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Before the federal election: Transgender politician Tessa Ganserer has to overcome hurdles every day

2021-09-15T08:29:20.138Z


Nuremberg Green politician Tessa Ganserer wants to join the Bundestag. However, the election campaign is made difficult for her. And she also has to struggle with hostility in everyday life.


Nuremberg Green politician Tessa Ganserer wants to join the Bundestag.

However, the election campaign is made difficult for her.

And she also has to struggle with hostility in everyday life.

Nuremberg - Tessa Ganserer is the first politician in Germany to come out as transgender during her term of office.

Now she wants to fight for legal equality in the Bundestag - and has to overcome personal hurdles in the process.

Nuremberg politician Tessa Ganserer has to put her discarded name on the ballot paper

"If you want Tessa, you have to vote for Ganserer" - it says in thick white letters on the green election posters. It shows a woman with long blond hair that she has casually tucked behind her ear on one side. She smiles happily at the camera. Nevertheless, the Nuremberg * Bundestag candidate Tessa Ganserer is anything but happy about the posters. These are just a stopgap solution.

Her male name, which she put down almost three years ago and with which she does not identify, is still on the ballot papers.

"That is very painful and humiliating for me," says Ganserer of the dpa.

For them this is the "peak of the daily humiliations".

Because it expresses once again that the state does not accept her for who she is.

And not only that. "It's a real problem for me in the election campaign because it irritates people."

(By the way: Our Nuremberg newsletter informs you about all developments and results from the Franconian metropolis around the upcoming federal election - and of course about all other important stories from Nuremberg.)

Ganserer sees legal equality as a "basic requirement"

Like many other people in her situation, Ganserer refuses to have her first name and gender officially changed according to the Transsexual Act. The 40-year-old law stipulates that those affected may only do so after a psychological report and a court decision - in doing so, they often have to put up with very intimate questions. That is why Ganserer's ID card still contains her first name.

In everyday life, this means for her to constantly explain her identity anew, to have to justify herself again and again: during the corona test when she wants to pick up a rental car or when checking tickets on the train, she explains to the dpa. It was only in May that the Greens and the FDP made an attempt in the Bundestag to abolish the Transsexual Act and replace it with a law for gender self-determination. However, the two bills failed. The government groups and the AfD voted against.



“Legal equality is the basic requirement,” says Ganserer.

But there is more to her.

She herself is very well received, she says.

But also appraising looks, prejudices and strong hostility, especially on the Internet.

"That is not a decision from the world," admits Ganserer.

“You need

staying power

.” (

Dpa) * Merkur.de / bayern is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA

List of rubric lists: © Daniel Karmann / dpa / archivbild

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2021-09-15

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