Study to investigate discrimination against gay and lesbian soldiers in Swiss army
The Swiss government has commissioned an investigation into whether gay men and lesbians in Switzerland’s armed forces have experienced injustice.
This content was published on
3 minutes
Keystone-SDA
This has been based on a postulate from Social Democrat Priska Seiler Graf, which was adopted by Parliament in 2022.
Check out our selection of newsletters. Subscribe here.
Over the next four years, a research team from the University of Bern will investigate whether and to what extent gay men and lesbians in the Swiss armed forces experienced injustice between the Second World War and today. It will also look at the consequences of this, according to a government statement on Thursday.
The study will also address the question of whether reparations should be made, and make recommendations on how the army should ensure respect for LGBTQ rights in the future.
According to the Swiss Military Criminal Code, sexual acts among people of the same sex were still punishable until 1992. This contradicted the Civil Code, which largely legalised consensual sexual acts between adults of the same sex as early as 1942.
Evidence of bullying and harassment
Michèle Amacker, professor of sociology and co-director of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Gender Studies (ICFG) who is overseeing the investigation, was quoted in a press release as saying that there was evidence of bullying and harassment in everyday military life. There are signs that gay men were being rejected during recruitment, which may have hindered military careers.
She also said there were indications that it was common practice in the past to use certain codes for gay men and lesbians, which were entered in the service record booklet, for example, as a reason for ineligibility.
According to Amacker, these administrative procedures could also have had a negative impact on private life and professional careers, for example if the service record booklet had to be shown when applying for a job.
It is the country’s first ever official commission to investigate historic discrimination against gay men and lesbians in Switzerland.
Adapted from German by DeepL/kp/jdp
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
External Content
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Almost finished… We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you.
Popular Stories
More
Foreign affairs
Go to war or stay put? Ukrainian men in Switzerland face fresh dilemmas
Should raw milk sales be banned or should consumers decide?
Swiss food regulations do not allow raw milk to be sold for direct consumption. However, a loophole allows 400 raw milk vending machines to do just that.
Most illegal entries to Germany in 2024 came via Switzerland
This content was published on
The German Federal Police detected 53,410 illegal entry attempts into Germany in the first nine months of this year. Most refusals to entry occurred at the borders with Switzerland, it was reported on Sunday.
Swiss government faces criticism over inclusion of electronic media in radio-TV law
This content was published on
Changes to Switzerland's Federal Radio and Television Act (RTVA) have been well received in a consultation process. Local and regional radio and TV stations should receive more money in the future.
Swiss ultra-conservative party hands in signatures against Eurovision 2025
This content was published on
The Swiss Federal Democratic Union (EDU) has handed in referendum signatures to seek a vote to prevent the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) from taking place in Basel from May 13 to 17, 2025.
UNRWA funding remains hot topic in Swiss parliament
This content was published on
A Swiss parliamentary committee has postponed a decision on whether Switzerland should stop funding the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA.
This content was published on
A hacker attack has paralysed the OneLog connection platform, compromising the ability of people to access many Swiss media titles.
Ex-Swiss rail catering boss handed three year jail term for fraud
This content was published on
Former head of Elvetino, the catering unit of Swiss Federal Railways, has been sentenced to three years' imprisonment for fraud.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.