The German FSK (much like the MPAA) rated the movie "Romeos" as 16+ because they fear younger people could turn homosexual from watching it.

Next week the movie "Romeos" hits few German cinemas. I've already seen it, it's brilliant. The main character Lukas is a 19-year old FTM (female to male) and is just a few weeks away from his final procedures. He falls in love with gay Fabio, who rejects him after finding out that Lukas was once a woman. I don't want to spoil more of the plot, but it's a very cute love-story which also deals with transphobia not only overall in society, but also in the gay community.

The production company tried to get the movie rated as 12+ from the FSK, which is pretty much the same as the American MPAA. What really makes me angry isn't the fact that the movie was rated as 16+ per se - if it was a movie with a lot of sex scenes or violent scenes, the rating would make sense. But it's not. It's just plain homophobia.

Translation of page 2, which contains the decision of the FSK:

"The movie deals with the coming-out of transexual Lukas and his transformation from woman to man. (...) The movie deals with a difficult topic, which could be very harmful to the people of the requested age limit because they are in a period of sexual orientation. The topic is difficult enough for a 12 or 13 year old person and the onesided description of homosexuality could lead to desorientation in their phase of sexual orientation. The movie depicts a young, suffering man which has to deal with bullying and stereotypes from his friends on his sex change. Drastic portrayal of lesbian and gay teens and their promiscuous behavior could be irritating to young viewers, even if the movie is not defamatory or hurting. The movie depicts a grossly distorted reality which cannot be recognized by children because they haven't made any - or not enough - experiences. The language of the movie is not dirty and homosexuals aren't discriminated, therefore it is suitable for older audiences. The plot is suitable and understandable for older audiences."

Here's the full statement in German: http://sabine-bernardi.de/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/SPROFUN11112512530.pdf

I think this is such a twisted kind of homo- and transphobia (note that they avoid the word "transsexuality" and only talk about homosexuality, even though transsexuality is the central element of the movie). Not only are they suggesting homosexuality is a choice which teenagers need to make - just a sentence later they worry about discrimination of homosexuals in movies. Great, the movie doesn't discriminate homosexuals, but at least the FSK does.

And of course, wouldn't it be terryfing for children if they saw a "suffering man" in a movie? In they end, they might learn to accept people as for who they are.

Oh, and just in case you were wondering about "promiscuous behavior" - I think it's nice to know that movies like "American Pie" or "The Hangover" are rated 12+ from the same FSK. Of course, they're really suitable and valuable for teenagers.