What do the parties in North Rhine-Westphalia say on equality and diversity?

The AfD wants to ban gender-inclusive forms in written language and points to France as a model. It regards such spellings as a change forced on the German language.

The AfD wants to ban gender-inclusive writing. That means spelling words so that all genders are included. The party thinks this harms the German language. France is its model.

The AfD wants to keep gender theory out of curricula and lessons because it considers it an ideological construct. Sex education is to be age-appropriate and respect boundaries of modesty. Curricula and teaching should, in its view, be free of political influence.

The AfD does not want gender theory in schools. Gender theory says that gender is also shaped by society. The AfD thinks this is wrong. Sex education should fit the age of the children. Parents should be told about it in advance.

The AfD wants to ban girls from wearing headscarves until the age of religious maturity. In public service, clearly visible religious symbols, including headscarves, would be generally prohibited.

Young girls should not be allowed to wear a headscarf. The ban lasts until the age of religious maturity. From that age, children decide about religion themselves. State employees should not wear headscarves either.

The AfD wants to prevent the loudspeaker-amplified muezzin call to prayer as far as the law allows. It regards the call as an expression of religious intolerance and a burden on residents.

Some mosques call loudly to prayer. This is the muezzin call. The AfD wants to stop it. It says the call disturbs neighbors and social peace.

The AfD sees boys and men as systematically disadvantaged and wants differences between the sexes to be recognized and supported. Research funding for men's and women's studies should be split evenly, and it opposes creating new posts for equal opportunity officers.

The AfD says boys and men are at a disadvantage. It wants to respect differences between boys and girls. Research money on men and on women should be shared equally. The AfD does not want new equal opportunity officers.

The AfD rejects a right to self-determination over one's sex. Adolescents should receive puberty blockers only with parental consent, and gender reassignment surgery should be available only to adults.

The AfD is against people choosing their own gender. Puberty blockers are drugs that pause puberty. Young people should only get them if their parents agree. Surgery should only be for adults.

The AfD affirms equal rights for women and men but rejects quotas on principle. The state should only ensure equal opportunity, and positions should be filled on merit.

The AfD wants equal rights for women and men. But it is against quotas. A quota sets how many women or men get a job. The AfD says only performance should count.

The AfD wants to stop spending it regards as driven by party politics or ideology. Diversity alone should not create a claim to public money, and groups the party sees as working against society should not have charitable status.

The AfD wants to stop giving state money to certain groups. It says being different gives no right to money. Some groups should also lose their charitable status. The AfD names Antifa as an example.

The CDU wants to continue support services for LGBTIQ* people and rejects hate violence against different ways of life. It wants to examine funding for small, non-commercial Christopher Street Day events. Anti-discrimination work in the public service is to be expanded.

People love and live in different ways. The CDU wants everyone to live without fear. It wants to keep paying for services for queer people. It will look at money for small pride events. There should be less unfair treatment in public offices.

The CDU wants to make it easier to combine family and work and to help women return to their careers after starting a family. Childcare places, training, mentoring, and networks are meant to contribute. A pay atlas is to make differences in pay visible.

Women should have the same chances at work as men. The CDU wants enough childcare places. Women should return to work more easily after family time. A pay atlas should show where women earn less. More women should work in technical jobs.

The CDU wants to present a strategy for equal career opportunity in the state administration. Part of it is a quota for executive board positions in state-owned enterprises. The state equality act is also to be further developed.

In some parts of the state administration, few women or few men work. The CDU wants to change that. A quota should apply to top jobs in state-owned companies. A quota is a fixed minimum share. The state equality law should also be improved.

The CDU commits to the Istanbul Convention and wants to expand and securely fund support services for victims of violence. A statewide pact against violence is to be concluded with associations. Help for affected men is also to grow.

No one should have to suffer violence. The CDU wants more help for victims of violence. This applies to women and to men. Victims should be able to have evidence secured without giving their name. The state should make a pact against violence with associations.

The CDU wants to close the pay gap between women and men in academia and promote diversity at universities. Early-career researchers are to get more opportunities.

Women and men should earn the same at universities. The CDU wants to support diversity at universities. Young researchers should get better chances.

The FDP wants more women in leadership positions in companies and the public sector and wants shared leadership to become normal. Training and careers outside traditional gender roles would be promoted. Family time would be better recognized and returning to work made easier.

The FDP wants more women as bosses. Two people should be able to share one leadership job. Girls and boys should choose jobs freely, even unusual ones. People who cared for children should get back into work more easily.

The FDP wants to expand structures for women founders and make North Rhine-Westphalia the leading German state for female entrepreneurship. Networks, new event formats and more seed capital are meant to help.

The FDP wants more women to start companies. A network across the state should help. New events should encourage women. More investors should give women founders starting money.

The FDP wants to replace the state's gender equality act with a diversity act that covers disadvantages faced by all genders. The current quota rule is to give way to binding self-commitments.

The FDP wants a new law on equality. It should apply to women, men and non-binary people. The fixed quota should go. Instead, public bodies should commit themselves to diversity.

The FDP wants to achieve full equality for LGBTIQ* people and rainbow families and to expand counseling and anti-discrimination projects. Police and the justice system are to get better at recognizing and prosecuting anti-queer crimes.

The FDP wants equal rights for queer people. There should be more counseling, mainly in rural areas. Police and courts should spot hate crimes against queer people better. The FDP also backs a federal self-determination law.

The FDP wants to expand civic education on Judaism and antisemitism and make the post of antisemitism commissioner permanent. Jewish institutions are to remain protected.

The FDP wants to fight hatred of Jews. Schools should teach more about Jewish life. There should always be a commissioner against antisemitism. Jewish sites should stay guarded.

The FDP wants to pull together and expand the state's work against discrimination in a new strategy. It opposes racism and group-based hostility and wants more democracy education for everyone living in the state.

The FDP wants a new plan against discrimination. Discrimination means treating people unfairly, for example because of where they come from. The state should do more against it. Everyone should learn more about democracy.

The FDP wants to make support structures for domestic violence crisis-proof. Plans include a coordination office for an overall strategy, an online register of available women's shelter places, and more shelters. Emergency shelter places are also to be created for men.

The FDP wants to protect people better from violence at home. There should be more places in women's shelters. An online list should show free places. Men should get shelter places too. A new office should plan all of this.

The Greens want to set aside part of the money in all of the state's business support programs exclusively for women and disadvantaged groups. According to the program, these groups face higher hurdles in reaching leadership positions and starting companies.

Women and some groups have a harder time in business. So the Greens want to set aside money only for them. This should apply in all state support programs. They can still apply for the other funds too.

The Greens want lasting funding for queer youth work and long-term backing for queer centers in the state funding plan. The party sees them as points of contact for queer people across the regions.

Queer people are, for example, lesbian, gay or trans. The Greens want to pay for youth centers for queer young people on a lasting basis. There should also be such meeting places in the countryside.

The Greens want to permanently guarantee a state coordination office for rainbow families and staff it adequately. Training for employees in public agencies and counseling centers would be coordinated, because in the party's view such families still face exclusion.

In rainbow families, the parents are lesbian, gay or trans, for example. The Greens want a permanent state office for these families. They should get good advice there. Staff in public offices should learn more about these families.

The Greens want to make democracy education and anti-racism awareness work mandatory in the state's schools. Curricula and textbooks would deal more with colonial history, social diversity and critical use of social media. Teaching would also counter discrimination against gender and sexual minorities.

Schools should do more against racism and exclusion. This should be part of lesson plans and textbooks. Teachers should get regular training on it. People with a different sexual orientation should also be better protected.

The Greens want to create a state anti-discrimination law and a state anti-discrimination agency. People should be able to report unequal treatment by state institutions such as schools or the police and take legal action against it.

The Greens want a new law against discrimination. Discrimination means: someone is treated worse, for example because of their origin. People affected should be able to defend themselves better. Associations should be allowed to sue on their behalf. There should be more advice centers.

The Greens see the state as obliged to protect both the freedom to practice a faith and the freedom not to. Islamic communities are to be recognized if they meet the legal conditions, and Jewish life is to become more visible.

Everyone may live their faith or have no faith. The state should protect that. Islamic communities should be recognized if they meet the rules. The Greens want imams to be trained in NRW. They want to act against hatred of Jews.

The Greens want women to hold half of political power. A parity law is meant to ensure more women candidates in the 2027 state election, committees are to be at least half women, and the budget is to be assessed for its effects on the sexes.

The Greens want a parity law. That means: parties should put up more women for election. This should apply from the 2027 state election. At least half of committee members should be women. The state should check whether its money benefits women and men equally.

The Greens want women to receive equal pay for work of equal value, to be economically independent and to be secure in old age. Nursing and childcare professions are to be upgraded and childcare expanded.

Women should get the same pay for the same work. Jobs in nursing and childcare should be paid better. Mostly women work in these jobs. There should be more and better childcare places. That makes it easier to combine work and family.

The Greens want queer people in NRW to be able to live self-determined lives without exclusion. To that end, the action plan for queer life is to be developed further, counseling services expanded and hate crime tackled in a targeted way.

Queer people should be able to live without fear. Queer includes lesbian, gay and trans people, for example. The Greens want more counseling, also outside big cities. The police should take training on the topic. Victims of past persecution should receive compensation.

The Greens want long-term funding for women's shelters, counseling centers, and hotlines, and want to develop the support system further. It is to become more accessible and better reach children, genderqueer people, trans women, and male victims. Police and courts would prioritize violence against women and queer people.

The Greens want to protect women better from violence. Women's shelters and counseling centers should get steady funding. Children, queer people and men should also find the right help. Police and courts should handle these crimes faster.

The SPD wants to introduce an equal pay law and create incentives in the public sector for a fairer split of unpaid care and family work. The public sector is meant to serve as a model for the rest of the economy.

The SPD wants a law on equal pay. Women and men should earn the same for the same work. The public sector should offer ways for couples to share family work more fairly. Work should fit better with family life.

The SPD wants to guarantee access to abortion care and make it part of medical training and continuing education. Abortions should be available free of charge. The party also backs repealing Section 219a at the federal level.

Women should decide for themselves about a pregnancy. The SPD wants enough doctors who offer abortions. An abortion should cost nothing. Doctors should be allowed to give information openly. Counseling should be available everywhere, also online.

The SPD wants the public service to reflect a more diverse society. People with a migration background should find it easier to enter state employment, and promotion rules are to be checked for disadvantages to women.

More people with a migration background should work for the state. The SPD wants to remove hurdles in hiring and careers. Women should find it easier to become leaders. So the SPD will check the rules for promotions.

The SPD wants to protect and strengthen Jewish life in North Rhine-Westphalia. The reporting office for antisemitism is to become permanent, and further reporting offices for other hate-motivated incidents are to be added.

The SPD wants to protect Jewish people in the state better. There is an office where people can report hatred of Jews. This office should stay for good. New offices should record other kinds of hate. Synagogues and mosques should also get more protection.

The SPD wants to create an anti-discrimination law and set up a state anti-discrimination office. In addition, public administration is to open up interculturally, and municipalities are to get support for their own anti-discrimination plans.

The SPD wants a law against discrimination. Discrimination means treating people unfairly, for example because of where they come from. The state should get its own office for this. The office advises, does research and informs the public. Government offices should also become more open to everyone.

The SPD wants a law to ensure that women and men are equally represented at all political levels. In addition, the state and municipalities are to pay attention to gender-fair and gender-neutral language.

There should be as many women as men in politics. The SPD wants to make a law for this. The state and the cities should also watch their language. The language should address all genders equally.

The SPD calls for all women and girls in need of protection to have a legal right to free admission and shelter. To that end, it wants to expand women's shelters and counseling centers with state money and launch a state action plan against violence.

Some women and girls experience violence. They should have a right to a free place in a shelter. The SPD wants more women's shelters and counseling centers. Women with disabilities should also be able to reach this help easily.

The SPD wants to fund meeting places and groups for queer young people in cities and rural areas and also support services for queer seniors. Pride (CSD) festivals across the state are to receive stable base funding.

Queer people are, for example, lesbian, gay or trans. The SPD wants to fund meeting places for queer young people. This applies to cities and to villages. Older queer people should also get services. Pride festivals should take place all over the state.