Czechia and Germany's Approaches to Marriage Equality: A Comparative Analysis

The purpose of this paper is to examine if (or how) the Christian Democratic party discourse differs in Germany and Czechia regarding same-sex marriage. The motivation for this research is the fact that same-sex marriage passed in Germany in 2017 with the help of the governing CDU/CSU but did not pass in Czechia in 2024 when KDU-ČSL was in the government (no MP is in favor). In connection to the social constructivist IR school, framing theory is used to conduct this comparative discourse analysis, with the focus on qualitative data, mainly coming from speeches in the Lower Houses of the Parliaments in both countries. Based on the literature review, several possible ways of framing are listed, which are later mentioned in greater detail in the empirical part, specifically in regard to how the MPs were discussing same-sex marriage in their speeches. In this paper, new data is also introduced based on direct personal communication (Zoom meeting and email communication) with some German MPs who voted in favor, with their reasoning and their perception of the examined situation. The results showed that there in fact was a difference in framing between the two Christian Democratic parties (which is detailed in the paper), which could have contributed to the different outcomes in legalization. The main difference, however, is that unlike in Germany, in Czechia there was no Christian Democratic MP who voted in favor of same-sex marriage. Keywords: Same-sex marriage, Marriage equality, Christian Democratic Party, Czechia, Germany, LGBTQ