CHECK #3 Bayern

Community
AN OVERDUE
STEP
Bavaria supports
LGBTIQ *structures
with € 209,000
ENGLISH
Tobias Oliveira Weismantel (Munich Aids Aid), Diana
Horn-Greif (Lesbentelefon) and Dr. Kai Kundrath
(Sub) are happy about the decision of the Ministry of
Social Affairs.
In the future, Bavaria wants to increasingly
take care of the concerns of its lesbian,
gay, bisexual, transgender, inter and queer
people (LGBTIQ*). Bavaria's Minister
of Social Affairs, Carolina Trautner,
announced on July 30th that she would
make almost € 209,000 available "for the
development and expansion of a strong
and efficient network to improve advisory
structures for LGBTIQ* people in Bavaria".
The money is specifically to be used to
train, inform and sensitize professionals
who also work with LGBTIQ* people in
their profession.
"A real step forward for Bavaria," said Dr.
Tobias Oliveira Weismantel, managing
director of the Munich AIDS relief organization.
Together with his colleagues from the
queer associations Sub, Lesbentelefon and
Fliederlich, he is responsible for setting up
the appropriate support structure and the
Bavaria-wide training program for specialists.
All four associations are supporting pillars of
the LGBTIQ* scene in Bavaria and have been
working for this community for years with
various projects and great full-time and voluntary
commitment. With the € 208,834 that
will be made available for this model project
until December 2023, they now want to start
closing the gaps and provide more support for
queer people.
Although the Free State of Bavaria has already
funded such projects in the past, it was mostly
the large municipalities that benefited from
them – small-town or rural areas were seldom
taken into account. As such, the support
offered to LGBTIQ* communities in Bavaria is
correspondingly critical to this day: outside
the big cities, initiatives usually have to be
self-organized as public meeting points or
qualified contact persons are in short supply.
The new financial injection should also change
that and contribute to “building a strong and
efficient network in Bavaria,” said Trautner.
Bavaria has a lot to catch up on for its LGBTIQ*
community. This model project can only be
a first step – an overdue but correct step.
(bm,ts,mb)
CHECK BAYERN #3
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