One year ago, in May 2022, Nelson-Mandela-Schule joined the "Schule der Vielfalt" network to publicly commit itself to being a school where people of all genders and sexual orientations can feel comfortable and welcome. On 10 July 2023, Lisa Paus (Member of the German Bundestag and Federal Minister for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth), Laura Neugebauer (Member of the Berlin House of Representatives and spokesperson for queer issues), and Corinna Balkow (Member of the Bezirksverordnetenversammlung Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf) visited us to get to know the "Schule der Vielfalt" network and to get an impression of what it means when a school is committed to increasing acceptance of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, intersex and asexual (LGBTQIA+) people.
Thomas Kugler of QUEERFORMAT presented the Fachstelle Queere Bildung in Berlin, where the project "Schule der Vielfalt" is located, which is in turn coordinated by Jarred Kennedy-Loving among others. The latter explained the structure of the nationwide "Schule der Vielfalt" network before Kai Linke and Tanya Mokdad, as contact people for gender and sexual diversity at the secondary and primary school, shared some highlights of our work at NMS. In conversation with other teachers, representatives of the school management, and numerous members of the Intersectional Student Union (ISU) and the Intersectional Student Union Junior, our guests were particularly impressed by the self-organized, multi-faceted, and intersectional work of the students on various forms of discrimination.
As far as political issues were concerned, we all agreed that the coordination offices of the "Schule der Vielfalt" network should be expanded nationwide in order, for example, to be able to include more than the current five schools in the network in Berlin. QUEERFORMAT underlined that especially a federal coordination office would be a great support for the network. It was also undisputed that the work of the contact people for gender and sexual diversity (who, by the way, only exist in this form in Berlin), which has so far been done exclusively on a volunteer basis, should actually be paid. Unfortunately, it was also clear that financial resources are currently scarce in all areas - and thus also for these important tasks. At least as far as the so-called "Selbstbestimmungsgesetz" is concerned, which is to replace the previous "Transsexuellengesetz", we are eagerly waiting to see what will come out of the cabinet discussion directly after the summer break. As a Schule der Vielfalt, we naturally hope that young people will soon be able to choose a first name and legal gender that matches their actual gender identity as freely as possible.
At the end, we not only presented our brand new yearbook to Mrs. Paus but also took a photo with all participants. Unfortunately, we sadly lost track of the participants from the elementary school - Ina Claussen, Tanya Mokdad and a representative of the Intersectional Student Union Junior - on the way to the front door of the elementary school, so we have to imagine their faces in the picture.