Germany
Categories Score
The full bar chart stands for 100%, and is filled by the country category score. The colour display uses the traffic light palette, with Green representing a score closer to 100% and Red a score closer to 0%.
ASYLUM
This category looks into laws that expressly include SOGISC as a qualification criteria for seeking asylum. We also take into account other legislation, policies, instruction or positive measures by state actors that are related to asylum addressing the needs and rights of LGBTI asylum seekers and refugees.
Criteria Compliance Ratio
Each pie charts stands for a category and is divided in slices by criteria. When a country complies with a criteria – fully or in some regions – the slice is coloured.
Keep in mind the criteria have different weighting factor within a category; for example, the criteria Prohibition of medical intervention without informed consent (intersex) stands for half (2.5%) of the INTERSEX BODILY INTEGRITY category weighting factor (5%). Meaning that even if a country can only comply with this specific criteria within the category (1/4 total criteria) the category scores 50%.
More information on the categories and criteria weighting factors here.
Category & Criteria Table
The table lists detailed information and insights on legislation supporting each criterion status. Please use the filters for in-depth analysis.
n/a = not applicable, meaning the criteria didn’t exist in the previous Rainbow Map edition (PROGRESSION column)
- Complies
- Applicable in some regions only
- Does not Comply
RECOMMENDATIONS
In order to improve the legal and policy situation of LGBTI people in Germany, ILGA-Europe recommend
- Recognising trans parenthood, recognition of parents’ legal gender and alignment with available gender options.
- Introducing hate speech laws that explicitly cover all bias-motivated speech based on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression and sex characteristics (SOGIESC).
- Introducing laws on asylum that contain express mention of all SOGIESC (sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, sex characteristics) grounds.
- Allowing for automatic co-parent recognition for all couples, so that children born to couples, regardless of the partners’ sexual orientation and/or gender identity, do not face any barriers in order to be recognised legally from birth to their parents.
Annual Review of Germany
In our Annual Review of the Human Rights Situation of LGBTI People in Europe and Central Asia, we examine the advances made and provide concrete examples of on-the-ground situations at national level country-by-country in the 12 months from January to December 2023.
Read our Annual Review of Germany below for more details and stories behind the Rainbow Map. You can also download the Annual Review chapter (.pdf) covering Germany.
-
Civil society firmly criticised the government’s support for the new EU asylum policy and its failure to advocate for the rights of LGBTIQ* asylum seekers. Civil society demanded that Germany excludes countries from its safe country list that persecute or criminalise LGBTIQ* people.
In October, the Federal government approved a bill to speed up the deportation of rejected asylum seekers.
As a positive step, the Ministry of Interior approved funding for special legal advice services for queer asylum seekers and others deemed vulnerable. Civil society can now apply for funding to provide the service. Also in April 2023 the new policy on SOGI asylum seekers by the asylum agency BAMF became public – that includes changes that go beyond the repeal of the so-called discretion requirement that became public in September 2022.
In September 2023 the first queer persons under the Federal Admission Program Afghanistan arrived in Germany.
-
An anti-trans actor who sued Bundesverband Trans* and other organisations over the use of a hashtag on social media eventually dropped the case. Bundesverband Trans* removed its profile from the social media platform X (previously Twitter) due to the dramatic increase of transphobic and transmisogynistic comments and messages.
The far-right AfD made countless hateful statements this year, for instance saying “there are no transgender people” (see here), that sexual and gender minorities were sexually abusing children (see here), and making fun of gender diversity (see here). AfD MPs also continued to harass and deadname trans MP Tessa Ganserer (Buendnis 90/Die Gruenen).
An anti-gender activist launched a petition to end ‘the gender language’ in February against the use of gender-neutral language in schools and on official forms in Hamburg, calling it ‘coercion’. The CDU distanced itself from the activist after she made anti-LGBT statements, but continues to support the petition, along with the far-right AfD. The campaign has appeared in other regions too.
A brochure for parents of trans children was classified as harmful for its anti-LGBT content.
-
The Ministry of Interior shared in May that over 1,000 homophobic hate crimes were recorded in 2022, marking a 15% increase compared to 2021. Sven Lehmann, the Federal Government Commissioner for the Acceptance of Sexual and Gender Diversity, highlighted that three to four queer people per day are assaulted in Germany.
Hate crimes continued to be a serious issue in 2023, with the vast majority going unreported. Several LGBTIQ people (see here, here, and here) were assaulted this year, many of them in Berlin. In August, hundreds gathered for a demonstration in Berlin to call for action against anti-LGBTI hate crimes. Berlin’s LGBTQ Museum (Schwules Museum) was attacked with bullets in February.
A lesbian space in Berlin was targeted by an arson attack in the summer. A monument remembering ‘homosexual’ victims of the Nazi era was vandalised in August. A banner inciting hatred against queer people was put up in downtown Berlin. A rainbow flag was torn down and burnt outside a school in Frankfurt- Sachsenhausen.
In June, the federal working group on anti-LGBTIQ+ hate crimes, established in 2022, developed a series of recommendations including training at law enforcement agencies, research and setting up contact points and counselling for survivors
-
(See also under Bias-motivated Violence)
In April, two teachers in Brandenburg published a letter of concern about right-wing extremism, sexism and homophobia on school grounds. The police started an investigation. The Brandenburg Minister of Education called for moral courage and asked schools to promptly report similar incidents. The two teachers received the Prize for Civil Courage Against Anti- Semitism, Right-Wing Radicalism and Racism, but due to hate and harassment, they both quit their teaching jobs.
Activists at the Technische Universität in Berlin posted gender- neutral signs on toilets, a move endorsed by the university’s Queer Referat.
In January, Humboldt University allowed trans, inter and non-binary students who have not gone through legal gender recognition or name change yet to use their chosen names on university ID cards, following a class action lawsuit filed in 2022. The HU took this step before the court decision.
The far-right AfD in Lower Saxony announced their plans to restrict sex education in schools, allegedly to tackle “child abuse”.
-
The government continued to implement the National Action Plan for Sexual and Gender Diversity, which was part of the government’s 2021 coalition treaty, and was adopted in November 2022. In March this year, the process of setting up working groups started, with the involvement of almost 80 civil society organisations. The thematic working groups will monitor the implementation process and share their assessment with the Federal Parliament in the autumn of 2024. Civil society called for sufficient financing and speedy implementation.
In June, the Independent Federal Commissioner for Anti- Discrimination released its 2022 annual report, finding a 22% increase in reported cases. 4% of the cases concerned discrimination based on sexual orientation and 21% based on gender. Civil society continued to advocate for a comprehensive anti-discrimination law, which is included in the Action Plan (see here, here and here). Over 100 organisations joined the ‘AGG Reform Now’ campaign.
In line with the parliament’s decision in 2022, this year’s commemoration of the victims of nazi persecution remembered LGBT victims for the first time.
-
The synodal council of the Catholic Church in Germany voted in favour of blessing same-sex unions from 2026 onwards.
Civil society expressed disappointment over the European Court of Human Rights rulings OH and GH v Germany and AH and Others v Germany (see here and here) for failing to establish that the misgendering and misnaming of trans parents, i.e. trans mothers and gestational trans fathers, on their child’s birth certification is a violation of the Convention.
The draft legal gender recognition law (see under Legal Gender Recognition) foresees for trans parents to be featured as ‘parent’ on birth certificates but upholds the misgendering of trans parents in the birth registry
-
Germany joined the European Comission’s infringement proceedings against Hungary over its anti-LGBT legislation.
The Federal Foreign Office and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development presented their new feminist foreign and development policy guidelines.
The German government included sexual orientation and gender identity in the update to its international criminal law legislation in October.
A German citizen was fined and deported from Russia for engaging in so-called ‘LGBT propaganda’.
-
Several participants of the Berlin CSD (Pride) march were attacked this year, including before and after the event. The police said the number of attacks was not unusual given the size of the march. A high number of Prides across the country were attacked this year.
-
In January, the Ministry of Health announced they would end the discriminatory restrictions on gay and bi men, and trans people who want to donate blood, and replace them with an assessment of risky behaviours. The change entered into force in April. In August the new rules by the German Medical Association based on this change became public – and were criticised for continuing to ban blood donations from men who have sex with men (MSM).
A new scientific study found high levels of loneliness and social isolation among trans and gender-diverse people.
-
The Bundestag raised the rainbow flag again this year. The flag will be featured in the German Historical Museum.
-
In late August, the cabinet presented the legal gender recognition bill, which will move forward to its readings in parliament. While the law introduces a model based on self- determination, it sets out a three-month waiting period and a separate procedure for minors over 14.
Civil society continued campaigning for a law that is fully compliant with human rights (see here, here, here, here, and here). In September, over 350 feminist authors, creators, lawyers, queer, trans*, inter and non-binary groups and professional associations, women’s shelters and leading representatives of women’s associations and equality work co-launched a petition. By December, the petition was signed by over 16,300 people.
-
The Ministry of Justice in Baden-Württemberg, as part of creating new guidelines to gve greater consideration to gender identity in prison, shared that there were eight trans and intersex prisoners in the system; that some detainees have had access to trans-specific healthcare; and that there will be a consultation on further changes that should be made.
The Ministry of Defense launched a website where soldiers can file for financial compensation if they were discriminated against in the military due to their SOGI.
-
Berlin will put in place a housing project for older lesbians and queer women.
The full Annual Review for 2024 is available here.