Homosexuality convictions to be tossed if bill OKd

BERLIN — Germany’s Cabinet on Wednesday approved a bill that would annul the convictions of thousands of gay men under a law criminalizing homosexuality that was applied zealously in post-World War II West Germany.

The decision also clears the way for compensation for those still alive who were convicted under the so-called Paragraph 175 outlawing sexual relations between men.

The legislation was introduced in the 19th century, toughened under Nazi rule and retained in that form by West Germany, which convicted about 50,000 men between 1949 and 1969.

Homosexuality was decriminalized in 1969, but the legislation wasn’t taken off the books entirely until 1994.

The bill approved Wednesday by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Cabinet of conservatives and center-left Social Democrats still requires parliamentary approval. It foresees compensation of $3,230 for each conviction, plus $1,600 for every year of jail time.

“The rehabilitation of men who ended up in court purely because of their homosexuality is long overdue,” Justice Minister Heiko Maas said. “They were persecuted, punished and ostracized by the German state just because of their love for men, because of their sexual identity.”

The Lesbian and Gay Federation in Germany “welcomes the fact that, after long decades of ignorance, legal consequences are being drawn from the serious mass human rights violations that were committed against homosexual people by the democratic state,” spokesman Helmut Metzner said.

A few other countries, including Canada and New Zealand, are considering pardons for people convicted under now-repealed laws against gay sex.