Another Meaningless Token Gesture For The Gay Community From The German Government Before Elections

Germany will pardon gay men sentenced under historic anti-gay laws.
The government today (22 March) read a draft law which would pardon all men sentenced under paragraph 175, no matter if they are dead or still alive.
Under the draft law, introduced by Minister of Justice Heiko Maas, they would have all their convictions lifted.
The pardon would apply to more than 50,000 men who were sentenced between 1945 and 1994, when the anti-homosexuality law was finally scratched.
Unlike in the UK, there would reportedly be no need to apply for a pardon; it would be applied to everyone.
Victims of the law, which was tightened under the Nazi regime, will also receive financial compensation.
The German government is set to pay each of the men sentenced to prison €3,000, as well as an extra €1,500 for each started year of their sentence.

This means someone who was sentenced to three years and two months in prison would be paid €9,000 in compensation.
The Lesbian and Gay Association Germany (LSVD) said the draft law needs to ‘bring the full rehabilitation and dignified compensation’ of men sentenced under the paragraph.
‘During further legislative processes the LSVD will insist that truly every former legal unequal treatment of homo- and heterosexuality will be included,’ their spokesperson Helmut Metzner said in a statement.
‘It would be a new discrimination and irresponsible to leave gaps and unclear situations, to the disadvantage of the victims, which are often at old age.’
Under the Nazi law, men could be sentenced to up to 5 years in prison. They were also often sent to concentration camps.
After World War II paragraph 175 was kept in both East and West Germany. Especially in the West, former Nazis still served as judges, leading to a further persecution of gay men.
It was also extended by introducing paragraph 175a, which dealt with male rape, same-sex activity with a man under 21, taking advantage of a dependent relationship – for example boss and employee or teacher and student – and male prostitution.
These could be punished with up to 10 years in prison.
This is just another red herring being offered up by the German government to distract from the real issues of marriage and adoption inequality.
Distract the homo's into believing that the German government has their best interest at heart while they will continue treating them like second class citizens.
The very notion that these (less than 5k still living from over 50k that were convicted) gay men will be pardoned, is offensive all on it's own.
What did they do that they NEED pardoned for?
Expunge the record, better still, give these men equality, something your government is still denying them!