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rfmcdonaldWho would have thought that Foreign Policy would ever publish an article describing the progress of gay rights in Germany? It did, though, and Cameron Abadi wrote it. Naturally the article began by tying the issue into German politics.
Abadi suggests that the shift from a post-war Germany which criminalized homosexuality (both parts, the East until 1958 and the West until 1969) to the early 21st century's much more accepting atmosphere can be traced to the West German student movement, the embrace of gay rights by first the Green Party then eventually Westerwelle's own Free Democratic Party, the decline of religiosity with its associated homophobias in East and West, and finally, the appreciation of German voters for their political candidates' openness on personal issues including their sexual orientation.
For more than 50 years, the tabloid daily
Bild -- currently Europe's best-selling newspaper -- has served as both a reliable barometer of Germany's conservative movement and a steady vent of its populist id. The editors have never felt compelled to question their winning formula: The conservative parties' current talking points go above the fold, the naked "Page One Girl" below it. The self-appointed guarantors of all that is traditionally Deutsch aren't much interested in the finer points of sensitivity training.
And in that way, the tabloid might have been expected at some point this week to express ambivalence, if not disapproval, of the fact that the country's newly elected vice-chancellor and foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, is gay. Instead, though, Bildwaved a white flag on one of the fronts of the country's decades-long culture war. As part of its gleeful coverage of the victory of the country's two main conservative parties in Sunday's election, the newspaper paid its respect to Westerwelle in the form of a sentimental page-one profile of his boyfriend, complete with a trashy headline: "His Boyfriend Makes Him Strong!"
Taking its cues from voters, Bild's editors didn't wring their hands over Westerwelle's sexual orientation, nor did they sensationalize it as a novelty. For one thing, it wasn't news: The chairman of the FDP, the free market Free Democratic Party, hadn't hidden his sexual orientation during the campaign -- his partner, event manager Michael Mronz, was often on stage with him at his rallies -- and no one he encountered on the trail seemed inclined to make an issue of it. Being a gay politician in Germany, it seems, is well on its way to being utterly normal, even banal.
Abadi suggests that the shift from a post-war Germany which criminalized homosexuality (both parts, the East until 1958 and the West until 1969) to the early 21st century's much more accepting atmosphere can be traced to the West German student movement, the embrace of gay rights by first the Green Party then eventually Westerwelle's own Free Democratic Party, the decline of religiosity with its associated homophobias in East and West, and finally, the appreciation of German voters for their political candidates' openness on personal issues including their sexual orientation.
