Does the newspaper “Die Welt” create a mood against sexual and gender diversity and its representation? That is the fierce accusation from Stuart Bruce Cameron, head of the Uhlala Group, who accused Springer-Verlag of the queer job fair “Sticks

One after the other: In this week’s guest article in the daily newspaper of the Axel Springer publishing house, five authors accused ARD and ZDF of indoctrinating “our children” with reference to the public service program. There is “transgender ideology in the ‘Show with the Mouse’, videos on penis removal or drug sex.

Not only, but also the queer scene was appalled.

Apparently Döpfner couldn’t leave it that way. In a letter to Springer employees, he complained that the public broadcasters were being criticized “generally” for their reporting on transsexual identities among children and young people. Overall” it “implies that there are only two gender identities. Scientifically, the text is at best roughly one-sided, the “whole tone superficial, condescending and resentful. Not far removed from the reactionary attitude: homosexuality is a disease.”

Strong tones, which the CEO then followed with something relativizing. He did not clarify whether it was correct to publish this post. He advocated the diversity of opinion, which also applies here, pointing out that it was a guest contribution. He also criticizes the Uhlala Group, which uninvited Springer Verlag from the queer job fair on June 11th.

Uhlala boss Cameron thus identified and wrote the entire Springer group with the newspaper article. On the other hand, Springer boss Döpfner takes a stand. Because of a guest article in a newspaper, “18,000 employees of this company were held jointly liable”. And that despite the fact that the group has supported the queer job fair since 2010 and is involved in LGBTIAQ issues.

This is a (bad) example of the “polarization of politics and society” and the lack of a culture of debate. The Uhlala managing director Cameron had been invited by the editors of “Welt” to represent “a detailed counter-position”.

Cameron wanted to think about whether and how he would respond to this. “This evening I read the message from Matthias Döpfner to the employees of Axel Springer SE published in ‘Welt’ and the offer to me contained therein to contribute an article to ‘Welt’. I’ll be more than happy to comment on this on Tuesday. But now I wish everyone a wonderful and sunny long Pentecost weekend,” wrote the Uhlala boss on Facebook on Friday.

Is there an approximation of the positions? Or a lasting damage to the image of the publisher? If you ask around at Springer, the mood is particularly tense among queer employees. They have distanced themselves from the post on Instagram (“This text was a NIGHTMARE”)

A Springer company spokesman told the Tagesspiegel on Sunday that Axel Springer as a company advocates freedom as the most important value. “An essential part of this is freedom of expression. The article in question is a guest comment clearly marked as such.”

As such, he does not represent the opinion of the “Welt” editorial team and also not the line of the house of Axel Springer. It is the journalistic core concern of “Welt” to make diverse and also controversial voices heard and thus initiate debates.

“As with all other debates, objections are not only welcome, they are taken for granted. We regret the decision to withdraw Axel Springer from the Sticks

“Welt” editor-in-chief Ulf Poschardt has already announced on Twitter that he will stay closer to the debate.

At the same time, Poschardt had demanded on Facebook this week that public broadcasting urgently needed to be reformed. In TV programs, radio reports and on the ÖRR’s social media channels, “trans” is a constant theme, always based on the false statement of polysexuality.

That doesn’t necessarily sound like the opinion of the “Welt” editor-in-chief differs too much from that of those “Welt” guest authors.