More Backward than America

On the one hand, the German government says it is against discrimination, while on the other, it says it is also against gay marriage. Do we really want to be more backward than America?

It was a good week for Barack Obama. Not only was his health care reform law upheld by the Supreme Court, the legality of his same-sex marriage law was affirmed as well. The White House was bathed in rainbow colored floodlight and on Facebook, users could do the same to their profile photos. The somewhat shopworn symbolism was given an updated meaning. America was shown exactly as we had dreamed it should be: progressive and colorful.

A more powerful anti-discrimination symbol for lesbians and gays is hardly imaginable in western society because this isn't just about participating in a social privilege, it's about fundamental political rights. The right to marry freely is equally fundamental and important, as pointed out by Hannah Arendt:

“The right to marry whoever one wishes is an elementary human right compared to which ‘the right to attend an integrated school, the right to sit where one pleases on a bus, the right to go into any hotel or recreation area or place of amusement, regardless of one’s skin or color or race are minor indeed. Even political rights, like the right to vote, and nearly all other rights enumerated in the Constitution, are secondary to the inalienable human rights to 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness' proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence; and to this category the right to home and marriage unquestionably belongs."* With that, Arendt drew a final line under a history of criminalizing and pathologizing homosexuals in Germany that once eventually led to their being rounded up and put in concentration camps. Many of those who survived that experience have not been rehabilitated to this day.

Despite the change in sentiment that began six weeks ago via a referendum in Ireland in favor of gay marriage, the German government has steadfastly clung to the false paradox that it is (naturally) against discrimination, but yet on the other hand also against gay marriage. The accusation that the lack of equality under the law was in itself a form of discrimination has put the tight-lipped government spokesman Steffen Seibert into a sort of continual state of distress. He has no idea how to respond while his boss, meanwhile, has simply dummied up.

With the U.S. Supreme Court decision, Angela Merkel will find it increasingly difficult to duck this issue. It is becoming all too apparent what a socially backward country Germany now is. One glance at the map shows that the liberal West ends at the Rhine River. From North America – including Mexico and Canada – to the borders of Western Europe – including Ireland and Spain – everyone permits same sex marriage. The often criticized legal inequality and homophobia of Eastern Europe begins at our own doorstep.

Angela Merkel often turns a deaf ear to social arguments and Germany's Social Democrats hesitate to upset Germany's peaceful coalition for the sake of such a minor issue. But they must be shown how sexual discrimination against minorities can develop into a locational disadvantage. If Germany wants to be an attractive location for well-educated professionals working in a global economy, it will not only have to abandon its concept of being an ethnically homogeneous nation, it will also have to get rid of its petty bourgeois heterosexual-only bias.

The argument of economic suitability – which the major corporations in the U.S. from Apple to American Airlines strongly support – will also put the focus on the boundaries of gay marriage as an instrument of social progress, because it seems to fit all too comfortably into neoliberal concepts of more laid back lifestyles and work environments. Many gays and lesbians are aware that the right to gay marriage is a double-edged sword. Acceptance of it makes it more visible but at the same time makes it more invisible if the differences between the lifestyles are obscured by the harmonious image of marriage for everyone.

*Editor’s Note: The Hannah Arendt quote is not included in the original German piece but is considered sufficiently germane to the author’s article to warrant inclusion in the translation.