to far-reaching exclusions for all those, who do not fit into this system; Homosexuality and bisexuality as a different form of attraction are both equally marginalised, which means they are considered and sanctioned as a deviation from the norm, like transgender and intergender as other forms of sexuality. The resulting heterosexism is an unbearable situation.
Heteronormativity has to be deconstructed and overcome! The equality and emancipation of all forms of life, love and family as well as all sexualities should be the overall goal. With the equation of the civil partnership with marriage the aim will not be achieved. In fact, it is about implementing further extensions, which means to create a legal status that is open to all humans and therefore does not deprive for example polyamorous relationships of this status. Furthermore, we are urging the elimination of the so-called Ehegattensplitting, a provision in German tax law that favours
families with one high earner by splitting the combined income across the spouses for purposes of calculating income. Instead, we want the implementation of Familiensplitting, because family is happening where people take responsibility for children and each other.
We claim the recognition of and a respectful approach to gender and orientation beyond heteronormativity.
Lack of knowledge and biased conceptions about lesbians, intergender people, gays, bisexuals and transgender people are a significant driving force for discrimination and even violent crimes. These can only be combated by claiming more than just structural changes like legal equalization. Most importantly, attitudes have to be changed, which can be achieved, amongst others, via extensive education and anti-discrimination work. In science and research the topic of “sexual identities” is almost ignored. A modern, undeceived and realistic sex education is neither available to students at universities in Saxony nor are they reflected in the curricula of schools or pre- schools in Saxony.
We therefore demand that gender and sex education is given greater consideration in university and education policy!
Intersex, meaning the existence of physical characteristics of both sexes as well as an inconclusive sex, is considered by medical science as “disorders of sex development” (DSD) and often “treated” without the medical necessity to do so. Intersex people too deserve the right to bodily integrity, therefore it is unacceptable that legislature is anticipating a legal classification of the sexes “man” or “woman”. German jurisdiction has to accept the existence of intersex citizens.
The mongering of intersex and as a consequence thereof the enforcement of the two-gender system entails that children who are born with inconclusive genitals often have to undergo sex reassignment surgery shortly after birth (f.e. castration, clitoris minimization, creation of a neovagina), which in many cases involves complications and lifelong hormone therapy. Many of those affected describe this as traumatising afterwards.
We demand a legal prohibition of medical surgeries as well as the immediate abolition of the common medical practice on intersex people.
Furthermore, we claim extensive and neutral education for intersex people and their legal guardians and the recognition of intersex as a natural variety of gender and, accordingly, an appropriate and official gender term.
Transgender have to have the right to live life on their own terms – in their identity, the elaboration of their gender role as well as their choice of partner. Until recently, transgender people had to prove that they are not married, are permanently able of reproduction and have undergone an operation adapting their primary sexual characteristics, which resulted in an obvious approximation to the appearance of the other sex, in order to get judicial assessment of their change of gender. The surgery, according to the law, is supposed to prove the “seriousness and endurance” of the trans identity. The Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe has declared this enforcement inconsistent with human dignity and the right to physical integrity and therefore quashed the transsexual law. Even so, transgender people are often denied the wished-for hormone therapy or surgeries – especially at a young age – or these are only made possible by going through a long legal and psychopathological process. This is contrary to surgeries, which are conducted as a matter of course it seems and usually without their consent. Also, the every-day discrimination they have to face is massive.
Therefore, we claim the equation and full social acceptance of gender-related and sexual identities and corporealities like intersex and trans identity.
We demand a new definition of the statutory requirements for a change of gender in the official register.
Lesbian and gay people are prosecuted in 80 states worldwide, whereby especially transgender people are prone to be exposed to massive attacks – even torture and homicide. Persecutor states are since long preventing that this unbearable situation serves as a reason for asylum on a UN level. Due to this, we demand the recognition of the persecution due to sexual orientation or identity as a reason to seek refuge and immigration regulations for legal partners.
We request, for the people who describe themselves as asexual, the creation of social visibility and political representation of their interests. We demand that the diversity of sexual identities can be lived free of discrimination, also at an older age.
Especially in nursing homes the respectful handling of this should go without saying.
We demand the concrete formulation of the amendment of § 46 of the German Penal Code (StGB).
In this amendment, “racist, xenophobic or otherwise inhuman” intentions of the offender are especially highlighted as a reason for sentencing in the sentencing determination law of the article. We appreciate the amendment by itself, but we think it is insufficient. If the wording “other inhuman” motives, interphobic, homophobic and/or transphobic acts of violence will stay invisible. They have to be enumerated.
In conclusion:
We demand that the problems specified here are understood as problems of society as a whole!
This means that segregating or discriminating behavior is not a problem of individuals or societal subgroups but something that can be found in all milieus and that pervades society in a structural way!
Homo-, bi-, trans- and inter-phobia can also not be treated as something that is detached from other inequalities or even be changed! We also criticise further societal power structures that become manifest in sexism, racism, classism, discrimination due to appearance and hostility against people with disabilities! Emancipation of a group cannot and must not happen at the expense of others!