Gießen

Policy

In December 2022, the city council of Giessen decided with a large, cross-party majority that the city of Giessen should join the Rainbow Cities Network. The wish to join thus has broad support in the city parliament and in the city government.

In July 2022, the city of Giessen also declared itself a space of freedom for LGBTIQ persons and committed to public measures to promote and protect the rights of LGBTIQ persons on the one hand, and to explicitly sanction mechanisms of structural discrimination on the other. In this context, joining the Rainbow Cities Network is perceived as the next logical step and important measure to implement these goals.

Approximately 92,000 people from 151 nations live in the city of Giessen, and approximately 40,000 students are enrolled in the local university and technical college. The Hessian Initial Reception Center for Refugees was for a time the largest facility of its kind in Germany. Thus, the city of Giessen is also the first point of arrival for many queer refugees.

The population in Giessen is thus not only the one with the youngest average age in Hesse, but also very diverse.

Goal

By joining the RCN, the city of Giessen wants to engage in a more structured exchange with other cities pursuing the same goals. The city of Giessen would like to discuss, share and advance its own measures with other municipalities and learn from best practices of other network cities. We expect the international exchange to provide numerous impulses for Giessen as a queer-friendly city.

Joining the RCN is linked to a participatory process with the LGBTIQ community. The positive start of this cooperation in the framework of a working group aims at a stronger involvement of the community in political decisions or a targeted consideration of the special interests of LGBTIQ in the urban policy formulation.
On the one hand, the city of Giessen would like to expand its commitment to acceptance and diversity and, on the other hand, increase the visibility of queer life in the city.

Another important goal is to improve the safety of queer people through prevention measures and the creation of shelters.

Focus Areas

1 year:

  • Gender-sensitive revision of forms
  • Stronger networking of the administration with community + LGBTIQ organizations
  • Development of a safety concept for nightlife.

4 years:

  • Overview of LGBTIQ-friendly doctors, facilities, etc. and development of a corresponding certification concept
  • Anchoring of LGBTIQ-sensitive concepts in geriatric care and seni-or*institutions, among other things through training for the staff
  • Further development and anchoring of measures for queer-sensitive personnel development.

Collaboration with advocacy / interest groups, NGO´s, healthcare

AIDS-Hilfe Gießen e.V.
Hans-Peter-Hauschild-Haus
LGBT*IQ Network Central Hesse
KTD (Competence Center Trans Divers) Central Hessen
ILSE (Initiative of Lesbian and Gay Parents)
Autonomous gay-trans*-queer department and queer-feminist women’s department in the General Student Committee of the University of Giessen
CSD Mittelhessen e.V.
Aqueerious
SV Rainbow

Other collaboration partners
“Rainbow Police”
LGBT in old age (Frankfurt/Main)
Broken Rainbow e.V. – Violence prevention and intervention for women, lesbians, trans* and queer people
Hessian Ministry for Social Affairs and Integration