Green Party Chairwoman Claudia Roth called on the German federal government to put gays and lesbians on equal legal footing with heterosexuals during a speech in the city’s central Marienplatz.
“We are a long way from our goal,” Roth said, calling for the government to close gaps in laws relating to legal partnerships, adoption and taxes.
Roth accused conservative Christian Democrat Chancellor Angela Merkel of being “chancellor of the heteros.”
“Do something,” Roth said to applause from a crowd of several thousand.
Christopher Street Day is an annual celebration to commemorate the beginning of the gay rights movement in New York City in 1969.