Date: Thu, 24 Nov 94 10:25 CDT
From: JAMES STEAKLEY <STEAKLEY@macc.wisc.edu>

Concerning the matter as to who was the first out gay person in the
German Bundestag:
 
Herbert Rusche, a member of the Greens, was already there as an out
gay man in the mid-1980s.  According to the book _Die Geschichte des
Paragraphen 175, Strafrecht gegen Homosexuelle_ (Berlin: Rosa Winkel,
1990), p. 139, Rusche spoke for the Green Fraction on February 2,
1985, introducing a motion to repeal Paragraph 175 -- which finally
took place in March 1994.  But in 1985, Rusche's speech was drowned
out by the laughter of Bundestag delegates of the other parties.
Rusche was widely interviewed in the gay press of mid-1980s, not just
in Germany but internationally.
 
James Steakley, Madison, Wisconsin, USA