Germany extends compensation deadline for homosexuality law

BERLIN (AP) — The German government plans to give people prosecuted or investigated under a Nazi-era law criminalizing homosexuality another five years to seek compensation. Democratic West Germany zealously enforced the law long after World War II. Germany’s justice minister said the Cabinet decided Wednesday to extend a July 21 deadline to ensure that any applications that arrive after that date aren’t rejected. German lawmakers in 2017 approved the annulment of thousands of convictions under the law and cleared the way for people targeted to receive compensation payments. Some 50,000 men were convicted between 1949 and when West Germany decriminalized homosexuality in 1969.