An initiative from several federal states calls for a reform to improve the legal situation of queer families. But the application fails.
Berlin – Now it is clear: There will be no reform of the law of parentage. On Friday (September 17, 2021) the Federal Council rejected a request to this effect. Several federal states – Hamburg, Berlin and Thuringia – called for a change. But the initiative did not receive the necessary 35 votes in the Federal Council.
But what is the so-called right of descent and what did the countries want to change? To understand this, the status quo has to be examined more closely. Currently, the rule applies: If a lesbian couple has a child, only the one who gave birth to the baby is also considered the mother. This mother’s wife must then adopt the child. Here the initiative sees an unequal treatment of two-mother families and an “unjustified worse position of lesbian couples”, as it says in the application to bundesrat.de. Because the mother’s husband is automatically legally recognized as the father in Germany. This does not necessarily have to be the biological father.
Federal Council rejects the reform of the law of parentage: equality initiative thrown out
The Federal Council initiative has now demanded that in the case of married women, the partner is automatically legally recognized as the mother. As early as 2020, Justice and Family Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) announced that she wanted to tackle a reform of the law of parentage. But this attempt failed. Lambrecht was later annoyed in an interview with the newspaper Die Zeit about the union of the CDU and CSU. This has “blocked” the reform of the law of parentage. “Such a change could not be made with the Union, for purely ideological reasons. This is about the best interests of the child, ”emphasized Lambrecht.
Furthermore, the Justice Minister goes into the rat tail of problems that the current legal situation for lesbian couples with children contains. In an interview with the newspaper she explains: “You have to imagine the legal limbo in such constellations: Assuming the biological mother dies, then the child must first be adopted by her wife. Such a procedure can drag on for years and be very stressful. Every legitimate child should have the same legal status, regardless of whether it is a marriage of a man and a woman or of two women. “
But Lambrecht was not the first in the ranks of those who sought such a reform in Germany. A year earlier, then Justice Minister Katarina Barley (SPD) tried her luck and put reform proposals on the right of parentage on the table. Here, too, attempts at reform failed. It remains to be seen whether another attempt at reform will be launched after the 2021 federal election. (Sophia Lother)
