German politicians demand compensation for gay men prosecuted under historic anti-gay laws
By Will Stroude
Despite the persecution of thousands of gay men in Germany under Nazi rule in the 1930s and ’40s, homosexuality was only decriminalised in 1968 and 1969 in East and West Germany respectively, meaning many more conditioned to be ostracised and prosecuted in the years after the horror of the Holocaust.
Describing the historic discriminatory laws as a “monstrous disgrace”, German opposition party, The Greens, have called for thousands of men who were convicted of homosexuality to be immediately compensated.
According to New European, lawmakers Katja Keul and Volker Beck have sent a draft law to all parliamentary groups.
The preamble to the draft law reads, “an end must be put to the continuing scandal that men in the Federal Republic of Germany have to live with the stigma of having been convicted because they were homosexual,” the Bundestag deputies wrote in a preamble to their draft law.”
Germany’s Lesbian and Gay Federation (LSVD) have said that “time is pressing” for elderly “victims of persecution of homosexuality”.
Germany’s Justice minister Heiko Maas has said that the ministry will seek to table a bill that would quash convictions and provide compensatory arrangements. According to reports, over 50,000 people were convicted for homosexual acts, with many still alive today.
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