Publications

Salzburg Global LGBT* Forum in conversation with Eva Dreier and Michael Brinkschröder from #OutInChurch

Salzburg Global LGBT* Forum and the German initiative “#OutInChurch – For a Church without Fear” met online several times in 2022 for conversations about their mutual work on bridging LGBT* and Faith communities.

The Forum’s Global LGBT* and Faith initiative conducted various programs to address religion, cultural history, and LGBT inclusion (and exclusion), convening global LGBT human rights defenders and cultural and religious leaders across faiths, geographies, and generations between 2020 and 2022. The Forum also curated a series of blog posts by faith leaders, scholars, and activists and produced an accompanying podcast with ILGA Asia.

In early 2021, #OutInChurch dared to start its open work within the Catholic Church and received massive public attention and support for its courageous work. Nearly a year after they stepped forward, Forum Founder & Chair Klaus Mueller talked with #OutInChurch members Eva Dreier and Michael Brinkschröder about their success, hopes, and next steps.

Michael and Eva, how did #OutInChurch start?

We were inspired after reading about the collective coming-out of 185 actors in the German campaign #ActOut. Inspired by this step, an openly gay lay minister from Hamburg, Jens Ehebrecht-Zumsande, asked the question if such a coming-out would be possible in the Catholic Church – where many could still lose their job due to being LGBTQIA+. Others agreed with him. The idea of a shared organized campaign started to grow.

Out of this conversation of a few, how did this initiative develop into headline news across Germany and attract a lot of media attention in many countries?

Our initiative “#OutInChurch – For a Church without Fear” emerged from this initial inspiration and the firm hope that together we can be strong and create change. Through existing networks and shared acquaintances, new people joined, all of them being part of the Catholic Church in Germany and part of the LGBTQIA+ community.

Instead of rushing things, we decided to take our time to prepare our collective coming-out properly. Zoom meetings helped us to form the Network and to collectively develop a manifesto and core demands. But we realized that our efforts would need media support. With caution, we contacted German media. This led to a cooperation with the lead German public broadcasting channel ARD. That changed all. Having such a strong media partner ensured that our collective coming-out could not be overlooked by mainstream media.

#OutInChurch public coming-out dominated the news in Germany and was reported globally. How were you able to do this?

We knew if we want to change things, we not only need to clearly put our demands forward to our employer – the Roman Catholic Church. We also need the pressure from public solidarity. We decided to produce a 60-minute documentary called ‘How God created us’ (“Wie Gott uns schuf”), which portrays the life of queer Catholics working for the Catholic Church. Our film portrays people who had to hide their true lives and deny their true selves out of fear of losing their jobs and being discriminated against. Their stories are very emotional and touching.

The documentary was shown at primetime on the 24th of January 2022 on the German public broadcasting channel ARD. Together with 100 interviews from #OutInChurch-members, the documentary is available online on the website of the ARD, where it has become one of the most successful documentaries of the last years.

Congratulations. That must have been a lot of work! What was the key to reaching this level of visibility and public media attention?

Everything was focussed on the 24th of January 2022: [a] few teaser interviews were published beforehand, a press release was prepared, a media office [was] set up, 36 Catholic organizations from Germany were prepared to declare their solidarity, our manifesto and core demands were translated into 12 languages, and our international colleagues in the Global Network of Rainbow Catholics were informed in advance to be able to respond quickly to this unforeseen moment.

In concordance with the publication date of the documentary, we published our campaign on our website, [and] 125 people outed themselves at the same time. Some people chose to publish their full name, picture, and their sexual and gender identity; others outed themselves anonymously because even being one of many would still be too dangerous to their personal or professional safety. The rush to our website was so big it crushed the site. We also launched a petition that more than 120,000 people have signed. An enormous wave of media interest, lasting for several months, pushed our issues forward and required all our energy.

What have been the reactions from the Catholic Church so far?

Some bishops responded promptly by promising that no church employee would be fired because of being LGBTIQA+ and that they would revise the current version of the Catholic labor law. In November, this new labor law [was] published, and it marks a huge step forward. It says: “All employees can be representatives of God’s unconditional love and thus of a church that serves people, regardless of their specific tasks, their origin, their religion, their age, their disability, their gender, their sexual identity and their way of life.”

It emphasizes human dignity, recognizes diversity, and considers relationships and intimacy as private matters being irrelevant for the church as an employer. The remaining caveat we have is that trans and non-binary employees still have not received the same level of explicit legal protection.

This was a big step. Do you feel that progress can be made in faith communities worldwide, of whatever domination? Are you more hopeful?

Before the #OutInChurch campaign, LGBTQIA+ Catholics in Germany have used trustful dialogues with open-minded bishops, priests, and lay leaders. This silent strategy also had its benefits and definitively prepared the ground for reforms on LGBTQIA+ issues in the Catholic Church in Germany. We also had two smaller campaigns in 2021 in favor of liturgical blessings for same-sex couples that somewhat tested the water and gave evidence that #OutInChurch may find big support in parishes and among ministers. The whole campaign happened during the time of the Synodal Path, a high-level reform process of the Catholic Church in Germany in which sexual ethics was already an important issue to be discussed.

Given all these local circumstances, the opportunities to create the momentum for a campaign for LGBTQIA+ recognition may not be given in all faith communities in every country. But launching a campaign should definitively be considered as an option because it can mobilize unforeseen people and energy, and it can help to strengthen the connection between LGBTQIA+ people of faith as a community.
 
* LGBT: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender. We are using this term as it is currently widely used in human rights conversations on sexual orientation and gender identity in many parts of the world, but we would not wish it to be read as exclusive of other cultural concepts, contemporary or historical, to express sexuality and gender, intersex and gender non-conforming identities.