A Rainbow Bundestag? An Intersectional Analysis of LGBTI Representation in Angela Merkel’s Germany

Who favor in-group politicians? In-group voting in France, Germany and the Netherlands and the challenges to the descriptive and substantive representation of Muslims

“…In France, there is a strong emphasis on citizenship, secularism and a strong division between church and state, there are no religious parties in the political landscape of France (Kuru 2008) and low minority representation in politics (Hughes 2016, 560). In Germany, Christian political parties have had a longstanding presence (Schotel 2021), there is an intermediate level of minority representation in politics (Hughes 2016, 560) and the approach towards Muslims is characterized by the history of integration of guestworkers (Yurdakul 2009). The Netherlands has a host of Christian parties (Kešić and Duyvendak 2019), a tradition of high minority representation in politics (Hughes 2016, 560), increased by the emergence of a political party run by Muslim parliamentarians and voicing Muslim interests in 2017, DENK (Vermeulen et al 2020).…”

Active civic education using project-based learning and attitudes towards civic engagement

“…Furthermore, this approach changes over the years. For example, a recent study indicated that LGBTI interests are increasingly visible on the political agenda in Germany (Schotel, 2022).…”

Rainbows and traffic lights: queer voters at the German ballot box

“…Using the new innovative data provided by GLES (N = 3287), we can compare average levels of support for the catalogue of parties in Germany between heterosexual (92.4 per cent) and LGB (7.6 per cent) respondents (Figure 1). Reporting the electoral Despite the CDU dragging its feet on expanding LGBT+ rights (Ahrens et al, 2022;Schotel, 2022), self-reported support for the conservatives is statistically identical between LGB (21.4 per cent) and heterosexual voters (20.2 per cent).…”

“…Comparative work demonstrates that, on average, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT+) voters -so-called lavender voters (Hertzog, 1996) -are politically distinct (Jones, 2021) and tend to prefer socially liberal, 'left' parties like the Social Democrats or the Greens (Turnbull-Dugarte, 2020) given that these parties are the political actors most inclined to drive the expansion of LGBT+ rights in the legislature. The Merkel years were a period where advances in LGBT+ rights were slow (Schotel, 2022). While 2013 brought a landmark victory for LGBT+ rights campaigners with the legalisation of equal marriage, Merkel herself did not vote in favour of the motion and the issue was only brought to a vote in the Bundestag after the Socialists (SPD)and other potential coalition partners -forced the CDU's hand (Ahrens et al, 2022).…”