So long, Beautiful Gay World? The Evolution of LGBTQ Rights in Germany since Unification

This AGI webinar features a presentation from Robert Deam Tobin, Henry J Leir Chair in Literature, Language and Culture at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, and discussion with Eric Langenbacher, Senior Fellow and Director of the AGI Society, Culture & Politics Program.

This webinar examines the development of LGBTQ rights in Germany since unification in 1990. Throughout the 1990s, progress in LGBTQ+ rights seemed to be integrally interconnected with the unification of Germany (and indeed of the European Union). After the Federal Republic of Germany eliminated the final remnants of the hated Paragraph 175 in 1994, Werner Hinzpeter could claim in Schöne Schwule Welt that the gay movement had achieved virtually all of its objectives. By the 2000s, registered partnerships were in the works and openly gay politicians held top jobs in the government. Gay marriage and gay adoption arrived in 2017. In the same year, however, the collection of polemical essays, Beissreflexe, appeared, provoking controversies that suggested that the beautiful gay world might be fracturing. This talk is part of a series supported by the German Embassy that reflects on changes in Germany 30 years after reunification.

June 17, 2020
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