Sexual Minority Rights and the 2017 German Election

This paper examines the 2017 election through the lens of LGBTI politics and argues that sexual minority rights played a critical, but contradictory, role in the run up to the federal election. On the one hand, leftist parties such as the SPD, Greens, and Left party made marriage equality a critical campaign issue and a requirement for any post-election coalition with the Christian Democrats. This hardline stance in turn forced a reluctant CDU/CSU to allow a Bundestag vote on the issue during the last legislative session before the election. Openly lesbian and gay politicians – including the AfD’s lead candidate Alice Weigel and one of Merkel’s potential successors Jens Spahn – played visible roles in the campaign. On the other hand, local branches of the AfD ran openly homophobic campaign posters and issues other than marriage-equality gained far less attention.