SPD on equality and diversity

The SPD wants to launch a special program for inclusion and expand Bavaria's disability equality law. Its benchmark is the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Accessibility is to cover communication, housing construction, culture, and political participation.

The SPD wants to do more for people with disabilities. It plans a special program for inclusion. Inclusion means everyone can take part everywhere. Public offices should offer more in easy language and sign language. New homes should be built without barriers.

Public bodies are to offer more publications in easy language, as sign-language videos, and in Braille. For new housing, the SPD plans binding accessibility rules, which it also justifies with demographic change. Procurement law would be changed so that state agencies take accessible use into account when expanding cultural and media infrastructure. Legal rules are to secure political participation by people with disabilities. Mothers with psychological disabilities aged 27 and over would be able to live with their child in family homes.

The SPD wants to revise the Bavarian Equal Opportunities Act so that the public sector leads the way on equality between women and men. Equal opportunities officers would get more powers, and violations would have consequences.

The SPD wants a new equality law in Bavaria. Equality means women and men have the same chances. Public offices should set an example. Breaking the law should have consequences.

The revised law would include concrete targets and allow more part-time work, including in leadership positions. Sanctions and lawsuits would become possible in cases of violations. The law would also apply to associations, institutions and companies that are majority-owned by the public sector. The SPD calls for balanced participation of women in all areas of the public service and justifies this with what it sees as continuing structural disadvantage.

The SPD wants public money to benefit all genders equally. To that end, the state budget is to be planned and managed according to gender equality criteria (gender budgeting).

The state spends a lot of money. The SPD wants this money to help women and men equally. So Bavaria should check this for every spending decision. This is called gender budgeting.

Pilot projects are to start in several ministries first. After that, the SPD wants to extend the approach step by step to the entire state administration. The platform refers to the European goal of applying gender budgeting at every level. In addition, more money is to go to public transportation because, according to the platform, children and women benefit from it most.

The SPD wants to help children and young adults move beyond conventional gender roles. In the platform's view, such stereotypes entrench existing inequalities.

Many people think girls should be quiet and boys should be tough. The SPD wants to break down these fixed ideas. There should be campaigns in daycare centers, schools and universities. Everyone there should talk about sexism.

The plan includes statewide campaigns in daycare centers, schools, universities and vocational training. They are meant to prompt discussion of sexism and gender clichés, how they work and what they lead to. Young people are also to get support when choosing a career or field of study. The SPD also wants to counter the reduction of women to their appearance.

The SPD wants to write equal representation of women and men into Bavarian election law. Leadership bodies of state-owned companies and professorships are also to be filled half by women.

The SPD wants as many women as men in the state parliament. This should be written into election law. Women should also hold half of the top posts in state-owned companies. At universities, every second professor should be a woman.

The platform argues that political decisions turn out better when women take part equally at every level. Executive boards, supervisory boards and committees in companies owned by the state are to be filled half by women and half by men. A 50 percent quota for women is to apply to professorships at universities and colleges. Target quotas for doctorates and habilitations (postdoctoral qualifications) are meant to lead there.

The SPD wants to draw up a state action plan for the acceptance of sexual diversity to curb discrimination and violence against queer people. It also plans more services for queer youth, police training and a statewide coordination office.

Queer people are, for example, lesbian, gay or trans. The SPD wants to protect them better from hate and violence. Bavaria should get an action plan for this. There should be more safe places for queer young people. Police officers should get training on this.

The plan is to be developed together with associations, initiatives, clubs, self-help groups and ministries, with a focus on education in schools, training workplaces and clubs. Services and safe spaces for queer youth are to be expanded. Anti-queer crimes are to be recorded and prosecuted consistently, and a coordination and equality office is to advise on discrimination and connect organizations. Further plans concern queer refugees, teacher training, health care especially for trans people, and sports. The state is to join the Charta der Vielfalt (Diversity Charter) and support queer employee groups in public administration.

The SPD wants to fight racism at every level and sees this as the basis for integration. It plans a state anti-discrimination law and legally mandated anti-discrimination offices. It also wants the term “race” removed from the Basic Law, Germany's constitution.

The SPD wants to act against racism. Bavaria should get a law against discrimination. Discrimination means people are treated worse, for example because of where they come from. There should be offices everywhere that help those affected. The word “race” should be removed from the German constitution.

The platform lists an initiative to strike the word “race” from the Basic Law and an anti-discrimination law for Bavaria. One anti-discrimination office per 70,000 residents would be required by law, modeled on Baden-Württemberg. The SPD describes racism as an especially serious form of discrimination.

The SPD wants to fully implement the Istanbul Convention on protecting women from violence in Bavaria and to fund women's shelters and counseling services reliably. Gender equality policy is to follow the EU Gender Equality Strategy. EU rules on equal pay and pay transparency are also to be implemented.

The SPD wants to protect women better from violence. Women's shelters should have enough money and enough places. Women and men should get the same pay for the same work. To do this, the SPD wants to apply EU rules in Bavaria.

To implement the Istanbul Convention, the platform names funding for women's shelters, guaranteed places, and adequate, reliable support for help and counseling services dealing with gender-based violence. The state of Bavaria, as an employer, is to apply the EU equal pay directive in full. The SPD wants to implement the European pay transparency directive once it has been adopted. Human trafficking for sexual exploitation is to be ended through targeted measures, in line with demands by the European Parliament and the OSCE.