Herbert Ludwig Rusche (born 6 May 1952 in

Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler () is a spa town in the German States of Germany, Bundesland of Rhineland-Palatinate that serves as the Capital (political), capital of the Ahrweiler (district), Ahrweiler district. The Bundesautobahn 61, A61 motorway conne ...

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...

) is a German politician and

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

activist. Rusche was born in

Bad Neuenahr Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler () is a spa town in the German Bundesland of Rhineland-Palatinate that serves as the capital of the Ahrweiler district. The A61 motorway connects the town with cities like Cologne and Mainz. Formed by the merging of the ...

. In his childhood, he lived in three cities. After his schooling, he lived in

Kaiserslautern Kaiserslautern (; Palatinate German: ''Lautre'') is a city in southwest Germany, located in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate at the edge of the Palatinate Forest. The historic centre dates to the 9th century. It is from Paris, from Frankfur ...

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

Offenbach am Main Offenbach am Main () is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Hesse, Germany, on the left bank of the river Main (river), Main. It borders Frankfurt and is part of the Frankfurt urban area and the larger Frankfurt Rhein-Main Regional Aut ...

and

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

. Rusche left the

Protestant Church Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

in 1970 and became a

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

in 1977. In 1977 he also opened the first

health food store A health food store (or health food shop) is a type of grocery store that primarily sells health foods, organic foods, local produce, and often nutritional supplements. Health food stores typically offer a wider or more specialized selection of fo ...

in Offenbach with a friend. In the 1990s he was self-employed with a telecommunication business. He encountered severe health issues and retired permanently disabled in 2004.

Work as politician

Rusche has been openly gay since 1970. He, with some other friends, founded the organisation ''Homo Heidelbergensis'' in 1972, the first gay group in Heidelberg. In 1973 Rusche became a member of the organisation Homosexuelle Aktion Westberlin (HAW). Later he worked in Frankfurt as an activist with ''Anderes Ufer''. He then became a member in Aktionsgemeinschaft Unabhängiger Deutscher in Offenbach/Frankfurt and also became a member of the ''Green List Hessen'' (GLH). In 1978 Rusche he was a GLH candidate for the parliamentof

Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major histor ...

, but lost with the GLH only getting 1.1% of the vote. Later Rusche became a founding member of ''Sonstige politische Vereinigung DIE GRÜNEN'' and of the party '' Die GRÜNEN''. Rusche was ''Landesgeschäftsführer'' of the Greens in Hesse. In 1982 the party won 8.6% of the vote in Hesse and the party was in parliament in Hesse (

Hessischer Landtag The Landtag of Hesse (german: link=no, Hessischer Landtag) is the unicameral parliament of the State of Hesse in the Federal Republic of Germany. It convenes in the Stadtschloss in Wiesbaden. As a legislature it is responsible for passing l ...

) for the first time. The Green party later also won in federal elections and became a member of the

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Commons ...

for the first time. Rusche was a member of the Bundestag from 1985 to 1987. During his time in Bundestag, Rusche, who is openly gay, worked for the equalizing of the

age of consent The age of consent is the age at which a person is considered to be legally competent to consent to sexual acts. Consequently, an adult who engages in sexual activity with a person younger than the age of consent is unable to legally claim ...

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...

causes, and financial help for people with AIDS. He and

Petra Kelly Petra Karin Kelly (29 November 1947 – 1 October 1992) was a German Green politician and ecofeminist activist. She was a founding member of the German Green Party, the first Green party to rise to prominence both nationally in Germany and wor ...

worked on the situation in

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...

. After he left the Bundestag, Rusche has worked for AIDS organisations and for ''Homosexuelle Selbsthilfe''. In 2001, Rusche left The Greens because of the party's political decision on

Kosovo Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...

. In 2003 he became a member of the new LGBT organisation

Wissenschaftlich-humanitäres Komitee The Scientific-Humanitarian Committee (, WhK) was founded by Magnus Hirschfeld in Berlin in May 1897, to campaign for social recognition of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, and against their legal persecution. It was the first LGBT ...

(whk) in Hesse. Since 2004 Rusche has been a delegate of ''Buddhistische Gemeinschaft'' within the

Deutsche Buddhistische Union Deutsche Buddhistische Union ("German Buddhist Union", abbreviation: DBU) is a German national umbrella organisation for Buddhist associations registered in Germany. DBU has estimated that there are 250 000 Buddhists in Europe and the religion is gr ...

(DBU). He became one of the members of the "Rat" (board of directors) of the DBU in early 2008. On August 24, 2009 he joined the

chapter of the

German Pirate Party The Pirate Party Germany (german: Piratenpartei Deutschland), commonly known as Pirates (), is a political party in Germany founded in September 2006 at c-base. It states general agreement with the Swedish Piratpartiet as a party of the informat ...

References

External links

Personal site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rusche, Herbert 1952 births Living people People from Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler Pirate Party Germany politicians German Buddhists Converts to Buddhism LGBT Buddhists LGBT members of the Bundestag German LGBT rights activists Members of the Bundestag for Hesse Members of the Landtag of Hesse HIV/AIDS activists Members of the Bundestag for Alliance 90/The Greens