Foreword
The OECD Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs (ELS) has been supporting the inclusion of increasingly diverse groups in member countries through its work on gender equality, ageing and employment, the labour market integration of youth, the inclusion of people with disability, or the integration of immigrants and their families. Since 2016, following a Call to Action signed by 12 member countries, ELS has been leading the organisation’s work on the inclusion of LGBTI+ people, i.e. lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender and intersex individuals.
With the 2019 edition of Society at a Glance and with Over the Rainbow? The Road to LGBTI Inclusion (2020), the OECD previously explored the socio-economic situation of sexual and gender minorities and the extent to which laws in OECD countries ensure equal treatment of LGBTI+ people.
Building on these analyses, this report investigates legal and policy achievements towards LGBTI+ equality in Germany at both the national and subnational levels. The key findings are encouraging. Although anti-LGBTI+ discrimination and violence is a reality that continues to hamper the well-being of millions in Germany, legal and policy achievements towards LGBTI+ equality have been substantial. Yet, margins for improvement exist. In particular, legal safeguards against discrimination by state public entities are still limited. Beyond laws, there is also room for enhancing preventive policies aimed at fostering a culture of equal treatment of LGBTI+ individuals at school, in the workplace, and in health care and for strengthening remedial policies aimed at enforcing antidiscrimination and anti-violence laws.
This report was written by Marie-Anne Valfort under the supervision of Monika Queisser (Head of the Social Policy Division), with excellent research assistance provided by Evamaria Hahn, Hlodver Hakonarson and Nancy Napolitano. We are very grateful to all German officials who helped us answer the OECD 2021 questionnaires on LGBTI+-inclusive laws and policies directed at the German federal and state levels: Nicoletta Finter (Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth), Gerrit Bopp (State Ministry for Social Affairs, Health and Integration in Baden-Württemberg), Ariane Wißmeier-Unverricht (State Ministry for Family, Labour and Social Affairs in Bavaria), Florencio Chicote (Senate Department for Justice, Diversity and Anti-Discrimination in Berlin), Sarah Staeck (State Ministry for Social Affairs, Health, Integration and Consumer Protection in Brandenburg), Greta Riemann (Senate Department for Social Affairs, Youth, Integration and Sports in Bremen), Theresa Wiechmann (Authority for Science, Research, Equality and Districts in Hamburg), Klaus Stehling (State Ministry for Social Affairs and Integration in Hesse), Kristina Lunk (State Ministry for Social Affairs, Health and Equality in Lower Saxony), Elke Möller (State Ministry for Social Affairs, Integration and Equality in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania), Sebastian Pahl (State Ministry for Children, Family, Refugees and Integration in North Rhine-Westphalia), Birgitta Brixius-Stapf (State Ministry for Family, Women, Youth, Integration and Consumer Protection in Rhineland-Palatinate), Thomas Dörr (State Ministry for the Interior, Construction and Sport in Saarland), Marion Ernst (State Ministry for Social Affairs, Health, Women and the Family in Saarland), Uta Leupolt (State Ministry for Justice and for Democracy, Europe and Equality in Saxony), Bettina Goetze (State Ministry for Justice and Equality in Saxony-Anhalt), Julia Marberth (State Ministry for Social Affairs, Health, Youth, Family and Senior Citizens in Schleswig-Holstein) and Christoph Bender (State Chancellery in Thuringia). We also warmly thank Regina Arant, Klaus Boehnke and Georgi Dragolov from Jacobs University for sharing the data on attitudes toward non-heterosexual and non-cisgender individuals that were collected in each 16 German states in the framework of the German Diversity Barometer published in 2019 by the Robert Bosch Foundation. Finally, we are very grateful to Denise Baryszow, Natalie Etzholz and Mark Kamperhoff (Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth) as well as to Ilka Bartsch (Federal Ministry for Labour and Social Affairs) for their thoughtful comments on an earlier version of this report. Natalie Corry and Lucy Hulett prepared the report for publication.
The OECD gratefully acknowledges the financial support by the German Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth towards the preparation of this study.