Overview
- Germany’s CDU/CSU parliamentary leader used a Die Zeit double interview published Wednesday to state, in German, “Ich bin schwul, nicht queer.”
- He asked not to be called “homosexuell,” saying the word sounds sterile, and SPD counterpart Matthias Miersch agreed that it feels clinical.
- Spahn said people are free to call themselves queer but he opposes linking the label to a political program.
- He argued that making gender a matter of self-definition questions women’s emancipation and cited toilets and women’s prisons as real‑world concerns.
- He recalled CDU worries in 2001 after Berlin mayor Klaus Wowereit came out and said attitudes have shifted, with no party rebuke or policy change reported in current coverage.