Volker Beck is a German politician. He is a sitting member of parliament for the Green Party in the Bundestag since 1994. Beck served as the Green Party Speaker for Legal Affairs from 1994?2002, and as the Green Party Chief Whip in the Bundestag till 2013. He is spokesman of the Green Parliamentary Group for interior affairs and religion. In 2014 he was elected as President of the German-Israeli Parliamentary Friendship Group of the German Bundestag. He represents Cologne Beck is openly gay and served as spokesman of the Association of Lesbians and Gays in Germany LSVD for over ten years. He is a supporter of same-sex marriage and has been referred to as the "Father of the German Registered Partnership Act". He lived in a long-term partnership with Jacques Teyssier until his death from cancer in Berlin on July 25, 2009. The couple had officially registered their partnership in 2008, after 16 years. Between 2001 and 2004 he was chief negotiator for his party on the new immigration law coming into to force 2005. He is publicly known for being a very tough negotiator. [More at Wikipedia]

December 12th, 1960 in Stuttgart (Age 63)