A spontaneous question sets marriage equality in motion
A question from the audience, asked out of love, set Germany's marriage equality in motion in 2017.
On 26 June 2017, Angela Merkel sat on the stage of Berlin's Maxim Gorki Theatre, invited to a panel discussion hosted by the women's magazine "Brigitte". No one suspected that this Monday evening would make German history. When the audience was allowed to ask questions, Ulli Köppe, a 28-year-old events manager from Berlin who had lived with his boyfriend for almost twelve years, spontaneously took the microphone. His question was simple and personal: "When can I call my boyfriend my husband?"
Merkel, whose CDU/CSU had blocked the opening of marriage for years and had even made this opposition a condition of coalition, answered surprisingly thoughtfully. She said she would like the question to be treated as a matter of conscience for each individual MP rather than being subject to the party whip. Köppe himself did not at first realise the significance of his words. But a journalist who was present understood at once what the remark meant politically. The next morning Köppe's phone rang, with reporters from all over the world on the line.
Merkel's change of course set off a chain reaction at breathtaking speed. The SPD, her coalition partner, pushed for a swift vote, and on 30 June 2017 the Bundestag held a recorded vote on opening marriage. The result was 393 votes in favour to 226 against, with four abstentions. 75 of the votes in favour came from Merkel's own parliamentary group. The Chancellor herself voted against. The Bundesrat approved the law on 7 July and Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier signed it on 21 July. Marriage equality came into force on 1 October 2017, making Germany one of more than twenty countries worldwide with same-sex marriage.
Asked what strategy he had used to break through Merkel's firm stance, Köppe gave a disarming answer: his question had been spontaneous, and it had come from love.