Exclusive: Former MEP and digital expert Felix Reda comes out as trans

Created: 01/26/2022, 11:53 am

By: Juliane Löffler

Felix Reda © Volker Conradus

Felix Reda: "I feel very good the way I am"

Since last year, the digital expert has been outed as trans in the circle of friends and colleagues at work, now Felix Reda also wants to inform the public.

"I'm trans," he says exclusively to Ippen Investigativ*.

"I don't want to hide and be addressed by my new name." 

With this step, Reda wants to set an example for more acceptance, but also correct the way the media deals with herself.

"I've struggled with the female role all my life," says Reda in an interview.

"I couldn't identify with it at all, as I'm seen in the media."

This applies particularly to his time as an MEP. 

Felix Reda, previously known with a female first name, is a digital expert on copyright and freedom of communication and is known on Twitter as "senficon".

From 2014 to 2019 he was the only member of the European Parliament for the Pirate Party and one of the deputy leaders of the Greens/EFA group.

Reda sat for the Pirate Party in the European Parliament

In 2019, Reda publicly positioned itself on the controversial EU copyright reform.

Reda particularly criticized the so-called upload filters.

The fear: In the future, content that is actually legal on the Internet would be wrongly blocked.

This puts freedom of speech at risk.

At the time, Reda was one of the main spokesmen of the protests, in which both large website operators such as Wikipedia and hundreds of thousands of private users took part.

Reda described the reform as an "attack on the free internet".

In early 2019, he left the party after #MeToo allegations against one of his employees became known*, which were later confirmed by a responsible committee of the EU Parliament.

The employee had denied the allegations against him, Reda had accused the party's national board of hesitation and called for the beginning of the election campaign not to vote for the pirates.

Today Reda is non-party, since 2020 he has been working for the Society for Freedom Rights (GFF).

The GFF supports legal procedures for fundamental and human rights, such as for the legal equality of lesbian mothers.

Reda would like to continue to be in the public eye for his digital policy issues and less for queer politics.

"Being trans doesn't define my whole personality and I hope it doesn't override my expertise on other issues in the eyes of the media," Reda said.

"Being trans doesn't define my whole personality"

In retrospect, Reda partly justified her withdrawal from politics with the discomfort of being in the public eye.

“I always found it funny when the press commented on my pantsuits or I got a very feminine look in the make-up on TV, even if I just wanted to be lightly powdered.

Later I found it pleasant not to be so much the focus.”

The recent case of Jascha Urbach, known for his network and queer activist work, showed how difficult it can be to recognize one's own gender in public. A controversial discussion erupted on Wikipedia as to whether changing Urbach's first name and non-binary identity was compatible with the platforms' guidelines. Urbach made the dispute public on Twitter. The key question: Can a person decide for themselves to correct their first name and gender? Or does it need legitimacy from an external authority, such as a court or press reports, for public recognition?

In the federal elections last September, two trans MPs, Tessa Ganserer* and Nyke Slawik, entered parliament for the first time.

Above all, Ganserer is in favor of replacing the transsexual law.

Several paragraphs of the law have already been declared invalid by the Federal Constitutional Court.

What remains is a legal ruin that is considered completely outdated.

Almost all parties have already expressed their willingness to reform, according to the coalition agreement, a new self-determination law is to replace the old regulation.

In the future, procedures should be less complicated at the registry offices, Family Minister Anne Spiegel announced in an interview with the taz that they would be implemented quickly.

The transsexual law is to be replaced soon

Reda would now also like to have his marital status changed, but this has not been possible for him so far.

According to the law, the right to a change is only granted to those who “have been under compulsion for at least three years” to identify themselves as the opposite sex when it was stated on the birth certificate.

Reda finds this approach by the legislature to be completely wrong.

"Some people may feel a compulsion, I personally don't feel that way.

Last year I very consciously made the decision that I also want to live publicly as I see fit.” 

Reda is now hoping for a quick change through the new traffic light coalition. "I would like politicians to finally take action," says Reda - also because the transsexual law is problematic overall. Trans people are currently required to obtain two independent psychological assessments and are subject to a court decision on their gender registration. They have to bear the costs themselves. That has a deterrent effect, according to Reda. Trans people often had discriminatory and traumatizing experiences in these procedures.

It is still unclear when the coalition will present a reform proposal for the transsexual law.

The departments involved are in talks about this, according to a request from the Ministry of Family Affairs.

Information on the timetable is not yet available at the moment.

Reda's employer, the Society for Freedom Rights, is now supporting a constitutional complaint: The "Third Option", which has been in force since 2019, allows people to change their gender entry to "diverse" or have it deleted entirely.

It is controversial* whether a medical certificate is required for this and whether transgender people or other people are allowed to use this procedure in addition to intersex people.

It is still unclear whether the complaint will be accepted in Karlsruhe.

Should the Federal Constitutional Court decide faster than the legislature, 

The politician does not quarrel with his own path.

"I feel very comfortable the way I am," says Reda.

"And I think it's very important that there are role models who show that being trans is not a stroke of fate." Reda feels strengthened by coming out and can imagine returning to politics in the future.

*