Linke on equality and diversity

The Left wants more places in women's shelters and permanent funding for the support system for victims of violence. The state action plan on the Istanbul Convention is to be updated and carried out in a binding way. Counseling and training on digital violence are also to grow.

Women should be better protected from violence. There should be more places in women's shelters. Counseling centers should get lasting funding. There should also be more help with violence on the internet.

The coordination office for the Istanbul Convention, a European treaty against violence toward women, is to be made permanent, and shelters and counseling centers would again get their own networking structure. The federal government, the state and municipalities are to share the funding. A statewide high-risk management system for domestic violence and fixed risk-assessment procedures are meant to prevent femicides. Counseling, intervention offices and work with perpetrators are to be expanded. Police and courts would get training on digital violence such as stalking or deepfake pornography.

At the federal level, the Left supports repealing Section 218 of the Criminal Code, which governs abortion, without replacement. Abortions are to count as health care. In the state, it wants to secure counseling, medical care and obstetric services close to home.

Abortion is in the criminal law today. The Left wants to remove that section. An abortion should be part of normal health care. There should be counseling, doctors and midwives everywhere in the state.

Pregnancy conflict counseling not run by churches is to be reachable across the state and adequately funded for the long term. Abortion is to become a bigger part of medical training and continuing education, especially in teaching hospitals. Midwife care and obstetrics are to grow, with better pay for attending midwives to close gaps in rural areas. The Left also wants to strengthen gender-specific medicine and make the state a leader in this field.

The Left is seeking a parity rule for the next local elections to bring more women into political office. Women are to be supported in leadership positions and paid equally for work of equal value. The platform points out that women are underrepresented in leadership and earn less.

In local elections, as many women as men should run. The Left wants a rule for that. Women should become bosses more often. Women and men should get the same pay for work of equal value.

Mentoring and training programs are to grow, and the public sector is to allow shared leadership and part-time leadership. The Left wants to strengthen collective bargaining coverage, reduce the gender pay gap and set up a round table on old-age poverty. The office of the state commissioner for women and equality is to be secured permanently and given a stronger mandate. Municipal equality officers, the state women's council and women's associations are to get reliable funding. Girls' Day and Boys' Day would become mandatory in ninth grade, and gender competence would be part of teacher training.

The Left wants to write the protection of queer people into the state constitution and keep pushing in the Bundesrat to add sexual identity to the Basic Law. It wants to fully fund the state action plan for sexual and gender diversity. It opposes a ban on gender-inclusive language in government offices and schools.

Queer people should be protected in the state constitution. Queer means, for example, lesbian, gay or trans. The federal constitution should protect them too. The Left is against banning gender-inclusive language in offices and schools.

Schools are to be free of discrimination, and teachers are to respect the identity and chosen names of children and teenagers. Queer life is to be part of the curriculum, for example in social studies, biology and history. Queer initiatives, associations and Christopher Street Day events would receive cultural funding, especially in rural areas. A training program would prepare police for crimes against queer people. Also planned are more counseling centers for victims of violence, queer health care centers and queer-sensitive medicine as a learning goal at the universities of Rostock and Greifswald.

The Left wants a separate anti-discrimination law for the state and more counseling centers. The federal General Equal Treatment Act is to be reviewed and tightened. The platform argues that discrimination must not go without consequences.

The Left wants its own state law against discrimination. Discrimination means someone is treated worse than others. There should be more counseling centers. People affected should be able to sue more easily.

Anti-discrimination counseling and the state anti-discrimination office are to get long-term funding. For the federal law, the Left calls for better ways to sue, longer deadlines, effective penalties and closing gaps in protection. Mobile counseling for people affected would get extra money. The projects are to receive funding that does not depend on the term of the European Social Fund.