Women’s rights campaigners in Berlin protested during a debate on sex self-identification legislation currently underway, even as a trans-identified male politician wearing a wig and visible underwear spoke in support. MP Tessa Ganserer, formerly known as Markus, advocated for the proposed bill, having been elected to Germany’s Bundestag in 2021 amid controversy for taking a seat that was reserved for female political representation.
Germany is currently in the process of reviewing the Self-Determination Act (Selbstbestimmung in Bezug auf den Geschlechtseintrag – SBGG), which would allow minors from the age of 14 to change the sex marker on their identification and begin a medical transition. Should parents or guardians object, a family court may intervene to override a lack of consent. Measures included in the SBGG would also classify “deadnaming” as an offense potentially punishable by a fine of up to €10,000 ($10,800), while also permitting citizens to alter identification documents on an annual basis.
In a discussion about the Self-Determination Act held in the Bundestag on November 28, women’s rights campaigners vocally opposed the legislation outside the Paul-Löbe-Haus in Berlin while Ganserer spoke in favor of it. Ganserer had chosen to wear sexualized attire, including a wig, a transparent lace blouse, and a black bra.
The image of Ganserer dressed in black lace was juxtaposed against that of women standing outside in freezing temperatures to protest the SBGG, prompting criticism on social media.
The demonstration was organized by Monne Kühn from the Frauenhaus Uelzen, a domestic violence shelter for women and children, as well as by women’s rights groups Lasst Frauen Sprechen (Let Women Speak), RadFem Kollektiv Berlin, and attended by LSquad Berlin, the latter being a group centered on protecting the rights of lesbians. Women held a banner reading, “Yes to women’s rights! No to self-ID!”
In a press statement, the feminist groups outlined their intention to “express our ongoing resistance, indignation and anger” against the proposed sex self-identification law. They also stated that women’s rights advocates had not been invited to contribute to the debate.
“Independent, critical feminists were not invited to the hearing on the SBGG; their criticism of the law, which has serious consequences for women and girls, is ignored or trivialized by the government. We therefore protest against the exclusion of feminist voices from the hearing and the entire legislative process.”
The women’s groups disavowed The German Women’s Council (Deutscher Frauenrat – Lobby der Frauen in Deutschland), an umbrella group which includes 62 member organizations with 11 million members. The Council was criticized for its use of the term “gender identity” by the women’s rights campaigners, as official statements from Council leaders have asserted that gender is a criterion on which violence against women is based.
“Gender is not an identity, it is our reality. Sex is not a question of self-determination. Women worldwide experience male violence in the form of oppression, rape, mutilation, exclusion and contempt. Violence is done to them because they are women, not because they feel like women.”
The press release continues: “It is misogynistic when a law grants all men the legal fiction of changing their gender and thus transforms the whole of being a woman into a legal ‘fiction’. A law that intends such a fiction is irresponsible. As a result, women lose the power to name themselves as a group, to organize themselves and to demand their rights. They lose their sense of security in women’s spaces.”
Ganserer was first elected under his given name Markus to the Bavarian state parliament in 2013, where he represented the Greens. He has claimed that “a penis is not a male sexual organ” and “there are women who have penises.”
In December 2018, Ganserer publicly announced that he identified as transgender — a declaration that immediately secured his place as the first male representative in a German state parliament to do so.
During a March 2019 press conference, Ganserer explained that he decided to begin identifying as a woman after years of stealing his wife’s clothing and dressing up in secret.
“At first I was totally surprised at myself. But I immediately felt that there was more, it wasn’t a fetish, I felt like a woman,” said Ganserer.
In 2021, Ganserer was selected by the Alliance 90 / the Greens party for the federal election. In response, the Women’s Declaration International branch in Germany issued a public statement condemning his participation in the election, pointing out that a total of three men had taken women’s places as candidates: Ganserer, as well as Nyke Slawik and Victoria Brossart.
“The German Green Party and the Social Democratic Party are discriminating against women in politics on the basis of sex,” read the statement.
“Three men claiming a female ‘gender identity’ who are running as candidates for the general election are listed by the Green Party as women. The Party thus prevents three women, defined as adult human females, from running for the Bundestag for the benefit of three men (adult human males.”
Ganserer was elected to Germany’s Bundestag in September 2021, taking a seat that was reserved for female political representation. He has made numerous appearances at events specifically for women.
In 2021, he took part in a demonstration for lesbian visibility organized by Dyke March Nürnberg, where he was photographed with his wife holding signs that read “Lesbian cake.”
The following year, Ganserer was a speaker at the Dyke March in Hamburg, and spoke about the rights of “lesbian mothers.” Ganserer has fathered two children with his wife.
Leading up to the event, the hashtag #MarkusIstNichtLesbisch was trending on Twitter as German women expressed their outrage that a man was set to speak, ostensibly on his experience of identifying as a woman.
In March 2022, Ganserer was selected by the Green Party to present at an event highlighting women in politics. The event, titled Women*. Power. Politics, used an asterisk throughout its description to indicate “all women are welcome,” by which they were referring to males who identified as women.
“Transvestite & exhibitionist Ganserer in the Bundestag. Among the fetishists he is one of the most uninhibited I have ever seen. And I talked to men for money who showed me their lingerie via webcam while they were working.”
“Lasst Frauen Sprechen” (Let Women Speak), RadFem Kollektiv, Lesbisches Aktionszentrum, and the feminist Professor Dr. Monika Barz have filed statements in opposition to the proposed self-identification bill, which the German government has listed as “unsolicited comments” on the Bundestag website.
A November 13 statement from Lasst Frauen Sprechen reads, “We are a group of feminists who see this law as incompatible with the interests and rights of women. We are convinced that the foundation for a new misogynistic era is being laid here - well hidden - and we would like to invite you to engage with our criticism and feminist perspective.”
The document details multiple harms to women and children as a result of gender identity ideology, including dangers posed by the erosion of single-sex spaces, and the medical harms done to “trans children.”
“The Self-Determination Act thus undermines women’s and children’s rights. We know: It takes courage to stand against a zeitgeist that, on the one hand, knows how to sell this law as a sign of openness and tolerance. And who, on the other hand, describes any criticism of a development as a ‘right-wing narrative’ and hostile. But it is necessary. We therefore hereby implore you NOT to participate in this historically unique process of placing fiction over reality and ask you to vote AGAINST the law.”
Yet again men’s fetishistic sexual perversions of “feeling like women in women panties” over real women. I f@@king hate the world right now.
Thank you so much for being out international voice! It's so important for us in Germany.