Hidden Homophobia: Is Germany Really as Liberal as It Seems?

[unhappycamper]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/germany-debates-gay-rights-after-pro-footballer-hitzlsperger-comes-out-a-943216.html



Germany last week celebrated the coming out of former professional football player Thomas Hitzlsperger. But discrimination remains a fact of life for gays and lesbians in the country. How truly liberal is German society?

Hidden Homophobia: Is Germany Really as Liberal as It Seems?
By Anna Kistner, Dirk Kurbjuweit, Ann-Katrin Müller and Simone Salden
January 13, 2014 – 06:18 PM

A gay couple that was seeking to open a restaurant near the Bavarian town of Freying received an anonymous letter early last year. "Stay away. We don't need people like you here," it read. Additional threats followed, including a faked obituary and an open, though anonymous, letter claiming that one of the two was HIV-positive and that there was a danger that diners could be infected. The restaurant was never opened.

Can a story like be really be true? In Germany of all places, a country that was last week enraptured by the coming out of former professional footballer Thomas Hitzlsperger and where it seemed like the entire country supported him?

Hitzlsperger made his announcement in the influential weekly Die Zeit, unleashing a tidal wave of media backing. "Respect" blared the left-wing Berlin daily Die Tageszeitung. Its conservative counterpart Bild chose the exact same headline, marking one of the very few times when the two publications have concurred. Everyone in the country seemed to be in agreement when it came to Hitzlsperger's courageous step.

Yet the jubilation was so great that it at times seemed a bit too much for the occasion. A former football player came out. Is that really such a monumental event? Of course its progress when it is made clear that homosexuality exists in the world of football as well. No player the caliber of Hitzlsperger had thus far gone public with his homosexuality.

[NCLefty]

1. There are pockets of tolerance in a sea of intolerance, worldwide.

How's that for pessimism? :p

[uriel1972]

2. I remember a cartoon villain saying

"Why am I the only oasis in a desert of stupidity?".

As for the article... there have always been different rules for the 'Golden Ones' the rich, the powerful and the famous.

[unhappycamper]

3. Unfortunately, I must agree with you.

[DetlefK]

4. First, I guess the town's name has a typo. Second, rural Bavaria votes 90% conservative.

https://maps.google.de/maps?hl=de&q=Freying&ie=UTF-8&ei=LzXVUreGMOfRywOEzYD4Dw&ved=0CAoQ_AUoAg

I guess, the town is supposed to be Freyung.

Bavaria is and has been for decades safely in the hands of the conservative CSU. Moderate lefts like the SPD and the Greens are gaining ground in the cities, but it's by far not enough to make it a "swing-state". Rural Bavaria votes conservative and is devoutly catholic.

As for the rest of the article: Conservatives from rural areas in the Black Forest are against including homosexuality in sex-education. What a surprise. Is it telling of Germany as a whole? No.

[exboyfil]

5. 70 years ago the state was putting

gays in gas chambers (along with Jews and gypsies). I have to say not very tolerant.

[closeupready]

6. It's a nation of 80 million people.

As someone else pointed out, it wasn't that long ago they were mass murdering gay people right along with Jews, Gypsies and anyone else who wouldn't tow Nazi Party ideology, even 'aryan' native Germans.

Having said that, I've been to Germany several times, and always enjoyed myself, and while I could probably pass for German (until I start speaking), as a mere tourist, I never felt unsafe there - in fact, I felt really very free, I mean based on my anecdotal experiences.

On a side note, I spent some time with one guy who I met at this place in Berlin, Anderes Ufer. He was Bavarian, ironically, and lived near Nuremberg. Over breakfast, he told me that when he wanted to get laid, he always drove on up to Berlin, that Munich didn't really have a gay scene comparable.

I suppose there as here in the US, the best, most liberal places for gay people are in the biggest cities.

[joeybee12]

7. Munich is smaller, but still a lot of fun places...

That's my recollection from several years ago!

[closeupready]

9. Well, aren't YOU naughty!

[joeybee12]

13. I have never denied it!

[nomorenomore08]

8. In the recent worldwide survey 87% of Germans answered "yes" when asked if homosexuality should be

socially acceptable. But sadly, it seems that poor couple ran afoul of one of the other 13%.

[uriel1972]

10. I wonder where Australia fell on that survey...

On second thoughts it's probably better I don't know.

[nomorenomore08]

11. 79% "yes" IIRC. Also one of the highest in the world.

[stevenleser]

12. Ideologically, Germany is divided geographically similar to the US in that South (Bavaria) is

conservative and as you travel north you get progressively more, well, progressive.

It's no coincidence that Nazism sprung from Munich which is part of Bavaria in the south in the 1920s and 1930s. That area is still the most conservative part of Germany.