Germany gets stricter

In Germany, negotiations toward resolving differences between the old East and West German sex laws appear heading towards a compromise that is leaving activists with mixed feelings. On the one hand, paragraph 175, the traditional anti-homosexual law, will be abolished from the West German code. But on the other hand, the age of consent will be set at 16 throughout Germany, in effect heightening restrictions in the former East Germany, which abolished a separate standard for homosexuality in 1988 and had lowered the uniform age of consent to 14.

"It is a wretched compromise," said Thomas Wilde of the Cologne-based Federal Association of Homosexuals in the Berlin monthly Die Andere Welt, who added that his group was pushing to set the age at 14.

source: Article 'Scottish Gay Sex Laws May Loosen While Germany Gets Stricter' by Bill Andriette & Tom Reeves; Nambla Bulletin, Vol. 12, No. 5; June 1991