The German Parliament, or Bundestag, passed one of the world’s most far-reaching sex self-determination policies on April 12, despite protests from women’s rights campaigners. The Self-Determination Act (SBGG) establishes ‘gender identity’ as a protected characteristic and allows parents to change the sex marker on their children’s documents from birth.
Supported by Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party coalition and promoted and supported by the Social Democratic Party (SDP), the SBGG also creates the potential for citizens to be fined up to €10,000 (approx. $10,800 USD) for revealing a person’s given name and birth sex without their permission – an action that trans activists staunchly oppose and refer to as ‘deadnaming.’
But arguably the most troubling aspect of the law relates to a portion of the bill which permits parents to alter the recorded sex of children beginning from birth. From the age of five years old, it allows for name and sex changes if there is “mutual consent” between the child and their parents.
According to a description of the bill on the Bundestag’s official website, the Self-Determination Act was designed “to implement a core idea of the Basic Law, the protection of gender identity, by giving people the opportunity to change their gender entry and first name without discrimination.”
It continues that following a change, a one-year “blocking period” will apply where no further changes are allowed, though a person may change their name and sex once again after the year passes.
If parents choose to do so, they may alter the identifying information of their children from birth. The SBGG stipulates that the consent of a child is necessary from the age of five, and, “from the age of 14, minors can do it themselves, but require the consent of their guardians.”
However, should parents refuse to provide legal permission, “a family court would decide based on the best interests of the child,” thus allowing the state to overrule the wishes of parents or legal guardians.
Crucially, the law includes a ban on disclosure that prohibits naming the sex and former birth name of an individual. This prohibition also applies to family members in the SBGG. Anyone who violates the ban on disclosure will face a fine of up to €10,000, which could discourage family members from coming forward to discuss how the identity change impacts them.
During the hearing on the SBGG, two trans-identified male politicians were present to advocate for and support the bill’s passage.
Tessa Ganserer and Nyke Slawik were elected to Germany’s Bundestag in September 2021 as representatives for the Green Party, taking positions that were reserved for female political representation.
In 2013, Ganserer, under his given name of Markus, was elected as a member of the Landtag of Bavaria, representing the constituency of Middle Franconia on the Alliance ’90/The Greens list.
A 2019 article published by Welt states, “Markus Ganserer ceased to exist on December 12, 2018. Then Tessa Ganserer gave Markus’ clothes to a friend.” He has for years been campaigning to introduce sex self-identification policies in Germany, and has claimed that “a penis is not a male sexual organ” and “there are women who have penises.”
During a 2019 press conference that year, Ganserer explained how, at the age of 41, he decided to begin identifying as a woman after years of stealing his wife’s clothing.
“At first I was totally surprised at myself. But I immediately felt that there was more, it wasn’t a fetish, I felt like a woman,” said Ganserer at the time. He has reportedly been using facilities designated for women ahead of the passage of the SBGG, and in advance of a legal alteration of his identification from a ‘male’ designation to ‘female.’
“This is an incredibly important historic decision and that’s why it really takes a load off my mind that after so many years of hard work and so many years of waiting, I will also receive official ID documents in the future that will have my real name on them,” Ganserer said in a series of videos posted to Instagram account following the vote.
“It is about time that we put an end to the unnecessarily long expert opinions and court proceedings to change names as an injustice, and that we finally respect the dignity of trans, intersex, and non-binary people today,” Slawik added.
Germany’s prior “transsexual law” (Transsexuellengesetz), implemented in 1980, required individuals who want to change sex markers on official documents to first obtain assessments from two medical experts “sufficiently familiar with the particular problems of transsexualism,” in addition to a court decision.
Unlike Ganserer, Slawik began to claim a transgender status at the age of 16 years old. In a 2021 interview with Zeit, Slawik describes living in a shared flat with a woman and buying tampons in a bid to hide from them that he was male. Slawik has previously used the slur “TERF” — an acronym which means “trans-exclusionary radical feminists,” and is often used alongside threats of violence — to mock and insult women who oppose gender identity policies.
The SBGG was supported by the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Greens, and the Free Democratic Party (FDP), as well as Die Linke. The law was voted down by the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the Sarah Wagenknecht Alliance and the Alternative for Germany (AfD).
A protest involving approximately one hundred women was organized outside of the Bundestag on April 12, despite the announcement that the bill would be debated having been made on the government’s website just days before – something that critics noted as unusual.
The demonstration was organized by women and lesbian rights groups Frauenheldinnen e.V., Lasst Frauen Sprechen!, LAZ Reloaded e.V. and Frauen Sprechen / LSquad Berlin. The protest was further promoted by women’s rights campaigner Rona Duwe, who has herself been taken to court for having compared a transgender organization’s mascot to a symbol known to be used by pedophiles.
Speaking with Reduxx, Duwe explained that the women who attended were afraid for their safety, and that during the demonstration, trans activists “mocked” and “laughed” at them.
“We are afraid that the police, state and judicial persecution against feminists will increase. [Trans activists] are becoming more and more aggressive. Some also came to us during our protest and mocked us or laughed at us. One was shouting that all feminist organizations in Germany welcomed the Self-Determination law.”
Duwe has had multiple police reports filed against her since last year for speaking out against gender identity ideology and policies. At a protest she participated in last year, her attempts to speak with prominent politician Sven Lehmann, who has been one of the most vocal advocates of self-identification legislation, went ignored.
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 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, the policitian took to Instagram to denounce critics as “TERFs”.
“Queer Commissioner” Lehmann has held a a leadership position in a government-funded youth project which has promoted 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.
Last year, Lehmann was instrumental in the censorship of a brochure produced in part by Duwe. The information resource, titled “Guide Out of the Transgender Cult” (Wegweiser aus dem Transgenderkult), criticized the medical ‘transitioning’ of children, and was aimed at parents who wish to protect their children from puberty-halting drugs and transgender surgeries.
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