A government-funded youth project in Germany is promoting BDSM in a publication co-designed by minors. Lambda Bundesverband, an organization which receives financial support from the Federal Ministry for Family, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (Bundesministerium für Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend – BMFSFJ), has created resources describing “humiliation play” and “age fetishes” in collaboration with children as young as 14.
Lambda provides youth sexuality counseling services, workshops, and summer camps publishes a magazine titled “Out!” which is co-designed with the input of, and aimed at, youth as young as 14 years of age.
But a resurfaced 2022 issue of “Out!” is drawing criticism for promoting various “kinks” to minors, including age regression and diaper fetishes.
In issue No. 59 of “Out!“, the majority of the zine is dedicated entirely to discussing sexual fetishes. On the first page, a man named Cori recounts experiencing “gender euphoria” when putting on lingerie.
“Today I felt gender euphoria and I took pictures of it! I never imagined that a piece of material would give me such a beautiful moment. When I looked in the mirror, I felt a mixture of joy, happiness, and excitement. I don’t often think of myself as sexy, but in that moment I did,” Cori says, before describing how he enjoyed looking at photos of himself in the lingerie.
A note from the publication’s editor, Fabian, explains the rationale behind the decision to promote awareness of fetishism, noting that those with fetishes experience stigma.
“The entire issue revolves around fetishes. A daring topic? Perhaps. An important topic? Absolutely, says the editorial team. There is still a lot of ignorance and prejudice when it comes to fetishes,” Fabian writes.
“Fetishes are possible variations of our sexuality and are therefore neither reprehensible, disreputable or perverse. It is just as unreprehensible [sic] not to want to have sex at all, not to have a fetish, not to want to try something or to feel completely comfortable with cuddly sex.”
The publication elaborates on various types of fetishes in more detail, and introduces young readers to terms such as “bondage,” “spanking,” “flogging,” “voyeurism and exhibitionism,” “medical play,” “humiliation play,” “age fetish,” and “bodily fluids fetish.”
However, critics have expressed particular concerns about the publication’s inclusion of information pertaining to the sexualization of father/daughter relationships.
“Today I would like to introduce you to the DDLG fetish,” writes an individual known only as Sofie.
“DDLG stands for Daddy Dom Little Girl. It’s mostly about a female person putting themselves in the role of a little girl. She wears diapers and enjoys playing children’s games. If she does something naughty, her daddy can punish her.”
The anonymous author, who identifies as non-binary and claims to be addicted to porn, continues: “I clicked around on porn sites and just wanted to see what I liked. For fun, I clicked on a video titled ‘DDLG.’ I was frightened. It was about sexual acts between women dressed up as small children and men pretending to be their daddies. But what I found even worse than that was the fact that my body was reacting to it. Do I like that?”
Sofie continues by explaining that she began participating in the fetish at age 16, and describes her “daddy” treating her like a toddler.
“The first time I tried DDLG, I was 16. I remember how unsure I was at first when he first gave me a coloring book to draw in. Finally he put diapers on me like a daddy. When I was finally allowed to urinate in the diaper for the first time, I just felt free and overjoyed,” Sofie writes. The age of the male partner in the scenario remains unspecified.
One of the supporting members of Lambda Germany is politician Sven Lehmann, who secures public funds through his role as State Secretary of the Family Ministry (BMFSFJ).
In 2022, the BMFSFJ gave Lambda €450,000 ($490,200) in taxpayer funding, but overall the youth group received a total of €646,000 ($703,300) from the federal government that year. In 2023, Lambda was given €467,000 ($508,400).
Lehmann is a member of Alliance 90/The Greens who has been serving as a member of German Parliament from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia since 2017. He also has worked as the Federal Government’s Commissioner for the Acceptance of Sexual and Gender Diversity (which has been nicknamed the “Queer Commissioner”) in the coalition government since 2021.
Lehmann’s role in a leadership position for Lambda provoked criticism from far-right Alternative for Germany (Alternative für Deutschland – AfD) representative Matthias Helferich, who accused him of promoting fetishism to minors, an accusation Lehmann denounced as defamation during a debate over sex self-identification legislation on November 15.
A proposed version of the Self-Determination Act (Selbstbestimmung in Bezug auf den Geschlechtseintrag – SBGG) is currently being discussed by lawmakers in Parliament and would allow minors from the age of 14 to change the sex marker on their identification and begin a medical transition. Should parents or guardians object, a family court may intervene to override a lack of consent.
Lehmann has previously drawn criticism for confessing in an interview for Queer.de to using the application Grindr during meetings in Parliament, and justifying this by stating, “Grindr is also work.” In response to public outcry, Lehmann took to Instagram to denounce critics as “TERFs” – an acronym which means “trans-exclusionary radical feminists,” and is applied broadly to any woman critical of gender identity ideology, often used alongside threats of violence.
Lambda runs sexual education programs on “queer topics” within Germany’s school system. The methods and resources used come from the Federal Centre for Health Education (BZgA), and also from “Sexual Pedagogical Materials for Youth Work in Leisure and School,” developed by sexologist Uwe Sielert.
Sielert similarly holds questionable views regarding sexuality and children, and has ties to controversial sexologist Helmut Kentler, who has been described as a fatherly mentor to Sielert.
Kentler, who campaigned throughout his life for the abolition of laws which prohibited the sexual abuse of children under 14 years of age, was responsible for a state-funded project that saw children sexually abused by pedophiles in an “experiment” to prove that adult-child sex was harmless.
According to Frank Herrath, a lecturer in sexology and co-founder of the Institute for Sex Education (Institut für Sexualpädagogik – ISP), “sex education in Germany was shaped by Helmut Kentler and Uwe Sielert.”
As Reduxx previously reported, Sielert was also influential in shaping policies for Germany’s leading professional association on sexuality and partnership, Pro Familia, which came under fire earlier this year after issuing a recommendation that daycares implement “body exploration rooms” and “sexual games” for young children.
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