Tessa Ganserer: Trans politician no longer wants to be in the Bundestag

Green MP Tessa Ganserer, one of the best-known trans politicians in Germany, no longer wants to run in the next federal election. “The inhumane hatred that was shown to me not because of my political content, but because of my being, has really gotten to me,” Ganserer wrote in a statement distributed on Thursday. For her, it was “time to give my life a different direction, to look for other tasks and places of work.”

Tessa Ganserer: Withdrawal from the Bundestag “no running away”

But her decision was “not running away from those who have been mocking, insulting and threatening me for years,” emphasized Ganserer. Her work as a member of parliament has “enriched her enormously as a person”. Ganserer further wrote: “I can no longer count how many people have told me that I encourage them with my political work.” She couldn’t imagine “higher recognition” for her work.

Ganserer entered the Bundestag in 2021. This made her – together with Nyke Slawik, who was also elected in 2021 – the first transsexual member of the Bundestag.

Ganserer previously sat in the Bavarian state parliament since 2013. In 2018 she entered the state parliament for a second time under her original first name. At the beginning of 2019 she came out as transgender and has since been addressed in parliament as Tessa Ganserer.

In the plenary session of the Bundestag, Ganserer was often the target of derogatory comments from the AfD parliamentary group. Because of such statements, Bundestag Vice President Katrin Göring-Eckardt (Greens) imposed a fine on AfD MP Beatrix von Storch in June.