GERMANY: Female Politicians Who Oppose Radical Gender Ideology To Be Ousted From Parliament And Replaced By Their Party

By Marielena Meder
[L] Linda Tueteberg, [R] Katja Adler

Germany’s Free Democratic Party (FPD) is seeking to prohibit the re-election of two female members who voted against the nation’s radical self-identification law. Katja Adler and Linda Teuteberg are the only two women in the FDP who voted against the law, with both expressing concerns about the implications gender ideology has for women’s safety.

In April of 2024, the German Bundestag voted for the Self-Determination Act, which allows people to simply change their sex and first name at the registry office and threatens with a fine of €10,000 if someone reveals their previous first name and real sex. With 251 votes against, two women from the FDP, Katja Adler and Linda Teuteberg, also voted against this proposed law. 

Advertisement

In a personal statement, Adler pointed out that the law would result in women having fewer rights to single-sex spaces, and that it contradicted with the German Constitution’s guarantee that “men and women have equal rights.” Adler argued that the clause would be rendered unenforceable if men were capable of declaring themselves “women” at any time.

During an online event with women’s rights group Frauenheldinnen, Adler also expressed concerns about how the law impacted minors. The Self-Determination Act allows parents to change their child’s name and sex marker from birth, but also allows children to seek legal name and sex marker changes without parental consent via a youth court order. Reflecting on the dramatic changes, Adler said: “I cannot and will not agree to that.”

In her federal state of Hessen, Adler has already been dismissed from the FDP and has lost her place on the voting list, which would have guaranteed her return as a member of the German Bundestag.

Disturbingly, Adler’s social media history had apparently been scrutinized by her colleagues for some time without her knowledge, and her following on social media was apparently analyzed and presented at a state executive board meeting.

During the meeting, political data scientist Benjamin Läpple came to the conclusion that her followers are politically further to the right than the average position of the FDP. Adler described the revelations as feeling as thought she were being “pilloried.” In her federal state, only members of the FDP who voted in favor of the Self-Determination Act are now listed for the upcoming new elections.

But Adler is not the only FDP member who has been effectively ousted due to her stance on the Self-Determination Act. Linda Teuteberg, who represents the state of Brandenburg, may also be replaced by the party due to her comments criticizing the law.

In an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Teuteberg had noted that feminists who viewed biological sex as a fact were often stigmatized as “right-wing extremists” by state-sponsored groups, thereby thwarting debates on socially controversial issues. As a result of her comments, the FDP is seeking to replace Teuteberg with Matti Karstedt, who will enter the German Bundestag for the first time and who considers the Self-Determination Act a good law.

Karstedt has criticized women who express concerns about the law, and has said that “truly liberal women” do not feel threatened by trans-identified males. 

Whether Teuteberg will lose her position will be decided on December 21, 2024.

While Adler and Tueteberg are being pushed out of the FDP, the party has also seen multiple women defect due to disagreements with the Self-Determination Act.

Earlier this year, Schwachhausen representative Birgit Bergmann left the party in protest of the FDP’s support of the Self-Determination Act. In a statement she posted to Instagram, Bergmann said that women’s, children’s, and parental rights were being “thrown overboard” and politics must serve people, not an ideology.

Similarly, Kyra Großmann, who is responsible for press and public relations for her city’s FDP association, announced her departure from the party last week.

In a statement she posted to X, Großmann explained her frustration with the law.

“I am now no longer allowed to call a de facto man by his old name, but I have to accept that he is allowed to feel like a woman and is therefore allowed to enter protective spaces that women have fought hard for, such as women’s toilets, women’s showers and women’s shelters,” she said.

Since the Self-Determination Act came into force at the end of November, over 14.000 people in Germany have changed their legal sex, far above the initial prediction of 4,000 annual requests. Approximately 5% of the applicants are minors, and not all applicants opted to change their names and sex – with some only changing the former.

As previously reported by Reduxx, just one day before Germany’s new law came into force, a trans-identified male in Germany was sentenced to an indefinite stay in a psychiatric institution as part of his prison sentence for exhibitionism and violent attacks on women. He now has the right to change his legal sex and to be placed in a women’s ward.

Reduxx is your source of pro-woman, pro-child safeguarding news and commentary. We’re 100% independent! Support our mission by making a donation.

Marielena Meder
Marielena Meder
Marielena is a contributor and German-language translator at Reduxx. A fierce defender of women's rights, Marielena is fighting to protect women's spaces and safeguard youth in her native land of Germany.
READ MORE