Munich Pride 2024: Why we cannot accept the party CSU
Neither the party nor the city council group fulfill the requirements
OUR STATEMENT
We have decided that the registration of the CSU city council faction for the PolitParade 2024 must unfortunately be rejected. The fundamental prerequisite for all participants is that they are committed to equal rights and social acceptance for all queer people. The polemic paragraph on identity politics and wokeness in the CSU's manifesto, the rejection of the federal self-determination law in the current coalition agreement with the Freie Wähler, the Prime Minister's gender ban for all state authorities and, most recently, the motion by CSU city councillor Alexander Reissl, who wants to ban gender equal language within Munich's city administration, show that both the CSU as a party and the CSU city council faction still do not fulfil these important requirements.
THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTIONS, THE MOST IMPORTANT ANSWERS
Can the CSU have a truck at the Pride parade?
No, according to the decision of the organisers of Munich Pride, the party CSU (as well as its branches) is not allowed to participate in the parade.
Is the LSU (Lesben und Schwulen in der Union) allowed to have a truck at Munich Pride's parade?
Yes, the LSU Bayern may take part in the parade. Of course, politicians from the CSU may also show their support. However, the group must be clearly recognisable as LSU.
Why is the LSU allowed to take part in the Parade, but not the CSU?
The members of LSU Bayern are committed to equality, the concerns and needs of the queer community within the CSU. For this reason, and because they are part of the queer community, they are allowed to take part in the parade.
Are the CSU and the LSU allowed to run an information stand at Munich Pride's street festival?
Yes, both the LSU and the CSU (and their branches) are free to participate in the street festival with an information stand, as in previous years. The organisers would expressly welcome this and cordially invite the LSU and the CSU to use an information stand for this purpose in order to enter into an exchange with all queer communities.
Why is the CSU not allowed to register a truck at the parade?
In our view, the CSU cannot credibly demonstrate that it supports the core demands of CSD Munich. We can see this in their basic programme, public statements, their voting behaviour in the Bavarian and the German Parliament, in the Bundesrat and announced legal action before the Federal Constitutional Court.
One example of this is the Self-Determination Act: Munich Pride has been calling for years for the abolition of the Transsexuals Act and its replacement by a Self-Determination Act, as has now been initiated by the federal government. The Bavarian state government, made up of the CSU and the Freie Wähle, has only one sentence in its basic programme: "We reject the federal self-determination law" and is trying to prevent this draft law from coming into force in the Bundestag.
Bavarian State Minister Ulrike Scharf speaks of "trans fashion" and claims: "In future, young people whose identity formation is far from complete should be able to change their first name and gender like socks."
The CSU also positions itself in its foreign policy: Viktor Orban can keep the Franz Josef Strauß Award despite his right-wing and anti-queer policies and last year a CSU delegation visited Ron DeSantis. The governor of the US state of Florida had only recently introduced his anti-gay laws, which meant that any information about homosexuality and queerness was a criminal offence in the state of Florida and libraries had to remove all books on the subject.
But the CSU is now also in favour of gays and lesbians, isn't it?
That is partly true. However, not only gays, lesbians and bisexuals are queer people, but also transgender, intersex and non-binary people. The CSU does not stand up for these people and even regularly creates an atmosphere against them.
Put simply, for the CSU there are accepted homosexuals on the one hand and trans* people on the other. However, we as a community do not allow ourselves to be divided, but instead stand up for the rights of all queer people, true to our motto "United in diversity"!
Why is the CSU in Bavaria treated differently to the CDU in Berlin, for example?
We have specifically decided on the CSU's participation in the Pride in Munich. The CDU's possible participation in Prides in other cities has no relevance in our view. In our view, both the positions of the parties and the public statements of the leading politicians of both parties differ considerably. Another reason is that the CDU recognises the LSU regional associations as party branches, while the CSU does not.
Is Munich Pride constantly looking for new reasons to exclude the CSU?
No, the main reason remains as described, that in our view the CSU cannot credibly demonstrate that it supports the core demands of CSD Munich. However, we use current examples in our communication with the CSU and the press.
Was the CSU excluded because of the motto against the right? Does Munich Pride see the CSU as right-wing?
No, Munich Pride sees the CSU as conservative and not right-wing, even if we see a need to catch up in many areas with regard to positions on the equality of queer people.
Was the CSU excluded (only) because of the gender ban in Bavaria?
No. As described above, the CSU is not allowed to take part in the parade because it cannot credibly demonstrate that it supports the core demands of this political demonstration. The gender ban was one of many arguments against participation.
What about queer voters or members of the CSU?
Of course there are queer people who vote for the CSU and party members who do important work to promote the acceptance of queer people in the CSU and society as a whole. We would like to expressly recognise this work! Nevertheless, individual positive examples of commitment to queer rights do not outweigh the CSU's basic programme.
What about the headwind from the community and civil society?
We have received a clear signal from our organisations diversity München, LesCommunity, Sub, Münchner Aids-Hilfe and Rosa Liste, which represent a large part of the queer community, that our decision was the right one.
We appreciate constructive criticism of our decisions. However, we regret that the critics did not approach us directly, but that we learnt about their criticism from the media. We will seek dialogue in the coming weeks and explain our decision.
We welcome it if, after listening to both sides, someone still believes that the CSU should be allowed to take part in CSD. Democracy and a colourful community also thrive on dissent and different positions.
The CSU city council faction claims that it has been committed to queer rights for years? Is that true?
Yes and no. Yes, because the CSU city council faction has been voting in favour of more queer projects in Munich for years. Yes, because there are also councillors in the CSU city council parliamentary group, such as Alexandra Gaßman and Thomas Schmid, who are in regular and trusting dialogue with the queer community. However, individual CSU city councillors repeatedly attract attention with polemicising statements and motions directed against the queer community.
Although the CSU in Munich is one of the most liberal local branches of the party, the state government's attacks on queer rights remain unchallenged by the CSU city council faction - at least publicly. For this reason, the CSU city council faction is also not allowed to take part in the Pride parade.
Footnotes (in German):
[1] https://www.csdmuenchen.de/de/politische-forderungen.html
[2] https://www.csu.de/common/download/Koalitionsvertrag_2023_Freiheit_und_Stabilitaet.pdf
[4] https://www.stmas.bayern.de/aktuelle-meldungen/pm2207-187.php
[5] https://www.hss.de/news/detail/wir-beobachten-die-entwicklung-news6097/
[6] https://www.queer.de/detail.php?article_id=45494
[7] https://www.queer.de/detail.php?article_id=45494
[8] https://www.cdu.de/ueber-uns/struktur-der-cdu; https://www.lsu-deutschlands.de/ueber-uns/
[9] https://www.csu.de/partei/parteiarbeit; https://www.lsu-bayern.de/
