German-speaking countries ramp up 'gender-affirming care' for minors in a time when many countries move away from it. This could have far reaching consequences for the entirety of Europe.
Germany and Austria have a terrible habit of copying most cultural phenomena from the U.S. on about a 3-year delay, because they have no confidence in their own culture. They have still not hit peak woke, in fact their professional-managerial class (who are obsessed with being seen as Good and Not Nazis) is probably the wokest in Europe. There is a German Federal Government Commissioner for Queerness (https://www.bmfsfj.de/bmfsfj/ministerium/behoerden-beauftragte-beiraete-gremien/queer-beauftragter-der-bundesregierung). The self-ID law that came into force in Germany in November is the most liberal in Europe, allowing anyone to change their legal sex once a year, parents to change their child's legal sex from the age of 5, and children to change their legal sex from the age of 14. There is pushback from some newspapers/websites but almost none on TV/radio. In Brandenburg recently, a male asylum seeker who'd just stabbed someone to death was placed in a women's pre-trial detention facility because he claimed he was a woman and wanted to be called "Cleopatra". He became violent and displayed his erect penis. When the authorities finally moved him to a men's facility, local hard-left politicians in Berlin started a "Justice for Cleo" campaign to have him put back in the women's.
I lived in Germany for 11 years (leaving in 2016) and the country has gone completely insane. Ordinary people haven't changed and aren't on board with all the crazy policies, but that doesn't seem to trouble the decision-makers.
Germany and Austria have a terrible habit of copying most cultural phenomena from the U.S. on about a 3-year delay, because they have no confidence in their own culture. They have still not hit peak woke, in fact their professional-managerial class (who are obsessed with being seen as Good and Not Nazis) is probably the wokest in Europe. There is a German Federal Government Commissioner for Queerness (https://www.bmfsfj.de/bmfsfj/ministerium/behoerden-beauftragte-beiraete-gremien/queer-beauftragter-der-bundesregierung). The self-ID law that came into force in Germany in November is the most liberal in Europe, allowing anyone to change their legal sex once a year, parents to change their child's legal sex from the age of 5, and children to change their legal sex from the age of 14. There is pushback from some newspapers/websites but almost none on TV/radio. In Brandenburg recently, a male asylum seeker who'd just stabbed someone to death was placed in a women's pre-trial detention facility because he claimed he was a woman and wanted to be called "Cleopatra". He became violent and displayed his erect penis. When the authorities finally moved him to a men's facility, local hard-left politicians in Berlin started a "Justice for Cleo" campaign to have him put back in the women's.
I lived in Germany for 11 years (leaving in 2016) and the country has gone completely insane. Ordinary people haven't changed and aren't on board with all the crazy policies, but that doesn't seem to trouble the decision-makers.