The German government has announced it will overturn the convictions of tens of thousands of gay men jailed before homosexuality was decriminalized.

"The historic convictions are wrong. They are deeply hurtful to human dignity," said Justice Minister Heiko Maas. "We cannot completely completely undo these outrages of the rule of law, but we want to rehabilitate the victims."

More than 50,000 gay men were convicted between 1946 and 1969, when homosexuality was decriminalized in both East and West Germany. Those men "should no longer have to live with the stain of a criminal record," says Maas.

The German parliament is expected to pass a bill submitted by the Justice Ministry to expunge their records. Activists hope the move will come quickly, while older victims are still alive to see it.

"Time is short to overturn these unjust convictions and restore the human dignity of the victims of the persecution of homosexuality,” Germany’s Lesbian and Gay Association said in a statement.

Germany has long had a complex relationship with its LGBT community: Paragraph 175 criminalized homosexuality in 1871 but, by the 1920s, Berlin was the gay capital of the world, with numerous gay clubs and associations—including Magnus Hirschfeld's groundbreaking Institute of Sexual Research.

The rise of the Nazi Party saw thousands of gay and trans people exterminated in the Holocaust. Even after the Nazis were defeated, the draconian laws they passed were still on the books.

Today, gays enjoy a generally liberal and inclusive environment, but Germany is one of the last in the West to continue a ban on same-sex marriage. (Registered partnerships have provided many of the same rights as marriage since 2001.)

And while German people have the option of identifying as neither male or female on official documents, the government still requires trans people to undergo sterilization to have their gender identity legally recognized.

Clearing these men's records is a step in the right direction, but the march to full equality is far from over.