German ministerial lesbian couple to marry in the autumn

Two female state ministers are to tie the knot in the autumn to become Germany's first homosexual ministerial couple, the illustrated weekly magazine Bunte reports in its current issue which hits the newsstands on Thursday.

Josefine Paul and Katja Meier, both members of the Greens, are currently conducting their relationship largely by means of online communication.

Paul, 42, serves as family minister in North Rhine Westphalia in the west, and Meier, 44, as justice minister of Saxony in the east. The respective capitals of Dusseldorf and Dresden are almost 500 kilometres apart as the crow flies.

"Homosexuality has to be visible, on the street," Meier told Bunte. And young gay men and lesbians are still experiencing problems in their families and bullying at school, Paul added.

"All young people need support in finding themselves, and young queer people need the certainty that their love is entirely normal," Paul said.

Meier said that while most people took this view, she had received "disgusting postcards and letters… That does not leave me unaffected."

But this is not the reason for the wedding, which is planned for after the Saxony elections on September 1. "It's less about a political gesture. Love is the basis," Paul told Bunte.

The couple meet up on FaceTime at 6:30 am (0430 GMT) for a morning coffee and phone before going to bed at night. When the state-based upper house of the German parliament meets in Berlin, "we wink at each other," Paul says.