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The Federal Constitutional Court Rules on the Constitutionality of Paragraph 175 (1957)

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Biological differences also justify a different treatment of the sexes in the case of homosexuality. [ . . . ]

As different sexual beings, men and women can commit homosexual immorality only in the particular forms possible for their sex. In these incidents, the particular sexual character of homosexual immorality is apparent both in different methods of bodily acts as well as in different psychological attitudes during these acts; these biological differences determine the entire social conception of this form of sexual activity.

The evidence has completely convinced the court of this. It indicated in the first instance that the propagation of female homosexuality is far less extensive than that of male homosexuality. [ . . . ]

As the expert witness Giese made clear, two aspects of sexuality must be distinguished: the procreative-instinctual, that is, the aspect that relates to the unconscious functioning of the body in the context of sexuality, and a social aspect that is shaped by the former. Starting with the bodily structure of the sexual organs, there are indications that men are more aggressive and demanding, while women are more accepting and ready for sacrifice. This difference in physiological function cannot be separated from the individual's existence as a sexual being; it codetermines the sexual being of men and women (Kroh). The decisive difference between men and women -- that encompasses in essence all other differences -- is however the fact that as part of the procreative-instinctual aspect, fatherhood does not directly follow the brief act of insemination (kurzen Zeugungsvorgang) along the path of further procreative-instinctual contributions but along the path of social contributions, separated from that moment in time, while the social contributions of motherhood are constituted by a lengthy natural process in which the act of conception is immediately tied to the procreative-instinctual contributions of pregnancy, birth, and nursing. Unlike men, women will be involuntarily reminded by their bodies that sexual activity is associated with burdens. It may be due to this that for women, bodily desire (sexuality) and the ability to experience tenderness (the erotic) are almost always blended together, while for men, particularly for homosexuals, these two components frequently remain distinct (Wiethold-Hallermann). A particular danger for male sexuality is thus the danger of the shift in focus away from any readiness to accept responsibility toward the sheer gratification of lust. [ . . . ]

Differences in sex life are possibly even more significantly expressed in homosexual than in heterosexual relations, because a woman's organism, destined for motherhood, involuntarily points toward how to function in a womanly-motherly fashion in a social sense, even if she is not biologically a mother, while there is no corresponding compensation for men. Thus it is easier for the woman who is inclined toward lesbianism to endure sexual abstinence, while the homosexual man tends to fall victim to uninhibited sexual need (Giese; similarly, Grassberger and Scheuner).

According to their sex, individuals also have a different susceptibility to seduction for homosexual intercourse in puberty, and this too plays a role in determining the difference between male and female homosexuality. All expert witnesses agree that puberty is a phase in which there is uncertainty about the orientation of the sexual drives; impressions gathered in this period can be of decisive importance for shaping the personality of the maturing individual. A homosexual seduction at this age is particularly apt to lead to a faulty shaping of sexual feelings, leaving aside the question of whether this danger only exists when the inclination of the individual who is seduced favors such an outcome. The danger of such faulty development is, however, far smaller for young women than for young men. According to the expert witnesses, this general experience is explained in part by the fact that girls far more than boys are protected by a natural sense for sexual order, in part, because girls settle on heterosexual relations at a much earlier age relative to boys (Scheuner, Wiethold-Hallermann).

Moreover, experience tells us that the homosexual orientation of lesbians is not as exclusive as that of men, making it easier for the lesbian to achieve the "turn to the other sex" (Scheuner, also Grassberger, Wenzky, Kroh).

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