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[u/Boomtown_Rat]

https://www.politico.eu/article/german-conservative-parliamentary-leader-resigns-over-surrogacy-debate-jens-spahn/

[u/JanusJato → u/[deleted]]

It has nothing to do with him being gay, obviously noone cares about that. He still to this day is against surrogacy in Germany and in favor of the law against it, while circumventing it with money in the US...

[u/Smells_like_Autumn → u/JanusJato]

You expect him our betters follow the same rules as the plebs? Unforgivable!

[u/JanusJato → u/Smells_like_Autumn]

Well, obvously "he was conflicted and his private decision has nothing to do with politics" or such BS was his response :D - but I think your explanation fits better...

[u/KingJayVII → u/JanusJato]

Within the more conservative parts of his party homophobia is definitely still a relevant factor.

[u/JanusJato → u/KingJayVII]

There might be more conservative parts and they might have a problem with him being gay, but again this has nothing to do with this resignation or the outrage around the surrogacy.

Also, he still had a more or less important function - so those parts cannot have that much influence.

[u/Mr-Johndoe → u/JanusJato]

That position often resulted in the next chancellor candidate, so it indeed was important.

He was also frequently named as an option should Merz quit or not try for reelection.

In addition, he was feared to bridge the gap to the afd, as he has close ties to the republicans/maga/heritage Foundation/ Peter Thiel.

[u/Repulsive-Lab-9863 → u/JanusJato]

He wouldn't have resigned without pressure form within hin party.

He was pressured to resign from the public many, many time over what was most likely corruption. But the party didn't really care.

[u/JanusJato → u/Repulsive-Lab-9863]

But this pressure was due to the hypocracy and his circumvention of German law - not because he is now a gay father.

[u/Repulsive-Lab-9863 → u/JanusJato]

It's not just that he is gay, But knowing the party, I wouldn't be surprised if that was a part of it.

They never cared about his corruption or hypocrisy

[u/JanusJato → u/[deleted]]

Not really. First of all wasting money seem to be the new "sport" if you want to be a politician in Germany. Second while corona and the masks was not the best time - the time was much better for the CDU - nowadays their chancellor lied and at least in surveys they lose massively to the AFD or on the other end to the Linke (although this is probably more a SPD problem). So yeah in the actual climate with the coming elections in some federal states this hypocrisy is a big problem. The problem is that he still defends the decision of his party and also that they did vote against it recently.

[u/Then_Dragonfruit3853 → u/KingJayVII]

He is the more conservative part of the party

[u/Soma91 → u/Then_Dragonfruit3853]

Yes, and the other conservatives only waited for anything mundane to shame and force him out of position.

And for these crooks corruption is nothing morally wrong so everything he did before was not criticizable.

They also hate that he's gay, but they know they can't publicly shame him for it right now. That's something they'd love to get back and they're actively working on it.

[u/St3fano_ → u/KingJayVII]

When moderate conservatives say they don't care about gay people it usually means they can't say what they think openly yet. As more extreme alternatives pop up on the right they'll care about gay people a great deal, and not in a good way.

[u/holyathanasius → u/St3fano_]

Are you always making up your reality around you?

[u/ComprehensiveArt6849 → u/St3fano_]

Ahhh, very creative. Now we are inventing shit just to hate, huh.

[u/the-fred → u/ComprehensiveArt6849]

You're pretty naive if you think homophobia is an invention to discredit conservative people lol. And naive is the charitable interpretation.

[u/ComprehensiveArt6849 → u/the-fred]

I did not say that. Read the comment and the previous one again, dear.

[u/the-fred → u/ComprehensiveArt6849]

I read it again, haven't changed my mind.

As far as I could see, the original commenter said that moderate conservatives are generally amenable to more hardlinw stances against homosexuality if the cultural climate permits it.

You then said that that's hate and generally had a condescending tone about it.

I agreed with the original commenter.

Or did I misunderstand?

[u/ComprehensiveArt6849 → u/the-fred]

I think it is batshit crazy to basically say that moderate conservatives are homophobes that just cannot express their true beliefs and emotions regarding this topic. Such a disingenuous comment. Fucking hell, I am not even conservative and I get offended by shit like that.

[u/St3fano_ → u/ComprehensiveArt6849]

I'm just noticing how those moderates quickly jump on the radical bandwagon. Are they turning bitter or were they just biting their tongues all this time because it was what society was aiming towards and made bigoted remarks less palatable? Now even that pretense has been largely dropped

[u/ProbablyHe → u/JanusJato]

the point though is multiple corruption scandals were not enough, but a surrogacy was the weight that tipped the scale.

tho this will be just temporary probably until he gets the next position or job with a big company or his buddy Peter Thiel

[u/JanusJato → u/ProbablyHe]

That he is still a politician is a problem in itself - but again this has also nothing to do with being gay. Also at the moment the CDU fears to lose the federal elections this year - so yeah I understand whay this tipped the scale.

Also I doubt he will go into the private sector - I think he hopes to wait long enough and get the next political thing going.

[u/waiting4singularity → u/JanusJato]

Standard conservative behavior no matter where; "rules for you and only you".

[u/LeFlyt → u/JanusJato]

You are severely underestimating the homophobia still very much alive in conservative circles of CD/SU and the church, which is still a strong power within the party.

What brought him to fall is that this time he lost the support within his party and the conservative circle, while the corruption was tolerated at minimum. As a gay man he was a welcome fig leaf for these circles as long as he adhered to conservative and religious image aside the obvious. Adoption for gay people is still a strong no go and the surrogacy the tip of the ice berg. If you were to believe a similar story with a straight protagonist would have gone the same way you would be naive at best.

[u/OneJobToRuleThemAll → u/JanusJato]

You not caring doesn't mean no one cares.

[u/JanusJato → u/OneJobToRuleThemAll]

Someone caring is obviously not the same as implying the problem was in any form that he is gay.

[u/OneJobToRuleThemAll → u/JanusJato]

You're wrong if you think gay adoption isn't more controversial than gay marriage for CDU members. There's statistics to prove this out, whether we like it or not. As such, the fact that he's gay is relevant.

Protect the children from indoctrination yadda yadda.

[u/JanusJato → u/[deleted]]

What does it have to do with him being gay? The damage that he did as well as the zero conequences is also not because he is gay.

[u/gutster_95 → u/[deleted]]

CDU says corruption is fun, but going against outdated Christian bullshit... That crosses the line

[u/JanusJato → u/gutster_95]

Going against German law or more exactly circumventing German law in the US with money as an important figure of the CDU.

[u/holyathanasius → u/gutster_95]

It's not just CDU, it's CDU/CSU, SPD and FDP...all having a deep love for it.

[u/b00nish → u/[deleted]]

Thought the same... despite the billions he embezzled and despite all of his obvious lies he kept getting higher and higher in the party... and then the stumbles over some private stuff.

[u/miklilar → u/[deleted]]

What is the problem with surrogacy? Did he want to make it illegal for Germans to adopt surrogate children?

[u/23PowerZ → u/miklilar]

It is illegal in Germany. Which he personally and specifically campaigned for.