by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – Lawmakers in Germany are divided over whether to amend the country’s post-Nazi era 1949 Constitution to specify that members of the LGBTQ community cannot be discriminated against on the grounds of their sexual orientation or identity, DW reports.
Persecuted by Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich National Socialism (Nazi) regime, homosexuals were the only group to then also be deliberately omitted from specific protections in the new post-WW2 Constitution, DW reports. Indeed, section 175 of the German Penal Code which the Nazi regime used to persecute homosexuals was only repealed in 1994.
In 2021, Germany’s governing coalition partners the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Greens, and the neoliberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) indicated their interest in amending Article 3 of the German constitution to include LGBTQ persons, DW reports.
Article 3 currently provides: “No person shall be favored or disfavored because of gender, parentage, race, language, homeland and origin, faith or religious or political opinions.” The provision does not specify that no one can be disfavored on the grounds of their sexual identity.
Supporters of an amendment continue to push for change but face an uphill struggle as the constitution requires a two-thirds majority in both the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament, and the Bundesrat, which represents the federal states, DW notes. A constitutional amendment requires the support of the country’s conservative parties (the Christian Democratic Union and Christian Social Union), which in this case are not inclined to give it.
“Changing the list of basic rights, in other words, the heart of our constitution, should only be done for very special reasons,” Thorsten Frei, parliamentary secretary for the CDU/CSU group in the Bundestag, told media outlet Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland. “But I also don’t see any reason to amend the constitution, since protection against discrimination on the basis of gender is already enshrined in article 3.”
Copyright 1999-2024 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
Latest Stories from Worthy News
Saudi Arabia has softened its position on Palestinian statehood, telling Washington that “a public commitment” from Israel to a two-state solution “could be enough” for the Gulf kingdom to normalize relations with the Jewish nation, according to Saudi and Western officials.
One may be forgiven for thinking twice about enjoying a coffee here. Yet a South Korean border observatory overseeing a quiet North Korean mountain village was precisely where the Starbucks coffee chain decided to open an outlet on Friday.
Syrian opposition groups have breached Syria’s second-largest city, Aleppo, after blowing up two car bombs and fighting with government forces on Friday in clashes that have killed some 200 people, a Syria war monitor and witnesses say.
British legislators have agreed to legalize assisted dying for some terminally ill people, despite concerns the law could be misused to pressure patients deemed ‘unfit’ to live longer.
Setting a benchmark for jurisdictions worldwide, Australia has banned social media for children under 16. with the government saying that ” the safety of our kids is a priority.”