Unfortunately, even today, hostilities and discrimination are not uncommon for people in the LGBTQ community. Bavaria is now seeing a frightening trend: crimes against queer people have risen to a record high. The Greens see Söder as responsible.
Queer people in Bavaria are still victims of crime with an above-average frequency. While the general hate crime in Bavaria quadrupled between 2010 and 2021, the police registered crimes against queer people in Bavaria almost a sevenfold increase in the same period. This emerges from a 168-page response from the state government to a request from the Greens in the state parliament. The Bavarian state parliament will also address the issue on Tuesday.
The response of the state government to the so-called interpellation with the title "Queer in Bavaria - then, now and in the future" also proves beyond the pure criminal statistics that there are queer people in the concerns of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans* and intersex people as well as others people - in short LSBTIQ* (English: LGBTIQ*) - in this country there is still a great need for action. For example, with regard to subsidized advisory services outside of the metropolitan areas.
"We need at least one high-performance advice center in every administrative district that is docked to the queer community. This requires at least two million euros in funding," said Florian Siekmann, queer policy spokesman for the Greens in the state parliament.
Siekmann continues: "The queer policy of the Söder government is a tragedy. With a few euros of funding, the problems are only covered up, not solved." The situation is dramatic. "There are still far too few offers for LGBTIQ* people with health problems. The Ministry of Education does not even have real, effective educational work in schools on its screen. I really wonder how massive the problems in Bavaria will have to be until this government finally acts."
For its part, the state government asserts that it has already done a lot to solve problems for the community. "The Bavarian judiciary does not accept attacks on lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer people. That's why last year, together with the Ministry of Social Affairs and the Munich specialist agency 'Strong!' set up an online reporting procedure for anti-queer hate speech," said Minister of Justice Georg Eisenreich from the CSU. "It was important to me that those affected receive good advice here."
From the point of view of the Greens, however, the police need to be sensitized in training and further education so that anti-queer crimes can be better recorded. Because despite the massive increase that can already be seen in the statistics, the situation could be significantly worse: independent anti-violence contact points would record even more crimes in Bavaria. In order to strengthen the trust of the queer community in the police and to improve reporting behavior, special contact persons are needed in the police headquarters, as in other federal states.
"Bavaria is the only federal state that still doesn't have an action plan for the diversity and acceptance of LGBTIQ*. It's completely out of date and, given the massive problems and construction sites in this field, it's also a huge political omission," criticized Siekmann. "We Greens demand: Binding measures to improve the living conditions of LGBTIQ* people must finally be defined in every ministry."
Siekmann also criticized the fact that there were no educational projects, especially in schools. "The goal of us Greens is that all students take part in an educational project," said Siekmann. Teachers also need to be made fit for the topic. "Statistically, there is at least one queer person in every class. The issue affects all teachers."
