Hanover

Description of the city

Hanover, on the River Leine, is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. With a population of 533,000, Hanover is a major center of Northern Germany. The fairground, due to numerous extensions, especially for the Expo 2000, is the largest in the world also hosts annual commercial trade fairs such as the Hanover Fair and the CeBIT. Every year Hanover hosts the Schützenfest Hanover, the world’s largest marksmen’s festival. Hanover is of national importance because of its universities and medical school, its international airport and its large zoo. 

Goal

The LGBTI who live in the City of Hanover and its surroundings should be recognized and accepted in their diversity. The wide variety of problems, obstacles and difficulties that lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transsexuals and intersex people continue to face, in particular at the communal level should be recognized and should be removed one by one. We want to create an open and varied atmosphere in our city. 

Policy

Everyone is different and has different needs, but also has diverse skills that can be put to use in our society. Only when we respect that can we provide good public services to each and every one of our citizens. The municipal administration of Hanover believes that it is important to think outside the box and therefore stands for diverse yet professional work on various issues of civic society. That is why we are especially proud of the successes that we have already achieved in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) communities.

We support awareness-raising projects in schools and promote the city’s queer cultural centre. We also provide financial support to professional psychological counselling on LGBTIQ issues. What is more, we offer counselling to (future) rainbow families and work in various ways on issues relating to transgender and intersex people, LGBT seniors, schools, and child and youth work. 

At the moment, there is a particular focus on the LGBTIQ refugees who arrive in our city. It is important that we provide them with expert assistance and house them in suitable accommodation and shelters. In this area, the city of Hanover leads the way in terms of being the first municipality in Germany to provide LGBTIQ refugees with shared accommodation supplied by the municipal administration.

Focus areas

  • Completion and implementation of the first Hamburg Action Plan for the Acceptance of Sexual and Gender Diversity 
  • Financing projects related to LGBTI* interests, e.g. network hub “Selbstbewusst Trans*” (Confident Trans) 
  • Financing a school educational project on the topic of gender diversity

Collaboration partners

Publications and other materials

All current and archived publications can be found at our website.