Ganserer, who previously sat for the Greens in the Bavarian state parliament and ran in the constituency of Nuremberg-North, secured the mandate in 13th place on the Bavarian state list. She had come out as transsexual in November 2018. Slawik was successful in North Rhine-Westphalia in eleventh place on the Greens state list.
“Crazy! I still can’t quite believe it,” tweeted Slawik on Sunday evening. “I hope that today we can open a new chapter of self-determination in politics and end the years of patronizing queer people.” The woman from Leverkusen wants to stand up for “a diverse, social society and a more courageous climate policy”, as she writes on her website. In the past few years she had worked as a research assistant for two Green MPs in the NRW state parliament. She ran in the constituency of Leverkusen – Cologne IV, which the SPD health expert Karl Lauterbach won by a large margin. Slawik came in third place with 11.3 percent of the first votes.
“Signs for a tolerant society”
Ganserer has been a member of the Bavarian state parliament since 2013. In November 2018 she came out as a transident. In the constituency of Nuremberg North, Ganserer fought head-to-head on Sunday with SPD candidate Gabriela Heinrich for second place behind Sebastian Brehm (CSU). Ganserer finally got 22.6 percent of the first votes, Heinrich 21.9 percent. Ganserer told the BR that she had achieved a “great result”, that was a sign of an open and tolerant society. “I’m still overwhelmed, but I’m really looking forward to my new job in Berlin!” She wrote on Monday on Twitter.
So far there has only been one trans person in the Bundestag, but she only came out after her term of office. “In this respect, the federal elections in 2021 are a historic moment,” said Gabriel_Nox Koenig from the Bundesverband Trans * eV in the run-up to the election. Because with Ganserer and Slawik as well as two other politicians who did not make it into parliament, openly living trans people were represented on the electoral lists for the first time, according to the association.
