Vom Verbot zur Gleichberechtigung - Hirschfeld-Eddy-Stiftung

02 | Anti-Discrimination – Legal Right and Reality 41
number of existing counselling services for different causes of discrimination: there are, for
example, almost no services that provide advice in cases of discrimination due to age. The
question as to why a relatively low number of lesbians and gay men have turned to the
ADS cannot be answered with certainty. It should be kept in mind, when examining the
statistics, that discrimination of transgender people is listed by the ADS under the characteristic
of gender and not under the characteristic sexual identity. In addition, it can be
assumed that lesbians and gay men have developed numerous strategies for avoiding
discrimination, for example by not coming out in the workplace. In addition, there is a
relatively well developed counselling landscape in Germany for lesbians and gay men.
Numerous initiatives are to be thanked for this. Nevertheless, lesbians, gay men, and
transgender people have also turned to the ADS. They report on discriminatory terminations,
after employers learned of their homosexuality, of rejection by church employers,
when they came out, or about administrative hurdles when seeking public employee’s
health cost supplements and family supplements for their life partners.
Very little is known about the improved sanctions in the case of the AGG. 5 According to
recent research, labour courts have the tendency to award employees who have suffered
discrimination only low levels of compensation. 6 As a rule, these comprise one month’s
pay. But even when higher sums are awarded, they usually only entail three month’s pay
(in keeping with the cap in Paragraph15, section 2, clause 2 of the AGG). It is questionable
whether such sanctions can serve as a financial deterrent. The European stipulations
state clearly that sanctions should be effective, proportional, and serve as a deterrent. 7
Nevertheless, one can assume that the concern regarding a damaged image in the case
of a verdict of guilty, particularly among larger companies, is no small matter.
However, what positive effect has the AGG had in relation to protection against discrimination?
Which level of social recognition has it achieved in the meantime? There is no
easy answer to these questions, because there has not been a comprehensive evaluation
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2 Franke, Bernhard: “Das zivilrechtliche Benachteiligungsverbot des Allgemeinen Gleichbehandlungsgesetzes (AGG)
in der Rechtsprechung”. In: Neue Justiz (NJ) 2010. P. 233. | 3 Cf. Bauer, Jobst-Hubertus: „Fünf Jahre Allgemeines Gleichbehandlungsgesetz
– ein Grund zum Feiern?”. In: Handelsblatt, September 6, 2011. | 4 For details, Naguib, Tarik: “Diskriminierende
Verweigerung des Vertragsschlusses über Dienstleistungen Privater: Diskriminierungsschutzrecht zwischen
Normativität, Realität und Idealität”. In: Aktuelle Juristische Praxis (AJP) 2009. Pp. 993ff. | 5 Baer, Susanne: “Komplizierte
Effekte. Zur Wirkung von Recht”. In: Mahlmann, Matthias (ed.): Gesellschaft und Gerechtigkeit. Festschrift für Hubert Rottleuthner.
Baden-Baden 2011. Pp. 245ff. | 6 Lehmann, Lukas: “Die Höhe des finanziellen Ausgleichs nach § 15 Abs. 1 und
2 AGG unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Rechtsprechung des EuGH”. In: Konstanzer Schriften zur Rechtswissenschaft.
Vol. 247. Konstanz 2010. P. 172. | 7 Cf., for example, Art. 15, 2 of the Anti-Racism Directive 2000/43/EU.