Linke on equality and diversity

The Left wants to secure health care for trans and intersex people. A competence center for gender medicine is to make training, teaching and research gender-sensitive.

The Left wants good medical care for trans and intersex people. A new center should be set up for this. It should do research and train experts. Doctors and nurses should learn more about it.

The center is to be established in Saxony and deal with gender-sensitive medicine. Additional training and continuing education are to be created for the health professions. The party also aims for a health system free of barriers, discrimination and abuse. More people with disabilities should be able to enter health professions.

The Left wants to implement the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities at every political level and end separate structures for people with disabilities in work, housing and education. Saxony's Inklusionsgesetz (inclusion act) is to be revised and extended to municipalities.

People with disabilities should be able to take part everywhere. The Left wants to end separate facilities. This applies to work, housing and school. Saxony's inclusion law should also apply to cities and towns.

The measures of the state action plan are to be turned into concrete legislation. The aim is an open labor market with free choice of workplace and an inclusive education system, including vocational training. The state is to give municipalities more support in implementing the Bundesteilhabegesetz (federal participation act), and professions such as special-needs care are to be made more attractive. For political participation, more texts are to be put into easy-to-read language, sign language interpreters used at political events and election platforms translated into sign language. In the party's view, inclusion must not depend on budget conditions.

The Left wants full accessibility for buildings, transport, devices and digital services. The DIN 18040 standard is to be written into Saxony's building law, and an independent state accessibility office is to provide advice.

Everyone should be able to use buildings, buses and websites. The Left wants to make this a duty. New buildings should be planned without barriers from the start. There should be more homes without barriers. A new state office should give advice.

Expert review and advisory offices are to be consulted on a mandatory basis already during planning. The party wants to fund considerably more accessible housing as well as inclusive neighborhoods and housing projects. New funding programs are to support accessible conversion of existing homes regardless of who lives there. The Barrierefreiheitsstärkungsgesetz (accessibility strengthening act) is to be binding in the public and private sectors, with exemptions and transition periods reviewed. The platform calls for faster progress on digital accessibility.

The Left wants to roll out the pilot project “Schule der Vielfalt” (School of Diversity) across Saxony and include diversity-aware sex education in all curricula. It also plans complaint offices and shelter options for queer young people.

A project for diversity in schools should run in all of Saxony. All curricula should include diverse sex education. Schools and universities should get offices for complaints. Queer young people should be able to find a safe place.

Schools and universities would be required to set up independent offices that people can turn to in cases of anti-queer hostility and racism. For queer young people whose parents reject their sexual identity, the Left wants to create places of refuge. Sex education would be written into every curriculum.

The Left wants to achieve real gender equality. It calls for 50 percent quotas for women in leadership positions and bodies, an end to the pay gap and broader protection against discrimination in the Basic Law.

Women and men should be truly equal. The Left wants half of all top jobs to go to women. Women should earn the same for the same work. The constitution should also protect people from unfair treatment because of sexual orientation.

The platform cites a pay gap of 11.8 percent in Saxony for comparable qualifications and work. Applications in public companies and the administration would be anonymized. Collective agreements would evaluate work in a gender-sensitive way, so that the demands of the job count rather than the person. Women would get more support in male-dominated occupations, skilled trades, academia and STEM subjects, including through networks. Counseling for people affected by discrimination would be expanded. Article 3 of the Basic Law would be amended to include sexual orientation.

The Left wants a law requiring that candidate lists for elections include equal numbers of women and men. The goal is equal representation of the sexes in Saxony's parliaments.

The Left wants a parity law. Parity means as many women as men. Parties would have to build their candidate lists that way. This should bring more women into parliaments.

The platform calls for a binding rule on how candidate lists are drawn up. The law is to be designed so that it holds up in court. It would apply to parliaments in Saxony and aims for equal numbers of women and men there.

The Left wants a state law against discrimination by public authorities that gives affected people rights they can enforce in court. It also calls for more counseling offices, services for queer people, and a ban on sexist advertising in public spaces.

The Left wants a law against unfair treatment by public offices. People affected should be able to sue. There should be more advice centers, especially in rural areas. Queer people should be better protected. Sexist ads in streets and squares should be banned.

The law is meant to strengthen collective legal action. Anti-discrimination offices are to be set up mainly in rural areas, along with queer shared housing, autonomous houses for women and gender minorities, and an independent reporting center modeled on Berlin's "Maneo." Associations and nonprofit providers would get more money for staff. The platform calls for equal rights in fertility treatment and adoption, greater awareness among police and courts of anti-queer hate crime, and better protection for queer refugees. Menstrual products are to be available in all public restrooms, and sexist and discriminatory advertising in public spaces is to be prohibited.

The Left wants full implementation of the Istanbul Convention, a European treaty against violence toward women. Shelters are to be expanded and paid for entirely by the state, and the number of shelter places is to at least double.

The Left wants to protect women better from violence. There should be at least twice as many shelter places. The state of Saxony should pay for shelters in full. People affected should no longer pay anything themselves.

Coordination and intervention offices are to grow according to need, and counseling is to be adequately funded. Trauma clinics are to be set up statewide, along with expertise on online violence and monitoring of femicides. Police and courts are to receive better training, including on the principle that protection from violence takes priority over visitation rights. Shelters are to be made accessible. Refugees who experience violence are to receive a residence right of their own.

The Left wants to fundamentally change Saxony's law implementing the Prostitute Protection Act and end controls and stigma. Sex workers are to be supported. Victims of human trafficking and forced prostitution are to receive comprehensive protection rights.

The Left wants a new law on sex work in Saxony. Sex workers should no longer be looked down on and strictly controlled. They should get help and advice. Victims of human trafficking should get better protection.

Self-determination at work and self-organization among sex workers are to be promoted, and counseling centers supported. Trafficking victims are to be protected even if their residence status is unresolved or they do not want to cooperate with investigators. Specialist counseling centers are to get enough money to offer safe apartments. Counselors are to receive the right to refuse to testify so that conversations stay confidential.

The Left wants the state of Saxony to use gender-inclusive language in its texts in order to point to gender diversity. The education minister's instruction banning such spellings in schools is to be withdrawn.

The Left wants language that names all genders. The state of Saxony should write this way. Schools are not allowed to use this spelling today. The Left wants to end that ban.

The program lists laws, regulations, guidelines and statutes of the state as areas of use. Statistics, forms, websites, handouts and circulars issued by the state are also to be adapted. The education minister's instruction to schools is to be reversed right away.

The Left wants to end violence and discrimination against queer people through prevention and intervention. It plans an independent reporting and counseling center, places of refuge, more awareness work in schools and better access to counseling and health care.

Queer people often face violence and exclusion. The Left wants a center where people can report such cases. There should be safe places for those affected. Schools should also teach more about this. Counseling and medical help should be easier to reach.

Places of refuge are to be open to people who experience violence in relationships or have to leave a hostile environment. The pilot project "Schule der Vielfalt" (School of Diversity) is to be secured and expanded, along with guidelines for including trans, intersex and non-binary students and diversity in curricula. The party wants to keep offerings by Christian fundamentalist groups such as "TeenSTAR" out of schools. A competence center for queer health is to be set up, and HIV/AIDS services are to become more accessible in rural areas and for prisoners and refugees. Counseling is to be available statewide for all age groups, and sports are to be equally open to all genders.

The Left demands that Saxony work in the Bundesrat for the protection of queer people, including by adding to Article 3 of the Basic Law. Rainbow families are to be put on an equal footing and the "Landesaktionsplan Vielfalt" (state action plan on diversity) renewed.

The Left wants more rights for queer people. The constitution should clearly protect them from unfair treatment. Families with two mothers or two fathers should have equal rights. Saxony should push for this at the federal level.

Article 3 is to name sexual orientation and gender identity as well. The party calls for what it sees as a modern self-determination law, plus a reckoning with and compensation for wrongs done to trans people. New rules on civil status and names are to apply quickly in Saxony, and the dgti supplementary ID is to be recognized more easily in public institutions. Adoption law is to be changed and funding for fertility treatment opened to same-sex parents. The state action plan is to be revised together with the community and backed with budget funds.