The sexual confused corporal

There is a clear border between opinion and discrimination, and what the FAZ, germany's leading conservative newspaper has done today, Nov 21rst 2013,  sounds much like at least 50 years ago.

On the title page of the print issue, and here in the online version (german only), we find a so-called analysis by Peter Carstens, one of the FAZ writers, on cyber crime, NSA, Snowden, Manning and more.

No one would expect a conservative german writer fighting for civil rights. But everybody would expect that a leading paper takes care of basic social standards, like not discriminating any person regarding sexual orientations.


Mr. Carstens doesn't like Edward Snowden. He calls him a thief. This is covered by the freedom of opinion.

Mr Carstens doesn't like Chelsea Manning. In his world Chelsea is "a sexual confused corporal" (in german: "ein sexuell verwirrter Obergefreiter"). This is, for sure, not covered by the freedom of opinion.

Mr. Carstens implies a link between moral standards and the sexual orientation of people. He sees Chelseas the sexual orientation as a reason for committing a crime. Would he do the same with lets say Guido Westerwelle,? Imagine a headline like "Guido Westerwelle, the gay minister of foreign affairs, is a crazy freak?".

It don't know whether Mr. Carstens is a hetero, homo, asexual, or whatever (for sure he is not transsexual). I don't care.  But it seems that he has a problem accepting moral standards.

But the good news for Mr. Carstens is: you can change! It's quite easy, just 3 Steps:

1. apologize
2. delete the discriminating parts from the "analysis"
3. never do it again

Thank you in advance!