Helmut Graupner
Helmut Graupner is a lawyer in Vienna, considered a leading advocate in LGBT European rights.
Graupner has had an extensive and impactful legal career focusing on human rights law, anti-discrimination and sexual minority rights, with a long list of publications, decorations and professional activities.[1] From 2005, for example, Graupner has been the Austrian representative on the European Commission on Sexual Orientation Law (ECSOL). In 2016, he was awarded the Decoration of Merit, the highest honor awarded by the state of Vienna. In 2017, Graupner pursued a case for the rights of five same-sex families, that resulted in Austria's highest court ruling that banning same-sex couples from marriage was discriminatory. The first same-sex marriage in Austria was for Graupner's clients in December 2018, with same-sex marriage available to the general public at the start of 2019.
This page provides information on Graupner's writings and speeches of relevance to MAPs, AAMs and their allies, such as his scholarly article: The 17-Year-Old Child: An Absurdity of the Late 20th Century (2005).[2]
Education
Before completing his Bar Exams in Vienna, Graupner studied Law at the University of Vienna and passed with distinction. His thesis was titled: "Sexuality, Youth Protection and Human Rights - On the Right of Children and Adolescents to Sexual Self-Determination".
Consensual Adult/Adolescent sex as a gay rights issue?
In the Journal of Homosexuality, Graupner published the article Love versus abuse: Crossgenerational sexual relations of minors — A gay rights issue? (1999), in which he argued that "consensual sexual relations of and with adolescents over 14 (out of relations of authority) should be qualified a gay rights issue":[3]
These principles suggest that the basic right to privacy should be interpreted as providing comprehensive protection of the right of children and adolescents to sexual self-determination, namely both the right to effective protection from (unwanted) sex and abuse on the one hand and the right to (wanted) sex on the other. The analysis is based upon the findings of natural and social science as well as an extensive international survey of national legal provisions and it leads to the conclusion that consensual sexual relations of and with adolescents over 14 (out of relations of authority) should be qualified a gay rights issue; likewise (as the exception to the rule) the possibility of filtering out cases from prosecution where a contact/relation is proven (beyond reasonable doubt) as consensual and harmless even though the minor involved is under 14. The legalization of (objectively consensual) sexual relations with persons under 14 as such, however, should not be considered to be a gay rights issue.
Later, he co-authored with Vern Bullough, the introduction to Adolescence, Sexuality, and the Criminal Law: Multidisciplinary Perspectives (New York: Routledge, 2012 [2004]),[4] as well as the article The 17-Year-Old Child: An Absurdity of the Late 20th Century (2005).[5]
- Graupner can be heard speaking about the unjust discrimination and criminalization of adolescent sexual activity, at a 2014 conference recorded and posted to Youtube.
References
- ↑ Graupner's website
- ↑ Helmut Graupner, ‘The 17-Year-Old Child: An Absurdity of the Late 20th Century’, in Adolescence, Sexuality, and the Criminal Law: Multidisciplinary Perspectives, ed. by Helmut Graupner and Vern L. Bullough, (New York: Routledge, 2012 [2004]), pp. 7-17. Simultaneously published as: Graupner, The 17-Year-Old Child: An Absurdity of the Late 20th Century, Journal of Psychology & Human Sexuality, Vol. 16, Nr 2/3. (Sci-hub link).
- ↑ Helmut Graupner, ‘Love versus abuse: Crossgenerational sexual relations of minors — A gay rights issue?’, in Journal of Homosexuality, 37:4 (1999), 23-56 <https://doi.org/10.1300/J082v37n04_03>
- ↑ Graupner and Bullough, 'Introduction', in Adolescence, Sexuality, and the Criminal Law: Multidisciplinary Perspectives, ed. by Helmut Graupner and Vern L. Bullough, (New York: Routledge, 2012 [2004]).
- ↑ Helmut Graupner, ‘The 17-Year-Old Child: An Absurdity of the Late 20th Century’, in Adolescence, Sexuality, and the Criminal Law: Multidisciplinary Perspectives, ed. by Helmut Graupner and Vern L. Bullough, (New York: Routledge, 2012 [2004]), pp. 7-17. Simultaneously published as: Graupner, The 17-Year-Old Child: An Absurdity of the Late 20th Century, Journal of Psychology & Human Sexuality, Vol. 16, Nr 2/3. (Sci-hub link).