Was marriage for all the right path?

By Jeff Mannes Switch to German for original article

"Since the introduction of Marriage for All a few years ago, it is already the case that in civil law you are no longer listed as father or mother, but as parent one and parent two," enthuses ADR politician Fernand Kartheiser in a video published at the beginning of February on the "Ech si Papp" discussion. "Why?" he adds. "(...) We don't want that." But implicit criticism of marriage for all comes not only from conservative circles, but very explicitly from parts of the queer communities themselves.

Much has already been written about this populist move by the ADR, which is not only an attack on queer lifestyles with its side swipe at marriage for all. Marriage rights for homosexuals and bisexuals have already existed in Luxembourg for six years. Those who still believe that this would destroy the foundation of society or that children would not develop as well with homosexual parents are ignoring not only the scientific consensus on the subject, but also the lived reality. Likely, they will still not be convinced in another six years. What is little known, however, is that there is criticism of Marriage for All even from the LGBTIQ communities, albeit for very different reasons. It would not have challenged heteronormativity, but affirmed it, they say, among other things.

The history of queer liberation movements is as diverse as queer communities themselves. What is today often referred to as the "first LGBTIQ emancipation movement" largely encompasses what happened in Berlin at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1897, the doctor and sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld founded the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee, the world's first organisation for the rights of queer people. Far beyond the fight against Paragraph 175, which at the time made male homosexuality a punishable offence in Germany, Hirschfeld also campaigned for the rights of women and of numerous sexual and gender minorities. With his theory of sexual intermediates, he presented a scientific model against bisexuality and regarded every human being as an individual mixture of female and male characteristics.

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Was marriage for all the right path?

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