The current anti-discrimination law allows private providers to discriminate on the basis of sex when it us founded on concerns about safety or privacy (Intimsphäre.) The new Self-ID law simply refers to those provisions and states that they remain intact - this passage is what's been nicknamed the "Saunaparagraph.". It's part and parcel of the coalition pretending the Self-ID law is "just" about changing your civil status, and "there's never been any laws on who gets to use which toilets."
There's two gigantic problems with this. One (which nobody, not even critics, is discussing yet) all the exemptions are only valid for private business while public actors are held to much more stringent standards. Given that the vast majority of German swimming pools are municipal and generally rely on open-plan single-sex showers, when the shit starts hitting the fan things will get interesting.
Secondly, TRAs hate hate hate the "Saunaparagraph" and it's unclear to what extent it will withstand actual legal challenge. Both the queer commissioner, Lehmann, and the anti-discrimination commissioner Ferda Ataman (both Green party) have criticized the passage, with Ataman arguing that it amounted to "policing women's bodies" (bleurgh.)
That's why it's do significant the fragrant "Kylie" had herself photographed with Sven Lehmann - there's a good chance this lawsuit is being used as a test case by his lawyers, who also represent the Erlangen gym dude.
Excellent German Twitter thread with lots of sources below:
https://x.com/ronalyze/status/1806743403549331811